Customer Reviews

Visual Basic 6 Win32 API Tutorial

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

 

 

Because of the good ratings here I bought that book since I thought that Dan Appleman's book was too difficult. To my mind Jason Bock's book is not so good since it is not suitable for absolute Win32-API beginners. He starts with the exceptions, critical things and so on. Often he writes, that something will be explained in another chapter. This is a bad design of a tutorial. He has some good tips and tricks in that book, but if one is a beginner with Win32-API he must read too many things a few times until he understands them. Dan Appleman's book seems to be a little better for beginners.

I can honestly say after doing about 80% of the examples in this book, that I found only about 20% of the stuff useful. And of all the stuff I learned I can honestly say that it did not make my understanding of API's more clear.

To me API is something you have to spend some time with. And it is hard cause unlike picking some new control and just figuring out what it does by its properties and methods, API's aren't something you can quickly grasp (IMHO) by playing with them.

I didn't like the 'I will explain what all this does later', concept either as one reviewer mentioned. If your going to write out tonnes of code explain it all before you move on. This book doesn't do that. ALSO DON'T throw pages of code and more pages and then explain what it all does.

DO IT IN SMALL CHUNKS!! Any developer who writes tonnes and tonnes of code and then tests his/her program is nuts. Take it in small steps. The book doesn't do this and I feel that was its greatest fault.

I'd write this huge routine and sure it would work, but I'd be saying to myself "what do these 2 lines here at the beggining with the API call do exactly".. Then I am coding more and then the concept is atempted to be explained to me in its entirity.. And I am sitting there "What the hell did I just do?"

Well that's my 2 cents. The good thing is source code is available from the publishers web site, and what errors there are in the book are easy to see.. nothing huge (that is unless you are really new to VB then u shouldn't be using this book first). However, the mutex example was VERY helpful and I have it in one application already. I know what it does but I don't really understand its mechanics... And I think that's how I feel about this book in the nutshell.

Got some usefull code (not a lot) but API is still a mystery to me.... There's propably something better out there..

If you are new to VB or just haven't used the API much and ready to start this is a great book for you. It is inescabable that this book is compared to Appleman's book which is the definitive work on API's but while I have the Appleman book I find that it is better for people who are already somewhat experinced and want to learn more. This book by Jason Bock is THE book to buy if you are starting out. Not to say it is a 'API for Dummies' type of book -API usage is a non-trivial subject- but this will give you the foundation you need in a much more digestible fashion. The Appleman book which I occasionaly dig out to try to figure out something, spends most of its time as a paperweight since I am still something of a newbie. This book by Jason I am actually using to learn.

I bought this book about a year ago when I had a need to learn how to use Win32 API. I read a little, then started to skim, then skip sections, then put it aside completely where it collected dust while I found my answers elsewhere. I eventually picked it up again after I had become casually familiar with the Win32 API and realized that my remorse over the purchase wasn't the book's fault - rather it was my expectations of what the book was going to deliver.

The Win32 API is vast and complicated. A casual glance at Win32 API books that go over just the Functions and Types (in only 4000 pages) will prove it. Any programmer looking at this book to solve a specific problem for them should keep looking. The book does not cover that many specific API situations, but rather explains syntax and structure, how's and when's, etc (metaphorically explaining what the abbreviations for a cup or tablespoon is and how to read a recipe card rather than how to cook any particular dish itself). I recommend the book as either your first introduction to the Win32 API after you have got VB6 down but before you actually need the Win32 API, or as a refresher for those who know the general gist of how to use the Win32 API, but want to fill in the gaps of what some things are, why they are used, and when to use them.

Im a 17yr. old VB programmer, when I purchased the book I knew some API, FindWindow, FindWindowEx, a few others, and how to declare them, but I didnt know what all the stuff meant(Declare Function blah blah), this book taught me what it all means, where to find more Calls, and ALL of other useful information, If I knew nothing about API, and read this book I would definatly know how to use is by the end of the book! This isn't like most "Learning" books, most I find boring, or too complex, he adds jokes here and there and makes it a lot easier, he sounds like an actual person with a sense of humor, and not like a machine.(no offence other authors)

While Appleman's book continues to be the definitive =reference= book. This book offers some real world examples of how to use the Win32 API to not only do things that you can't do with VB intrinsic commands and controls, but also to subtantially boost the performance of things you could do with regular VB. Specific examples are worked through and type conversions are explained within this context.

I'd recommend it to anyone that's thinking the API might have something more to offer than current directory information (they'd be right).

I wouldn't use every example in real life, but there are plenty I would use, and all are excellent examples of what can be done.

DISCLAIMER: I was a technical reviewer on this book, and, as such, am somewhat tied to Wrox and the quality of the end product. Rest assured, however, that I don't get any perks from this review, and the opinion is mine and mine alone.

Rob Vieira, MCSD, MCT

Personally I thought this book was great for progammers just starting out with the API or Applications Programmers Interface. The examples are well laid out and the code is mostly bug free. Yes this book does not have the depth of some other earlier mentioned books, however it is important to realize that this is a tutorial. Because this book claims to be a tutorial it should be rated on how well it teaches the subject. Personally I think the author did a great job and I learned a significant amount from this book.

The contents of the book deserves a five-star rate, but the extremely boring explanations of the author made me downgraded it to a mere 3-star rate.
I started to read the book -approximately four months ago- very excited because the contents of the book is something that has always interested me.
After maybe twelve to fifteen pages, I had to stop reading it because the absolute boredom the author transmits with his explanations of the theme.
I overcame that boredom and continued to read.

The book has excellent examples with which to learn the API from; and the author's knowledge is undeniably outstanding.
I have not been able to finish the book yet because the annoying way the author explains -as a consequence, my learning of the API/VB is still truncated.
However, my proposition is to finish the book because, I know, needed knowledge will come from it.

So few really good ones have been written (Appleman, etc.). This books ranks with the few. It is layed out well and easy to get through. Topics are dealt with in a candid and straight-forward manner, something so many others lack. I highly recommend it.

Don't expect to be spoon fed with lists of handy API calls! You have to go out and find them yourself. But this book explains where to look, how to declare your calls and the pitfalls to avoid.

Some good examples but could have doen with more of them