Customer Reviews

VBScript Pocket Reference

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I like the O'Reilly pocket reference series. They don't take up a lot of desk real estate, and you can generally find what you need to know in a hurry.

From the perspective of a programmer who hasn't touched basic since he had a Sinclair Spectrum, I found this book got me up to speed reasonbly quickly. However I suspect it will attract a fairly small audience - a non programmer would find it too terse to be a good learning book, and an experienced VB programmer would probably be better off with a book specific to the environment they're using (eg, ASP) because this book does not cover any enviroment specific objects, and VBScript has no enviroment specific functions. It does however cover the filesystem objects and the dictionary object, which is handy.

Every now and then I get frustrated with the book when I can't find a function that I want, but then I usually discover that the function doesn't exist in VBScript, which is really such a trivial language that a pocket reference can cover it more or less completely.

It you want to learn VBScript go elsewhere. However, if you just want a quick reference that you can take anywhere this is the only book for you. It is remarkably concise and very well written. Its perfect for the VBScritp programmer that needs a little help from time to time looking up a hard to remember command and its syntax.

The reference material seems accurate but I have found more detail in the free help file that comes with VBS 5.6. Return values and types and the actual values of the builtin constants, which I didn't find in the book.

I apparently overlooked the note that this book was based on VBS 5.5 when I ordered it. I have several pocket references and this is the first that fell short of my needs.

I was looking for something concise and yet thorough to hand out in a class I teach, and this book is perfect. It gives my students a comprehensive list of VBScript functions and statements, and yet it doesn't take up a lot of space or weight a ton.