Customer Reviews

Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio .NET

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found that it is largely full of code listings, and short on background information. The coding style seems very much stuck in the VB6 world, and the author needs to acquaint himself with the guidelines for coding in .NET (e.g., naming, etc.).

At the time I bought this book, it was the only book around for VS.NET add-in development. I did get some value out of it, but now that I've done more development of add-ins and VSIP packages for Visual Studio .NET, I find this book very thin on information, and full of sloppy errors.

It might be useful if you are writing VS.NET add ins (but take it with a grain of salt). If you want to develop add-ins, and learn about Visual Studio .NET in general, "Inside Microsoft Visual Studio .NET" is a far better choice.

Not recommended for programmers who already developed addins for VB6!
The book mostly consists of listings which are not commented (no CD-ROM is included). The source code is partially adopted from VB6 and does not use the new programming features of VB.net. A lot of pages describe the AddIn wizard which you can also read in the MSDN. This applies also to the described objects and classes. Where I expected additional info to the MSDN the book stops.
Summary: The book only contains information copied from the MSDN but does not explain the objects more precise. Sorry but I have to say: an expensive piece of waste paper.

There are very few books on the market that discuss Add-Ins. Les Smith's Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio.Net is one of a kind. Smith does a very good job of discussing the advantages that Add-Ins provide for developers. Add-Ins allow developers to develop products faster and get those products to market faster. Even though the book is not for beginners in Visual Basic.Net or Visual Studio.Net, the book is an easy read. Any developer who is looking cut down on the time to develop an application, Les Smith's book is the way to go.

After reading this book, I not only find it helpful, but I also took note of several things. First, the release date of the book was just three months after the first release of .NET. Assuming that it takes over six months to write and publish a book, the author had to have started writing the book using a Beta release of Visual Studio .NET and probably finished it using the Release Candidate if it was available to him. Anyone who knows Microsoft Beta releases, knows that the last thing to get any attention is the Help files. They are always spotty and many times non-existant, at least until the release version.

Secondly, the author tells you up front that he is a VB developer and will not use much C# code.

I did find that there are some sections with too much code, and sometimes not enough explanation. However, the code does work; I have tried it, and I will take working code over innocous verbage any day. I often times have purchased a book that costs more that this one, just to get help with one problem and this book helped me in several areas.

Obviously, any buyer has a right to their own opinion, but sometimes, self-proclaimed gurus ought to take into consideration the time at which a book was written, and the subject material, upon which research for the book was done, was available at the time the book was started and completed prior to release to the publisher. Apress is noted for having good books and they don't let bad ones out.

I hope Mr. Smith will write a second edition and cover some of the subjects that he and others have still not yet touched on.

Mr. Smith provides an excellent service to his audience. Writing Add-Ins for the VS.NET environment had been nearly an impossible task prior to this book. Microsoft's online documentation, in my opinion, is sorely lacking. Without this book, I couldn't possibly have written the tools that regularly save me hours of coding tedium each week. Hat's off to Mr. Smith.

Wow! People still code in Visual Basic? Well, I hadn't realized (not very clear from most of the description) that this book was only in Visual Basic. I assumed, as worst case, that it would be in C#, as C# is a great MS exclusive tools language, however I had no idea it would be as high level as VB.

I began the world as a BASICA developer, eventually migrated to VB, and finally rested in the world of C++. C++ can be overkill when it comes to tool development, and in this case, VS addons, however, VB is simply too simple.

Perhaps I'm incorrect, VB might not be bad for such a task, however, all I wanted was a set of examples or interfaces that -did something _like_ what I want to do-, then I could pervert this knowledge to my ends. Being in VB, however, I can't even guarantee the same syntax.

Well, I give this book 2 stars, 1 for being available, and extra 1 because I'm not even going to bother using it, so it might have some redeeming qualities. I'd haven given it another star if it were named, "Writing Add-ins for Visual Studio .NET in Visual Basic by Les Smith", but, then again, I wouldn't have bought it.

In VB6 I used VBAssist and VBAdvantage utilities to improve my coding productivity and code security with automatic timed backups.
Les Smith takes you through the steps of creating and customising your own development add-ins. One autosave has paid for the cost of the book. This book is a must get for serious professional programmers.
If you are short of time and want a boost to your programming check out NETCommander on his web site. ...

Great book for .NET developers looking for a way to get more from their time and efforts and augment their existing skills! You will save time with this book, while accomplishing more! Highly recommended

Anyone who's worked with Visual Studio and VS .NET know there are some profound differences. Even with these enhancements, there is a lot that could be automated that would help just about any developer. Mr. Smith's book on Add-Ins helps developer accomplish just that. In order to create and implement useful add-ins, a developer would probably have to be familiar with programming and VS enough to know what is repetitive and what could benefit from automation. Hence, I wouldn't recommend this to someone who's new to programming and VS.

However, for those out there that find themselves repeating the same tasks over and over or are looking for functionality that Microsoft didn't include, this book will be invaluable. Furthermore, Mr. Smith's obvious experience and familiarity with VS will no doubt give you some really great ideas about add-ins you may want to create.

Excellent!

I keep stressing the fact that I have not seen a single intelligently written Visual Basic (.NET) source code. This book is not an exception. The code segments are plain sloppy and don't cover enough features of Visual Studio .NET 2003
Better luck with C# in the next edition.