Rating: 
Summary: Exhaustive, and worth every penny.
Review: I am experienced with 'Top-Down' programing in Basic. When I finally bought Visual Basic.NET, I discovered that it was a whole different animal from what I was used to, and the Object oriented approach to programing is something I'm still having trouble getting my mind around. (Too many old habits to unlearn.) I needed a thorough book to guide me. That is what I have found in Visual Basic.NET How To Program (Second Edition) by Deitel. The authors cover a tremendous amount of material. The topics and Visual Basic key words are presented at a swift pace, yet the authors cover each subject in depth. As a result, the book is thick, information dense, and a bit of a dry read. Some of the more interesting features of Visual Basic wind up pushed off until deep in the book by the depth with which the fundamentals are covered. For example, Timers are not introduced until almost midway through the text, at roughly page 600. And while a simple type of page-flip animation is introduced in the later chapters, bit map graphics, collision detection, sprites, masks, and other game-oriented essentials are not covered at all. This is understandable considering the intent of this textbook. Arcade game programing is simply outside the scope of the book, and had they been included with the same depth, we would probably be looking at a $150 book of 3000 pages or more. The best way to deal with an information dense book such as this one is to keep a highlighter and supply of blank index-tabs at hand. As each new key item is presented, make and place a tab, encyclopedia style in rows, along the edge. This allows you to instantly flip open to what ever topic you need to review as you study and work with your own programs. I have almost three full rows of tabs (70 in number) for the first 400 pages of the book alone. There have only been two places in the book I struggled with due to lack of sufficient explanation. As an aid to anyone who plans to buy this book, I will include a couple footnotes at the end of this review to help you over those two areas. Another very strong point for this book is that the example codes are current and compatible with the latest version of .NET. Many supposedly '.NET' texts were written using beta versions of .NET, and as a result are often not fully compatible. There is nothing more frustrating then trying an example code only to have it blow up because the author used a VB 6.0 command which is no longer supported. The Deitel book does not suffer from this problem. So, 5 Stars! And if Deitel ever decides to write a book on .NET graphics, I'll be first in line to buy one, even at $70 a copy. This leads me to my one real gripe, which is not associated with the content of the book itself. My gripe is that I paied a LOT of money for a 1500 page paperback. The book itself is worth the price, but this is a book which deserves a hard cover; especially considering the fine quality of the paper, the colored texts, the cost, and the information dense content. It is a book I will return to again and again, so it pains me to see the edges of the paper covers starting to show foxing and wear in spite of my best efforts to protect them. This is a university textbook after all, worthy of any library, so why not put a hardcover on it?? -Science_1 ** FootNotes ** Note: Page 65 &67, Changing the name of a module: In Visual Basic.NET 2003 there is a third step you must take to change the name of a module or the build will fail and you will get the error message "Sub Main() not found in module...." The error is the result of a broken link. The compiler winds up looking for a module with the old name and fails to find it because a module with that name no longer exists. After changing the Program file name and the module name as instructed on pages 65 and 67, you must also change an application property to fix the broken link. Step 3 then, is to click on the console application name in the Solution Explorer window, and then click on the 'Properties' icon at the top of the window. (The Properties icon is the small button on the far right, at the top of the Solution Explorer window.) The 'Properties' window will open. Look for the field labeled, 'Startup Object'. You will see that it still contains the old module name. Change the name to your new module name and click the [OK] button. This will fix the broken link and the name change is complete. *** *** Note: Page 188 Creating the GUI interface for the example code. The procedure could have been better explained. Here is what you need to do: 1. Start a new project. (Windows App.)
2. Use the tool box to build the GUI interface.
(Add Textboxes, Labels and Buttons to match the book illustration.
3. Change the names of all components to those used in the book, using the properties window.
4. Double click on the 'Maximum' button on the Form, and add only lines 29-43 from page 191 of the book. (The rest of the code you see in the book is added by Visual Basic.NET and is normally hidden from view.)
5. Build and run. ** End Footnotes **
Rating:
Summary: Exhaustive, and worth every penny.
Review: I am experienced with `Top-Down' programing in Basic. When I finally bought Visual Basic.NET, I discovered that it was a whole different animal from what I was used to, and the Object oriented approach to programing is something I'm still having trouble getting my mind around. (Too many old habits to unlearn.) I needed a thorough book to guide me. That is what I have found in Visual Basic.NET How To Program (Second Edition) by Deitel. The authors cover a tremendous amount of material. The topics and Visual Basic key words are presented at a swift pace, yet the authors cover each subject in depth. As a result, the book is thick, information dense, and a bit of a dry read. Some of the more interesting features of Visual Basic wind up pushed off until deep in the book by the depth with which the fundamentals are covered. For example, Timers are not introduced until almost midway through the text, at roughly page 600. And while a simple type of page-flip animation is introduced in the later chapters, bit map graphics, collision detection, sprites, masks, and other game-oriented essentials are not covered at all. This is understandable considering the intent of this textbook. Arcade game programing is simply outside the scope of the book, and had they been included with the same depth, we would probably be looking at a $150 book of 3000 pages or more. The best way to deal with an information dense book such as this one is to keep a highlighter and supply of blank index-tabs at hand. As each new key item is presented, make and place a tab, encyclopedia style in rows, along the edge. This allows you to instantly flip open to what ever topic you need to review as you study and work with your own programs. I have almost three full rows of tabs (70 in number) for the first 400 pages of the book alone. There have only been two places in the book I struggled with due to lack of sufficient explanation. As an aid to anyone who plans to buy this book, I will include a couple footnotes at the end of this review to help you over those two areas. Another very strong point for this book is that the example codes are current and compatible with the latest version of .NET. Many supposedly `.NET' texts were written using beta versions of .NET, and as a result are often not fully compatible. There is nothing more frustrating then trying an example code only to have it blow up because the author used a VB 6.0 command which is no longer supported. The Deitel book does not suffer from this problem. So, 5 Stars! And if Deitel ever decides to write a book on .NET graphics, I'll be first in line to buy one, even at $70 a copy. This leads me to my one real gripe, which is not associated with the content of the book itself. My gripe is that I paied a LOT of money for a 1500 page paperback. The book itself is worth the price, but this is a book which deserves a hard cover; especially considering the fine quality of the paper, the colored texts, the cost, and the information dense content. It is a book I will return to again and again, so it pains me to see the edges of the paper covers starting to show foxing and wear in spite of my best efforts to protect them. This is a university textbook after all, worthy of any library, so why not put a hardcover on it?? -Science_1 ** FootNotes ** Note: Page 65 &67, Changing the name of a module: In Visual Basic.NET 2003 there is a third step you must take to change the name of a module or the build will fail and you will get the error message "Sub Main() not found in module...." The error is the result of a broken link. The compiler winds up looking for a module with the old name and fails to find it because a module with that name no longer exists. After changing the Program file name and the module name as instructed on pages 65 and 67, you must also change an application property to fix the broken link. Step 3 then, is to click on the console application name in the Solution Explorer window, and then click on the `Properties' icon at the top of the window. (The Properties icon is the small button on the far right, at the top of the Solution Explorer window.) The `Properties' window will open. Look for the field labeled, `Startup Object'. You will see that it still contains the old module name. Change the name to your new module name and click the [OK] button. This will fix the broken link and the name change is complete. *** *** Note: Page 188 Creating the GUI interface for the example code. The procedure could have been better explained. Here is what you need to do: 1. Start a new project. (Windows App.)
2. Use the tool box to build the GUI interface.
(Add Textboxes, Labels and Buttons to match the book illustration.
3. Change the names of all components to those used in the book, using the properties window.
4. Double click on the `Maximum' button on the Form, and add only lines 29-43 from page 191 of the book. (The rest of the code you see in the book is added by Visual Basic.NET and is normally hidden from view.)
5. Build and run. ** End Footnotes **
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: I can't believe that a single negative review would be written about this book. I'm a beginner to VB.net (and programming in general) and had purchased two other books (not by Deitel) prior to this one. The sequential and straight forward teaching style of this book is awesome. If you are a beginner that's serious about learning VB.net, then this is the book to buy. This book is very easy to read because complete code examples are explained line by line - you definitely won't get frustrated trying to figure out how and why partial samples of code interact with other program components (like in other books). My time is valuable and now I'm not spending time generating "working" code by trial and error. This book is like a "mentor" to me! If I taught VB.net, I would require students to use this book exclusively. I wouldn't have bought the other two books if I had known about this particular one first. Unless I forget the Deitel book at the office, I don't even bother to read the other two anymore! I have no regrets
Rating: 
Summary: Visual Basic .NET How to Program (2nd Edition)
Review: I found the book helpful in understanding VB as well as showing all the required components in .NET Studio.
I wish there were more step by step program examples at the end of the book. To give more practice to those of us who have never learned VB before.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a magazine
Review: I have been a Visual Basic Programmer for a few years and I have never found a better book than this.
I spent a lot of my time in the researching the bookstore for the latest books and nothing even come close to this one.
This book is an excellent tool for the beginner, but is also an incredible resource and reference for the advanced programmer.
It is better than the one written by Francesco Ballena, and that is a hard book to beat.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest
Review: I just got this book in the mail yesterday, and I love it. It is laid out perfectly for the novice .Net programmer. It is ideal for those of us who learn by doing (i.e. exercises and examples). Most books on programming just pack in tons of examples and text, but no exercises. Not Deitel. They load you up with exercises at the end of each chapter. Also, I like the full color lay-out. The VB 6.0 version isn't in color, so this was a delightful surprise. Some might find this distracting, but to me, it is refreshing. If you want to learn VB.net from the ground up, GET THIS BOOK!!
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest
Review: I just got this book in the mail yesterday, and I love it. It is laid out perfectly for the novice .Net programmer. It is ideal for those of us who learn by doing (i.e. exercises and examples). Most books on programming just pack in tons of examples and text, but no exercises. Not Deitel. They load you up with exercises at the end of each chapter. Also, I like the full color lay-out. The VB 6.0 version isn't in color, so this was a delightful surprise. Some might find this distracting, but to me, it is refreshing. If you want to learn VB.net from the ground up, GET THIS BOOK!!
Rating:
Summary: Too example driven for my liking but has ALOT of content
Review: I like examples, but I feel this book goes a little overboard. I find the layout of the pages hard a little on the difficult side as well. I'm not quite sure what it is, but the combination of SO many examples and the layout just made me have to put this book down and look elsewhere initially.
Sometimes I'm just looking for a textual summary of a topic, and not have to plough through the example to figure out what could have been said as text on the page (in addition to the example). That being said I keep coming back to this book as a reference because it contains SO much information...it's just not that easy to read from cover to cover like osme others.
Still, it does contain ALOT of information...if you can handle the format and like LOTS of example code then you'll probably be in heaven. For me "Coding techniques for MS Visual Basic .NET" was alot more concise and easier to read, albeit not hitting quite the ammount of detail that this book goes into in topics such as threading etc. So in summary, not a BAD book, The layout is not brilliant but it is very information rich.
Rating: 
Summary: I dropped a class at Berkeley because of this book
Review: I signed up for a class at Berkeley that used this book. I dropped the class along with many other students because of the poor quality of this text book. There seems to be no logic order to the book. I purchased Beginning VN.Net and learn VB on my own. I feel I got cheated when I purchase this book! Who wrote all of these positive reviews?
Rating: 
Summary: So Boring
Review: PRO: The book covers so much details.
CON: Many examples are not "real-world". Many wordy explanations even for simple problems. Bad organization
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