Rating: 
Summary: Not for beginners!
Review: I am new to VB, but not new to learning, and I found this to be one of the most frustrating books I've ever tried to learn from. It is being used by the college I'm attending in an accelerated program, much to my dismay. I spent a lot of money, blood, sweat and tears for a class in which I learned very little. I lay most of the blame on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Beginners
Review: This book does not deliver what it promises. I bought it BECAUSE it claimed to contain exercises and solutions. $100 dollars later (yes, that is what I paid, for the book and CD) I discovered, buried in the Preface, that in order to get the solutions to the actual exercises, you must be a teacher and have a PH representative. The authors also smugly tell the reader NOT TO send them mail requesting the answers. I thought this sneaky and unfair and I will avoid these authors in the future.
Rating:
Summary: terrible book
Review: What has said about this terrible book has already been said below. I borrowed this book from a friend and couldn't get head or tail out of this book. I can't understand why the first few reviews are so glowing and am writing to push down the star ratings.
Rating:
Summary: AVOID THIS BOOK
Review: If you are someone who is confused by Visual Basic 6, then DO NOT buy this book. It will only serve to confuse you more. If, however, you are an accomplished programmer and enjoy poorly written books, then go for it. The book, supposedly for Visual Basic 6 novices, is written in a very complicated language that is inappropriate for beginners. It disorganized and the included tutorial has a very sedative effect. This book is about as useful to a student of computer programming as a hammer is to someone changing a light bulb. So much so, my entire class has petitioned the school administration to not only discontinue use of this book for Visual Basic classes, but to not use ANY other titles by these authors for other courses. Consider yourself warned.
Rating: 
Summary: D & D should have stuck to C++
Review: This book is a classic case of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The authors took their very good C++ book and tried to make an equivalent Visual Basic book. This is a mistake. VB is very different from C++. Example 1: the authors attempt to teach the built-in string functions as useful tools for writing a word processor. Example 2: the authors try to explain arrays in a context of sorting and AI problems. Those are reasonable things to do in C++, they are not in VB. Example 3: the authors spend 30 pages explaining date functions in more detail than I can imagine anyone needing to know before explaining basic things like menus and windows. VB is a GUI tool and it needs to be taught as such. It's hard to imagine anyone staying with this book long enough to get to the useful parts. The book also has hundreds of annoying little bug icons attached to meaningless statements. First the book will tell you the rules for naming variables, i.e. begin with a letter. Then you get a Common Programming Errors bug that proclaims that "Attempting to declare a variable name that does not begin with a letter is a syntax error." Duh. To make matters worse some of them are flat wrong. Page 191 announces that "Using the ByVal or ByRef keywords outside of a procedure header is a syntax error." At first glance, I went, "Of course it is why tell me that again?" Then I remembered that you can use ByVal on a call to override the function declaration on a procedure. Apparently the authors don't know the language as well as they know C++. The book is also full of meaningless little comments like "MDI applications are often large and complex." Lastly, the code does not follow good style. There are hundred of good style points in the book, but the code does not follow them. I teach VB and bought this book planning to use it in my classes. Now I just hope I don't get any students that have tried to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for Beginners
Review: I found this book easy to read and use. No previous programming experience necessary. You can just jump right in to the world of VB immediately with this book. With the CD, the user can start playing right a way. Have fun.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most chaotic textbooks books ever written.
Review: This book has a seemingly random structure. For example, arrays are taught before basic control structures. It constantly gives a simple explanation(meaning not adequate), then gives you a complex, non real world example by way of practice. This is our textbook for a vb class. Yet most of the students have spent more money to get themselves another understandable textbook appropriate for beginners. Teachers - Save your students the agony of sifting through this book!
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: The book is just plain horrible! It assumes WAY TOO MUCH! I am learning VB6 in school and this is the book that they are teaching us from. Many times throughout the book they give program examples using things that haven't even been covered yet. The exercises at the end of the chapters are very vague. The choice of color also is bad (brownish/red text) and makes for a poor reading experience. The tips and common programming errors sprinkled throughtout the chapters become annoying very quickly. My advice, pass on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Of little help
Review: Though this book has some useful information, it seems to go into too much detail in the beginning chapters and then gives to little information as the book gets into later chapters. The Examples touch on the topics covered but it would be helpful if the examples would expand more on topics through out all the chapters. The authors add very little by way of their own input, and it is wordy. The programming examples are little use to anyone seeking to learn complex VB for business use. The CD that comes with the Book does little to add additional benefit. Class and ADO information is little help to none.
Rating:
Summary: Better than any other VB books I've ever read
Review: I always fell that VB can do every thing. So the VB books are always hard to include all of the knowledges. But this book almost did that. And the structure is good for beginer to follow. Also, the VB help is so perfect that just like a book. But I seldom use that. I would like to read book. If you like to find information from the help menu, maybe this book is not fit for you.
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