Visual Basic .NET Class Design Handbook [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Andy Olsen (Author), Damon Allison (Author), James Speer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2002 | Series: Programmer to Programmer

Since the announcement of Visual Basic .NET, a lot has been made of its powerful new object-oriented features. However, very little discussion has been devoted to the practice of object-oriented programming at its most fundamental level - that is, building classes. The truth is, whatever code you write in Visual Basic .NET, you are writing classes that fall within the class hierarchy of the .NET Framework. Visual Basic .NET Class Design Handbook was conceived as a guide to help you design these classes effectively, by looking at what control we have over our classes, and how Visual Basic .NET turns our class definitions into executable code.

Ask anyone: designing effective classes that you do not have to revisit and revise over and over again is an art. This Handbook, the first in the series, aims to give you a deep and thorough understanding of the implications of all the decisions you can make in designing a class, so you are equipped to develop classes that are robust, flexible and reusable.

Chapter 1: Defining Types, investigates the role of Types in .NET and the different kinds of Types available to you. Chapter 2: Type Members, explains how Visual Basic .NET defines type members. Chapter 3: Methods, explores the fundamental role of methods as containers of program logic. Chapter 4: Constructors and the Object Lifecycle, introduces the role of Constructors and their effective use in addition to Object cleanup and disposal. Chapter 5: Properties, explains when and how to use properties and indexers to encapsulate data. Chapter 6: Events and Delegates, introduces the .NET events system and how it works. Chapter 7: Inheritance and Polymorphism, investigates how to control and exploit inheritance in our Types. Chapter 8: Code Organisation and Metadata, explains how to logically and physically organise code through namespaces and assemblies

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at those with some previous exposure to VB .NET, Visual Basic .NET Class Design Handbook is an effective guide to the new object-oriented features of the language. This concisely packaged tutorial will let you get up to speed with the latest and greatest in VB .NET's support for objects.

While there are any number of beginner's books for VB .NET, this one aims higher, with unique coverage of more advanced class design features. The text begins with a thorough guide to the data types available in VB .NET while introducing essential new language enhancements like inheritance and delegates. The authors next delve into modeling classes with data members, exploring all the options for scoping and sharing data in classes. After covering these "nouns" of class design, the authors next turn to methods (or verbs), starting with constructors. A standout section here is a thorough discussion of new conventions of passing by value and reference in VB .NET and how to pass strings and arrays effectively.

One of the strongest chapters in this book looks at the object life cycle, with in-depth information on a variety of constructor options, plus several design patterns (like Singleton and Factory), which shows how the new VB .NET can measure up to other object-oriented programming languages. Several later sections on new .NET features like properties, delegates, and events show how to use these features correctly. (A short case study using a banking application explores the options when it comes to event handling.) Final chapters demonstrate using inheritance, both with classes and through interfaces. The book closes with an in-depth discussion of deployment in .NET with full coverage of options for assemblies.

With plenty of short code samples and readable tables listing essential language keywords, this title is aimed squarely at the more experienced VB developer. Its concise format and considerable expertise on the object-oriented features of VB .NET makes this title an excellent choice for anyone serious about class design in this new language. --Richard Dragan

From the Publisher

The book assumes that you are already familiar with the syntax of Visual Basic .NET. It assumes that you have already used it to write code and that you are familiar with your chosen development tool and know how to run and compile VB.NET code. You should also be aware of .NET's basic object-oriented mechanisms.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1st edition (May 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861007086
• ISBN-13: 978-1861007087
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,607,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good at exactly what the title says, May 7, 2003

By 

Jeremy Patterson (Software Developer) (Upper Arlington, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Basic .NET Class Design Handbook (Paperback)

I had to write this because I get sick of some of the reviewers just slamming stuff for the wrong reasons. First of all, the book definitely does a good job of teaching those who are new to .NET, and more specifically those coming from VB 6 or other non-OO languages, how to design OO classes in VB.NET. It is more of a design book for YOUR classes and not how to derive from forms. Just about EVERY .NET book I've picked up has shown me that, so thank GOD this one came from an angle that I may want to design a class. I would imagine that if you're a C++ programmer you wouldn't want to pickup this book because it says Visual Basic .NET Class Design. If you come from a C++ background, I have to assume that you probably want to use C# since A: it is obviously closer to home with what you've been using and B: there are some features that it implements that VB.NET has been left out in the dark on once again. If you want to get a handle on VB.NET class design, especially if you're coming from VB 6, you should start with this book. The main reason is that it just covers the OO facets that will be very new to you in .NET. Instead of being overwhelmed by some other books that hit you with a lot at once, this book will help you with the new adventure into OO programming. You will definitely need to pickup a couple other books, but this book is a GREAT starter book. To give this book 1 star for errata or for saying it talks to you like you're stupid is absurd. Take these with a grain of salt as they don't even post what they do for a living in their profile. I have developed business applications for 4 years and they are crazy for knocking this book in that fashion.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OOP Complexities Made Simple, October 3, 2002

By 

"music_guru" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Basic .NET Class Design Handbook (Paperback)

This is the 2nd book in the Wrox Handbook series I have read. The series is AWESOME - all meat and no bones. This book managed to take OOP concepts that illuded me in my college C++ text book (1000+ pages) and make them all very simple and usable in around 350 pages.

For moving from VB6 to VB.NET, this book is essential. The book covers as much about concepts as it does about VB.NET's specific syntax, so C# programmers might enjoy the read as well. C# translates to VB.NET almost line for line in my experience (I'm reading a book on GDI+ for C# now and writing all of the examples in VB.NET with no problems).

Another nice thing is that the book breaks down the compiled code and shows you how it runs behind the scenes. They explain everything with no knowledge of MISL required, and these examples made me realize that EVERYTHING is just a realy cool shortcut to a method or a memory address.

The book also made quick and EASY work of more difficult topics (or at least I used to find them difficult) such as Deligates and Polymorphism. These topics make perfect sense now and I'm finding ways to make use of them to save me dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of lines of code.

They had a few places where I felt a slightly better example could have been presented or felt that they left out an important 1-line best practices snippet but those places were very few (maybe 3 places - so, once every 112 pages). Frankly this would be the case in any book on OOP.

Honestly, Wrox's book on OOP far exceeds anything I have ever read before and I feel that it took my programming up not just one but two levels. I feel that I'm now a FAR more capable and compitent programmer for having read it.

5 Stars for a VERY complete book on OOP in an easy-to-read, compact form.

I'm glad to see that there are now 7 handbooks out with more on the way. These handbooks are great for the VB.NET programmer. Way to go Wrox!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good, June 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Visual Basic .NET Class Design Handbook (Paperback)

I'm only a few chapters into this book and I'm already finding it to be very good. I really like the writing style. As an experienced VB 6 developer I have struggled with some of the new terms in .NET. I think this book is doing a good job explaining the terms and giving some practical explanation about their use.

Most of all the book is highly focused on Class Design and the specific details of the .NET world.

Its also not a big book, so won't be hard to read in a short period of time.