Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Core Reference) (Hardcover)

by Francesco Balena (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Useful for VB developers of all levels, Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET offers a massive and comprehensive guide to the new VB .NET. While concentrating on "traditional" programming techniques brought up to speed with .NET, this book also covers essential Web development, making it a solid choice for those making the leap from VB 6.

The sheer size of this volume is its obvious distinguishing feature. Weighing in at over 1,600 pages, it's easily one of the largest programming books ever published. The scope of coverage here is wide-ranging and comprehensive. The author first presents a basic language-based tutorial of the new VB .NET, highlighting basic keywords, data types, and new class design features like inheritance, delegates, and events.

Patient, thorough coverage and plenty of short code examples are the guiding principles here. The tour of object-oriented features in VB .NET is among the best that you can find. Coverage of built-in .NET support for strings, math, date/time, and file I/O classes (and the like) will help you master these essential APIs. At many points, the author highlights what's new and different from VB 6. There's plenty of coverage of "traditional" VB applications, including the new Windows Forms, database programming with ADO.NET, and Win32 support including programming the Windows registry, MDI, graphics programming (with GDI+), Windows services, and the like. Later sections look at deploying VB .NET applications in assemblies.

Only in its final sections does this text turn toward ASP.NET and the Internet, with several solid chapters on essential Web Forms and new features like caching, configuration, and basic Web development techniques. By centering on essential VB .NET language features first and then covering a wide spectrum of programming APIs, this book offers a winning choice for anyone with previous VB experience who wants to work effectively with the new VB .NET. With its extremely rich range of topics, all backed up with plenty of code excerpts, this title offers a nearly unbeatable one-volume reference on what's inside the new Visual Basic .NET. --Richard Dragan

Product Description
Building on the success of PROGRAMMING MICROSOFT VISUAL BASIC 6.0, this core reference equips new and veteran developers with instruction and code to get them up to speed with the Web-enabled Microsoft Visual Basic .NET environment. The book demonstrates best practices for porting and reusing existing Visual Basic code in the Microsoft .NET environment, as well as exploiting the object-oriented capabilities of the new version. The book includes a CD-ROM full of code samples in Visual Basic .NET plus the complete text of PROGRAMMING MICROSOFT VISUAL BASIC 6.0 for reference and comparison.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1576 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; Har/Cdr/Dv edition (May 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735613753
• ISBN-13: 978-0735613751
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.7 x 3.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #506,858 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Book, February 19, 2003

By	M. Lemke "Michael Russo" (Buffalo, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best programming book I have ever read. 1600 of pages of intelligent descriptions and code examples. First you learn the VB.NET language, then you dive into chapters that cover a specific realms like Attributes, Threading, Win32, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, and alot more.

As big as the book is, it does not cover everything and I dont think any book could. Hopefully the author comes up with a volumn II book that covers Network classes, Remoting, and more.

Note that this book is not for the faint, I would recommend reading a beginners VB.NET book. If you have VB6 experience then you will adjust real quickly because this book highlights the differences in comparison to VB.NET. In fact there are alot of VB6 examples side-by-side w/ VB.NET examples. As a bonus the book comes with a cd that contains Franscesco's VB 6 book. There will be many times the VB.NET book will point you to a chapter in that VB 6 book.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars if you must have one book on VB.Net, this is it!, June 16, 2002

By	B. Olalekan "smithsonian2000" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sometimnes it amazes me how this author managed to know so much about VB.net in so short a time since the product was released. His style is stimulating; his coverage of the subject matter is superb, and the organization of the text is simply great.
If you must have one book on VB.net, make sure it is this one. For one, it will save you much money. You don't have to spend your hard-earned dollars on books that are little more than a rehash of the online documentation. Secondly (and more importantly), you will also save time, because you'll be able to delve right away into the meat of VB.net without wasting time on trivial issues.
Of course, this book does not cover everything there is to know about the .net platform. However, it gives you a very robust foundation in everything vb.net and the new .net platform. It is my firm belief that as long as you stay with the new platform, you will have cause to refer again and again to this book.
Mr. Balena happens to be one of those rare technical authors that know how to write.
The only little problem I had with the book was the CD-ROM that does not contain the electronic version of the book (it contains the VB 6 version). I contacted the author and he offered a convincing explanation of why that was left out. (Some buyers loaded the vb 6 version on their websites, for free download by anyone, causing huge losses to the publishers. So they decided to leave it out in the new edition).
Even then, I still heartily recommend this superb book.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing can be improved in this book, incredible!, May 5, 2002

By	Frank_Macall - See all my reviews

If you are a Beginner to VB.NET this is the book to buy, it will take you through the complexity of VB.NET as if you were reading a magazine. Is an amazing quality that this well know author possess.

And if you are an expert programmer, (you probably grow up reading Mr. Balena book on VB.6) .You'll find in this book an incredible resource, of clean code techniques and really useful examples ( not like most books out there, full of bogus examples) . This will be your desk reference book.

Francesco Balena is the best teacher of Visual Basic .NET, no one else comes close to him. The way he writes it makes it so easy to understand. Suddenly Visual Basic .NET makes sense.