Visual Basic 6 Black Book: The Only Book You'll Need on Visual Basic [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Steven Holzner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Completely explains the crucial Visual Basic tool set in detail. Covers the best Visual Basic programming practices, from design tools to flowcharts. Contains 1,000 pages of everything Visual Basic 6, from radio buttons and checkboxes to XOR drawings, OLE automation, DHTML page design, and Internet Explorer 4 support.

About the Author
Steven Holzner (Cambridge, MA) is a former contributing editor for PC Magazine and has authored more than 60 books ranging in subject from assembly language to C++. His books have sold over a million copies and have been translated into 15 languages. Steven was on the faculty of Cornell University for 10 years, where he earned his Ph.D., and has also been on the faculty of his undergraduate school, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 700 pages
• Publisher: Coriolis Group Books (August 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576102831
• ISBN-13: 978-1576102831
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #743,433 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Programmer, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

I have had this book for about 6 months and while I do find that it is a very good reference book, I definately agree it lacks depth. Most applications that I deal with are database applications and to only dedicate two small chapters to databases while dedicating hundreds of pages to simple objects like forms and text boxes is kindof useless for me.

If you are trying to learn VB and want a good reference book, this is the book for you. However, if you are an experienced VB Programmer who is looking for a book to cover in depth advanced topics, then consider another book. I would recommend most of the titles by WROX for that purpose.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable resource guide for VB6, November 9, 1998

By	Todd Davis "SeaburyDesign.com" (Downingtown, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Black Book is an excellent resource guide for VB6 programming. Note that this is not the type of material you would simply sit down and read. The author has tried to cram as much material as possible into "just-the-facts-and-a-quick-demo" style chunks. This means that you generally need to know what it is you are looking for in the first place. What makes it so great is that you can find an example and an explanation of most any type of control or process that you need, quickly and clearly. The author has even gone a step further, demonstrating such things as image manipulation and ActiveX development. ActiveX documents and DHTML are also covered. This book is not for beginners, but intermediate to advanced users will enjoy it's brevity and depth.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good REFERENCE Book - the operative word is REFERENCE, November 27, 2001

By	Jennifer R. Lewis (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Visual Basic 6 Black Book is intended to be a reference book. As a reference book, it does the job wonderfully. I think that some of the people on here are not giving this book a good review because I believe that they were intending on using this book as a how-to.

A few evenings a week, I am an IT professor for a local university (by day, I'm a software engineer), and I highly recommend this book to my VB students as a REFERENCE book, not as a HOW-TO book. For the beginners learning VB, check out either the Visual Basic books from Course Technologies publishing or the Visual Basic books from WROX press.

I do agree that this book does not give much detail on database programming. Visual Basic is often used for PC-based applications with databases. Maybe for the next edition, there will be more on database programming. Again, I recommend the books from WROX press for serious database programming, and I also recommend books from Microsoft Press for VB programming with SQL Server. For "freebie" information, check out Microsoft's MSDN site for serious database programming information.

I am actually purchasing this book again because a student in one of my previous classes stole my original copy (c'est la vie!).