Customer Reviews

Visual Basic 6 Weekend Crash Course

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

 

 

I got this book to help get a head start with a university course. I'm new to Visual Basic so I thought this book would be a great help. It was, I was disapointed that some of the code quoted in the book did not work. Most notably the example on reading the contents of a file in chapter 4. It actually puts the path and filename into your little wordprocessor window. Got to admit I got extremely good with the online Visual Basic Help facility. I made it work eventually, I'm now on weekend number 2. Overall it achieves it's purpose, but that early glitch caused some concern over the rest of the text.

When I looked at this book, I thought "What a great idea!" It was just what a beginner like me needed. However, when I tried to go through the sessions, I found that I was unable to complete the exercises because of the numerous errors throughout the book. Those errors included missing code and sample programs that just plain didn't work. In frustration, I abandoned the book after the 10th session.

I know some of the other reviewers think the errors are actually "good" because it forces the reader to debug their code. If I wanted to learn in that fashion I would have chosen a book specifically designed to teach debugging skills. No, I wanted what the author promised, "30 step-by-step lessons that will have you programming in only 15 hours." Yeah, right.

I imagine that the book has some marginal value as a reference tool. After all, I did pay for it. But it certainly didn't turn out to be the jump-start on Visual Basic it hyped itself to be.

My advice: save your money. Look for another book without the glaring errors, omissions, and faulty code.

If you can keep the author's marketing catch phrase of "learn VB6 in a weekend" in perspective you will quickly appreciate the organizational and presentation features incorporated into this book. I am taking a college course in VB6 and was trying to find supporting resources to supplement the assigned text book. The "weekend" Crash Course book is excellent for what it does - which is present in short condensed sections a lot of material that would otherwise be difficult to absorb in a short time. The short little quizzes at the end of each chapter (which also provide a short "hint" as to where to go back to re-read the paragraph to get the answer) are subtle yet effective. Like most things in life - you don't get good at something unless you practice! I have had this book for almost 3(+) weeks and have found that I can pick it up - jump around in it - and get back into the material without going straight through the chapter sequence.

I agree with everyone else that the book has some value, but not worth more than $10. The Wiley site is unresponsive to the feed back and judging from the amount of time that has elapsed since it hit the shelf, the publisher dosen't care. There's no errata sheet to download. I'll certainly keep this publisher's name on a post it on the monitor to AVOID future purchases.

I liked several things about this book. I think it was well written, with a good layout of the chapters and lessons. It was easy to read and the examples were detailed enough for me.I had experimented with VB6 on my own, and have a programming background but had no real grasp of VB6 before I read this book. I completed the book in about 2 hours more than the outline was set up for.

I did read the other reviews before writing this and disagree with the others that had problems with the code examples. I can't remember any problem with mine. The book gave a good outline of the basics and was easy to read. I agree with most of what KCGIRL reviewed. This book is a good way to get started and includes a working model of VB6 (very limited, but it's included!). I have also referred to it a few times after getting more involved in the language. It will suffice as a basics reference while you are learning the basics.

OK, so it took a effort approaching that of Hercules, and I'm an experienced programmer with quite a few other computer languages under my belt -- but at least we know it's possible!

I finished the book in 14 hours, 15 minutes -- including all of the review questions (usually just a mental affirmation when I knew the answer), plus 10 minutes to set up the included version of VB on my computer.

One of the greatest things about this book is its motivating format. It's a challenge -- learn the essentials of Visual Basic in a weekend!

And it was that challenge, plus the generally very positive reviews at Amazon.com, that motivated me to pick *this* book instead of a different title. Simply put, I decided this past week (because of a couple of opportunities that came up) that I ought to learn VB -- preferably, by Monday!

I finished the book 15 minutes ago, at 11:35 p.m. Sunday night.

My advice: start earlier in the week, and try to get in a bit extra time as you go along. Other matters took some of my time on Saturday and Sunday, and if I hadn't gained an hour and a half on Thursday evening, and half an hour on Friday, I couldn't have finished tonight.

The other great benefit is that Mansfield majors on the things you'll use a lot, and skips the things you'll use less, to produce a package that actually *can* be completed in a short (and hence motivating) time frame. He claims "the VB vocabulary has been carefully surveyed to determine which commands you need to know for nearly all programming." Obviously, I can't verify that from experience -- but throughout the book he seems to know what he's talking about.

Compare my experience in learning VB via this book with, say, my Java expedition: I began an 1100-page Java text almost a year ago, and I'm still stuck on page 257.

Negatives: yes, it could definitely use some better editing, including, in places, editing of the code supplied. For humor, my own favorite example of this was:

--------------------------------------
For I = 1 to Numberofcopies
Printer.Print Text1.Text
Next I

Notice the convention of indenting the code inside a For...Next loop. This graphically illustrates the loop.
--------------------------------------

(Did you see the indentation? Me neither!)

Far less amusing is that the author should've included on page 279 or so the code for cmdNew_Click() that's on page 302. Also, my main finished application didn't behave quite as expected -- and if I'm "keeping to schedule," I didn't have time to debug it (that's OK, I learned enough from it).

Incidentally, though, another reviewer's complaint of illegal names -- as in "1stSearch" (a variable name can't begin with a digit) -- was INCORRECT. The previous reviewer misread the text, which reads, e.g., "LSTSEARCH" (as in LIST BOX) -- *not* "1STSEARCH".

For most chapters, you'll need to use your computer to really follow and learn the material. Unfortunately, the version of VB on the CD-ROM won't allow you to walk through all the steps in some of the final chapters, but the author (obviously knowing this) has provided more screen shots, allowing you to follow along.

A time-saving tip: don't type in the code! Simply cut and paste it from the CD-ROM. Then review it line for line, either from the book pages or on your screen.

A perfect book? No. But all in all, this text got the job done for me. I'm by no means a VB expert after one weekend and 375 pages, but I sure as heck am on my way. I give Mansfield's book a quite solid 4 stars out of 5.

Learning a language in a weekend is a mammoth task, especially for someone who is not very familiar with programming. I am currently working through the book and have found most of the code to be correct. A treatment of the Common Dialog control in the first project (ShowOpen) does not work according to plans. I do not recommend this book for beginning programers. I hope that there will be a check of the code in the future to make sure it works!

I bought this book as to refresh my VB skills for a new job. This book was exactly what I was looking for: A good, thorough coverage of the basics.

What I liked about this book was the way it was written. It was designed to be used Friday night, Sat, and Sunday, so by Sunday night, you will have a very capable working knowledge of visual basic. Even if you already know the basics, this is an excellent refresher, but I did learn some new stuff as well.

The author did an extremely good job at designing these lessons. The book consist of thirty 30-minute lessons for a complete 15-hour course. That is what is great about this book. Each lesson can be done in thirty minutes. In plenty of other computer books I have purchased, the lessons and samples sometimes drag on, taking days to complete. By then, you usally have forgotten the main concept of what you are doing.

The thirty minute lessons allow you to remain focused and really learn. Have you ever read a computer book, stopped to see how much more you had to read in your section, only to discover, "Gee, only 127 more pages to go for this topic." Well, not so in this book. The lessons also have little motivational reminders: "20 more minutes to go, 10 more minutes to go, etc." You don't feel overwhelmed or mentally exhausted. You are constantly rewarded with a sense of accomplishment as you complete each 30-minute section.

You could give this book to your mom or sister, and they would be capable of programming in a few days.

However, after it is read, it makes an excellent reference book. I am always referring to mine to look up topics and issues that arise.

I found this book very beneficial. I hadn't done any programming other than some basic scripts for about 15 years. I found this book brought me up to date with VB6 and made me productive quickly.
I find myself returning to the book as a resource for syntax help quite frequently.
It may take someone completely new to VB a little longer to go through, but it is well worth it.

This book starts out with an interest and plausible concept: to teach the reader the fundamentals of VB6 in a weekend. And it would be able to accomplish this task in at least a "four-star" fashion if the author and/or publisher had attempted to review the code for errors and debug the code. From chapter 22 onward the code errors are so serious that one cannot run the sample program since one uncorrected error builds on another (and coding errors are simple repeated in the code on the included CD) the book becomes practically impossible to follow along by coding on your own computer after chapter 22. What's worse, the publisher does not publish an errata on their website for this book.