The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language [Paperback]

Paul Vick (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321169514 | ISBN-13: 978-0321169518 | Publication Date: March 11, 2004

Praise for The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language

“There is no substitute to getting the inside scoop directly from a book written by the father of a programming language such as Bjarne Stroustrup for C++, James Gosling for Java and Alan Cooper for the original version of Visual Basic. Paul Vick, the father of Visual Basic .NET, explains the whys and hows of this exciting new language better than any other human being on the planet.”

     —Ted Pattison, Barracuda.NET

“The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language includes nuances that in all my use and study of VB .NET, I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else. For example, I learned that you can use the Imports statement to import an Enum name, so that you needn’t refer to the enum in all its uses. In addition, I learned that the dictionary lookup operator, ‘!’, works in VB .NET—I thought this one had been retired. In any case, if you’re searching for a book that covers all the language syntax issues, and more, Paul Vick’s book is a great place to look.”

     —Ken Getz, Senior Consultant, MCW Technologies, LLC

“This book is an excellent stepping stone for Visual Basic developers wanting to get their toes wet in the .NET waters. Paul’s presentation of the core topics all VB developers should tackle first is clear, concise, and unlike other books in the genre, does not overwhelm the reader. The VB6 vs. VB.NET task-oriented approach guides you through the new language and OO features, and then moves to basic threading and other CLR topics—as well as to the key points in the COM to .NET transition—in a well thought-out sequence. If you’ve been holding out on VB .NET, this is a great book to get you started.”

     —Klaus H. Probst, Sr. Consultant/Architect, Spherion Technology Services, Microsoft MVP

“There is no shortage of VB .NET books in the market, but this is the only book straight from the creators. While that is an excellent reason in itself for reading this book, it is the brevity and clarity of the content, along with the examples, that makes this book a must-have.”

     —Amit Kalani, Developer

“Overall, I liked this book and it definitely benefited me. I learned new things I didn’t see anywhere else and I’ll certainly put these to good use in the future. Paul’s book makes a great reference manual for intermediate and advanced VB .NET developers.”

     —Philip Williams, System Engineer, LDC Direct

“This book contains a lot of great information I have seen nowhere else and addresses issues that other books do not.”

     —Ethan Roberts, .NET Architect, General Casualty

“This book is full of useful information and provides a good historical background for the Visual Basic .NET Language.”

     —Dave Vitter, Technical Lead Developer and author of Designing Visual Basic .NET Applications (Coriolis, 2001)

---

The definitive Microsoft Visual Basic .NET reference—authored by Visual Basic .NET’s lead architect

If you want to leverage all of VB .NET’s immense power, get this book. It’s the definitive VB .NET reference and tutorial, and the first Visual Basic book written by one of VB .NET’s lead architects. No other book offers this much behind-the-scenes insight about why VB .NET works the way it does, how it evolved, and how you can make the most of it.

The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language is a superb learning tool for new VB .NET programmers and a must-have reference for developers at every level. Paul Vick presents precise language descriptions, essential reference materials, practical insights, and hundreds of code samples, straight from Microsoft’s VB .NET design team.

Just some of the features include:

• A history and overview of Visual Basic’s evolution into VB .NET
• Complete coverage of the language syntax
• Transitioning from COM to the CLR and leveraging the .NET platform
• Runtime functions
• Taking full advantage of VB .NET’s object-oriented features
• Notes on style, design, and compatibility throughout the text
• Notes for the advanced user throughout the text

Vick exposes VB .NET’s most powerful capabilities with unprecedented depth and clarity, and packs this book with information you simply won’t find anywhere else. Whether you’re an experienced VB .NET programmer, upgrading from earlier versions of Visual Basic, or coming to Visual Basic and .NET for the first time, you’ll find this book indispensable.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Once in a while, Visual Basic goes through a paradigm shift. The recent jump to .NET was one, and The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language succeeds very well in explaining to programmers--and not just experienced VB programmers, either--what the changes mean to software architecture and implementation. If you need to figure out how VB.NET works, this book, more than any other, will help you make fast initial progress. This guide is clear; it's practical; it focuses on the parts of the VB.NET programming language and its runtime environment that every developer has to understand. You'll probably want to supplement this book with more specialized ones that deal with databases, networking, user interfaces or whatever specific capabilities you need to work with, but this book is probably the best place to start. The author's attention to coding style and software design is a bonus that will help you write code that not only runs, but is more self-documenting and easier to debug.

The educational value of this book is inversely proportional to its mass. It's a thinnish volume, but Paul Vick--who works for Microsoft and helped design VB.NET--makes such clever use of examples that it's likely you'll find answers to many of your questions (for example, "How do you write class constructors in VB.NET?" and "What does the VB.NET inheritance model look like?") in the form of executable code. Read Vick's explanations, examine and run his code, and you'll be well down the road to VB.NET proficiency. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to program in VB.NET, with emphasis on the core language itself rather than on any development environment or specialized API. Sections address basic and complex data types, operators, and exception handling. About half the book is a clear, example-driven explanation of object-orientation under VB.NET. An appendix deals with difference between the old Component Object Model (COM) and the new Common Language Runtime (CLR).

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language

“There is no substitute to getting the inside scoop directly from a book written by the father of a programming language such as Bjarne Stroustrup for C++, James Gosling for Java and Alan Cooper for the original version of Visual Basic. Paul Vick, the father of Visual Basic .NET, explains the whys and hows of this exciting new language better than any other human being on the planet.”

     —Ted Pattison, Barracuda.NET

“The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language includes nuances that in all my use and study of VB .NET, I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else. For example, I learned that you can use the Imports statement to import an Enum name, so that you needn’t refer to the enum in all its uses. In addition, I learned that the dictionary lookup operator, ‘!’, works in VB .NET—I thought this one had been retired. In any case, if you’re searching for a book that covers all the language syntax issues, and more, Paul Vick’s book is a great place to look.”

     —Ken Getz, Senior Consultant, MCW Technologies, LLC

“This book is an excellent stepping stone for Visual Basic developers wanting to get their toes wet in the .NET waters. Paul’s presentation of the core topics all VB developers should tackle first is clear, concise, and unlike other books in the genre, does not overwhelm the reader. The VB6 vs. VB.NET task-oriented approach guides you through the new language and OO features, and then moves to basic threading and other CLR topics—as well as to the key points in the COM to .NET transition—in a well thought-out sequence. If you’ve been holding out on VB .NET, this is a great book to get you started.”

     —Klaus H. Probst, Sr. Consultant/Architect, Spherion Technology Services, Microsoft MVP

“There is no shortage of VB .NET books in the market, but this is the only book straight from the creators. While that is an excellent reason in itself for reading this book, it is the brevity and clarity of the content, along with the examples, that makes this book a must-have.”

     —Amit Kalani, Developer

“Overall, I liked this book and it definitely benefited me. I learned new things I didn’t see anywhere else and I’ll certainly put these to good use in the future. Paul’s book makes a great reference manual for intermediate and advanced VB .NET developers.”

     —Philip Williams, System Engineer, LDC Direct

“This book contains a lot of great information I have seen nowhere else and addresses issues that other books do not.”

     —Ethan Roberts, .NET Architect, General Casualty

“This book is full of useful information and provides a good historical background for the Visual Basic .NET Language.”

     —Dave Vitter, Technical Lead Developer and author of Designing Visual Basic .NET Applications (Coriolis, 2001)

---

The definitive Microsoft Visual Basic .NET reference—authored by Visual Basic .NET’s lead architect

If you want to leverage all of VB .NET’s immense power, get this book. It’s the definitive VB .NET reference and tutorial, and the first Visual Basic book written by one of VB .NET’s lead architects. No other book offers this much behind-the-scenes insight about why VB .NET works the way it does, how it evolved, and how you can make the most of it.

The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language is a superb learning tool for new VB .NET programmers and a must-have reference for developers at every level. Paul Vick presents precise language descriptions, essential reference materials, practical insights, and hundreds of code samples, straight from Microsoft’s VB .NET design team.

Just some of the features include:

• A history and overview of Visual Basic’s evolution into VB .NET
• Complete coverage of the language syntax
• Transitioning from COM to the CLR and leveraging the .NET platform
• Runtime functions
• Taking full advantage of VB .NET’s object-oriented features
• Notes on style, design, and compatibility throughout the text
• Notes for the advanced user throughout the text

Vick exposes VB .NET’s most powerful capabilities with unprecedented depth and clarity, and packs this book with information you simply won’t find anywhere else. Whether you’re an experienced VB .NET programmer, upgrading from earlier versions of Visual Basic, or coming to Visual Basic and .NET for the first time, you’ll find this book indispensable.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (March 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321169514
• ISBN-13: 978-0321169518
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,439,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book to read if you want to understand VB.NET., April 30, 2004

By 

Kathleen A Dollard (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language (Paperback)

I love this book.

I've been programming in VB for ages, well, the better part of ten years anyway. I've also been in VB.NET since the early betas, and I'm passionate about where the language is today and where it is going. I also think I know my way around the language pretty well.

So, I picked up this book mostly to see if I wanted to recommend it to beginning or intermediate programmers. What a surprise when I found myself learning, or at other times remembering forgotten details of the langauge. Paul has a great style, and hits the right level of detail and history. It isn't overwhelming, but he isn't afraid to get deep into the gritty details either.

This book is all VB.NET. It talks about the framework where the framework matters to VB. He talks about history when it helps explain something about the way VB is built. Beginner's may want to read it yearly for a while, and I doubt there is any VB programmer who could read this book without learning from it. For me, that combination in a readable format is as good as it gets.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some books leave you with a little; some leave you with a lo, March 24, 2004

By 

Darren Neimke "_digory" (Adel. South Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language (Paperback)

Being a seasoned VB programmer I've learnt a lot about the language from some very smart people over the years - including people on the VB Team itself - and I was therefore keen to get my hands on Paul Vick's latest book to learn some further insights from one of the lead architects of the language.

The book itself is a brisk walk - coming in at a touch under 400 pages (which includes many reference-only pages) - but is crammed with useful nuggets about the language and how to put it to use. I read the book in a little under a week while travelling to and from work; at the end of each journey I was usually racing for my computer so that I could whip up some demo's of the things which I had read. In fact most times after reading a couple of paragraphs I was left thinking to myself: "So does that mean? ....".

Some of my favourite sections were:

Boxing and Unboxing - some of the clearest examples that I've ever read on the topic
Array Co-variance - very good; some of this was certainly new to me
Events and Delegates - a good mixture of high-level versus under the covers material
Statements - it's always good to learn new things about these
The book is structured in such a manner that it starts out easy and ends up with expert-level stuff. The stuff which taught me the most came near the end of the book with several chapters devoted to the advanced topics surrounding Object Oriented concepts, but I must admit that I learnt *at least* one new thing per Chapter.

This book will serve 2 purposes for me now that I've scanned it for a first time. Firstly it will serve as my main reference for all of those things which I never can seem to remember first time such as: Fundamental DataType storage size; comparing things other than non-equality in Select...Case statements; passing ByRef vs ByVal and where it *does* matter; in depth behaviour of Shadows, Overrides and Overloads modifiers; How to call Win32 api's using Declare statements. Secondly, this book will become my digest of all those little language quirks which I have built up in my head over the years.

Lastly, after reading chapters and sharing some of this stuff with my co-workers it would undoubtedly invoke many colorful conversations about programming adventures from the near and distant past.

All-in-all this book left me with a lot!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not like any other Visual Basic book on your shelf, February 18, 2005

By 

Billy Hollis (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Visual Basic .NET Programming Language (Paperback)

This is distilled expertise on Visual Basic .NET - concise, complete, and correct. Anyone from beginner to pro will learn new things about VB concepts and syntax.

I use this book when I teach introductory Visual Basic .NET. It is the best way for a student to zero in on a single topic. They can find a brief but complete exposition, and an example that strips away all irrelevancies to illustrate the concept at hand.

But I also learned some things that I didn't know from this book, and that's after 4+ years working on VB.NET (back into the betas) and writing several books of my own.

Don't buy this book to learn how to build complete applications, or to learn a lot about the .NET Framework. There are other books for those needs. But if you live in the world of Visual Basic, this book is an essential resource.