Customer Reviews

VisualBasic .NET For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))

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

 

 

I have another of Wallace Wang's books--"Steal this Book," which I found amusing and useful, and in my search for something to supplement a poorly written text for a class in vb.net, ran across this. I am dissappointed and have to agree with the other reviewer here who noted something like "why use 50 pages for what you can do in 350." The text is the most basic I have seen out of greater than twenty (I've looked at), and uses over the first half of the book just explaining why a programmer might like to align his objects and basic tripe like this. For non-designers even, this is poorly written. The reader won't get into anything really useful until the book is almost complete and then you'll be like "what the..."

I needed a reference because the text I'm using by Diane Zak, did not even explain the most basic things like "why define a variable" and honestly, for ten dollars less than the Wang book, Sybex' "Visual Basic .NET Complete" is a bargain and even has this question indexed! I like "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Visual Basic .NET" for a beginners book, by Clayton Walnum, though I'm still reviewing it, and there's a multitiude of good high-end works on the subject. Wallace Wang really needs to reassess this technical end, because the entire compilation of information in this book was covered in the first couple of chapters in Zak's. One extreme to the other. Both inadequate. I would be hard pressed recommending this for even a "dummie."

Having no experience in programming, this book provided an excellent introduction to VB.NET. I had looked some other books but found them to be written for programmers, not newbies. I gave this book a 4 because although it does deliver the basics of VB.NET in a easy to understand way, it has some worthless examples. I can understand some simple examples not to confuse the reader, but I also want steady progression throughout the book to some half-way decent real-world examples. If you get this book, which I do recommend for newbies, supplement it with one of the books from the big guns (Wrox, O'Reilly etc...).

As a programmer of VB 6 (since VB1) I needed update informations on the new VB Net.

The author W.Wang explain directly what you need to know without loosing you in useless comments or philosophy. In each chapter, you will find clear examples and clear explanations.

This book is a good book to start and to continue for most of your project.You may even use this book as a reference near your desk for the every day work.

You will probably still need another book if you need to program database or ASP or for cross reference...(like "Visual Basic.Net database programming for dummies". This book is well made as well.)

In conclusion, This book is practical, clear, a good place to start and to continue to program for most of your project.

Emmanuel Evrard

Highly recommended for us old school programmers stuck in time still developing for the COMMAND shell. Easy reading that quickly made it apparent to me that the transition to Windows application development wasn't going to be nearly as traumatic as I first thought. In my humble opinion this book is a valuable starting point to an inevitable journey for us dinosaurs.

If you have never programmed in VB than this is a great introduction to the VB and .NET. If you are a programmer, this is probably not the book you want. It is VERY VERY basic. There is no real life code examples.
Good for it's humor but not technical enough for a seasoned programmer.

I took a job without knowing any VB or Basic computer programming skills and this book helped me to understand and understand the programing language at a beginner level and propell me forward. Within four days I was creating my own VB program and had a good understanding as to how to get around the application and all it's power. I highly recommend this book!

Just to say thank- your for the visual basic for dummies book, it puts things in a easier way of things that I can understand,

I'm an IT engineer and was wanting to get stronger in scripting and code writing and heard this book was pretty good. Many other Microsoft or other company books are extremely dry reading where this was great. Whether you're a computer person or not, it's easy to follow, well structured, and has some amusing jokes. Learning VB.Net was much easier than I thought.

Buyer beware! If your purpose in purchasing this book is for the suite of software the 'Dummies' series offers on CD, then look elsewhere. This book DOES NOT contain a CD!

Otherwise, I thought the material presented here is standard within the 'Dummies' series. Given the price, it's not a bad bargain to get a bare-bones, simplistic introduction to VB.NET.

However, if you're an experienced programmer and want more detailed information, I would consider the VB.NET series by Wrox Press.

For non-programmers who won't need to DO any VB programming. Much of content is repetitive and did I say repetitive? Examples are useless and do absolutely nothing you'd ever want to actually do. No CD with book, but you don't need one since code is as advertized, for idiots. On some of the more complex issues (the few he covers) I found treatment confusing and generated many more questions than it answered. I did enjoy the author's "flippant" tone. This may be the place you want to start if you are a computerphobic who's determined to start programming. Its almost painless and just as useful.