Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook [Paperback]

Matthew MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2005 | Series: Developer's Notebook

When Microsoft introduced the Visual Basic .NET programming language, as part of its move to the .NET Framework two years ago, many developers willingly made the switch. Millions of others, however, continued to stick with Visual Basic 6. They weren't ready for such a radical change, which included an object-oriented environment similar to Java. They liked the old Visual Basic just fine.

In an effort to win over those diehard VB6 developers, the company has included a new version of VB.NET in its upcoming next generation release of the Visual Studio .NET development platform. Visual Basic 2005 comes with innovative language constructs, new compiler features, dramatically enhanced productivity and an improved debugging experience. The language's new version is now available in beta release, and Microsoft is encouraging developers to give it a test drive.

Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook provides the ideal test track. With nearly 50 hands-on projects, this practical introduction to VB 2005 will bring you up to speed on all the new features of this language by allowing you to work with them directly. The book summarizes the changes that VB 2005 brings, and tells you how to acquire, install and configure the beta version of VB 2005 SDK. Each project or experiment explores a different feature, with emphasis on changes that can increase productivity, simplify programming tasks, and help you add new functionality to your applications.

This one-of-a-kind book also offers suggestions for further experimentation, links to on-line documentation and other sources of information, and practical notes and warnings from the author.

The new Developer's Notebooks series from O'Reilly offers an in-depth first look at important new tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and practice over theory, they focus on learning by doing you'll get the goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style. For those who want to get up speed with VB 2005 right away, this is the perfect all lab, no lecture guide.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matthew MacDonald is a developer, author, and educator in all things Visual Basic and .NET. He's worked with Visual Basic and ASP since their initial versions, and written over a dozen books on the subject, including The Book of VB .NET (No Starch Press) and Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook (O'Reilly). He has also written Excel 2007:The Missing Manual, Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual, Access 2007:The Missing Manual, and Access 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual, all from O'Reilly. His web site is http://www.prosetech.com/.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (May 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596007264
• ISBN-13: 978-0596007263
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,351,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and MCSD developer who has a passion for emerging technologies. He is a regular writer for developer journals such as Inside Visual Basic, ASPToday, and Hardcore Visual Studio .NET, and he's the author of several books about programming with .NET. In a dimly remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. Send e-mail to him with praise, condemnation, and everything in between, to [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars numerous improvements, May 12, 2005

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook (Paperback)

MacDonald describes what amounts to an apologia from Microsoft for VB2005. Though he does not couch it in those terms, and Microsoft would certainly not put it that way, that is how it could be regarded by a frustrated Visual Basic 6 programmer. When VB.NET was released, the attraction to programmers was the access it gave to the entire .NET platform. But many VB6 programmers found that a massive incompatibility emerged. Plus, VB6 was a very mature product, with many optimised features that were lacking in the migration.

The good news in the book is how Microsoft has striven to answer many of these issues. More generally, the book describes refinements that should make your life easier. Not just in VB. A lot of the text delves into ASP.NET. Which is a corollary expertise you should cultivate. I think the title should make some reference to ASP.NET, so extensive is its discussion.

Purely as one improvement, there is now a Web Site Administration Tool that lets you configure your ASP.NET web parameters. In the past, you had to hand edit the XML file. Very error prone. Overall, the book is like this. Talks about numerous improvements.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn new language features, deploy smart client networks, and use new forms controls in a workbook packed with examples, September 5, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook (Paperback)

Time-saving tips for software developers and Visual Basic users also reside in Matthew MacDonald's Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook productivity is the emphasis here, with tips on restoring the missing features such as compile-and-run which were active in the previous version of Visual Basic. Learn new language features, deploy smart client networks, and use new forms controls in a workbook packed with examples.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for advanced VB.NET, August 14, 2005

By 

reviewer at HuNTUG (Huntsville Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook (Paperback)

Visual Basic 2005: A Developer's Notebook
by Matthew MacDonald
Published by O'Reilly Press
ISBN 0-596-00726-4

Reviewed by Andre Beier / Huntug member

This is a great book for the advanced VB.Net programmer who does not have the time to explore every single detail about the changes/improvements of the new release of VB.NET but rather needs to get a quick overview of what's coming up.

The book is divided into the following chapters:

*Visual Studio

*The Visual Basic Language

*Windows Applications

*Web Applications

*Files, Databases, and XML

*.NET 2.0 Platform Services

Each chapter has several sections that give a brief explanation of a new feature and a hands-on lab. The book is easy and fun to read.

Even though the title of the book is VB.NET 2005, it also has a chapter about Windows Applications and one about Web Applications. If you are only developing Web Apps, parts of the book might not be that interesting for you (maybe ASP.NET 2.0: A Developer's Notebook by Wei-Meng Lee, Published by O'Reilly Press, ISBN 0596008120 might be a better pick).

I would give it a perfect rating if there were not a couple of errors in the source code (I tried the labs with Visual Studio.Net 2005 Beta 2). One can argue whether it is the authors fault or not, since the final version of the .NET 2.0 framework has not been released yet and changes are quite possible, however, if you have to spend time trouble shooting the source code, what is the point in having a book that gives you a quick dive into a new technology? Therefore I can only give it 4 out of 5 stars.