Rating: 
Summary: Best book written by best author!!!
Review: As the title suggests, it is an advanced guide to VB .NET. You need to have exeprience with at least some object oriented language, preferably C++ or Java, and previous VB experience would be helpful. If you do, and don't know anything about .NET, then this is the book to buy.
Having read previous books from Troelsen, I didn't need to doubt about buying this one, and I have not been disappointed yet. This book covers most major concepts within the new .NET platform, and has lots of examples that clear things up. Ofcourse, like any new program language, you need to program your own code, because just reading makes you forget new things fast.
Rating:
Summary: Simpler explanations help
Review: Being a VB6 programmer, I was looking for a good book to introduce VB.NET. After reading Cornell and Morrison's "Programming VB .NET: A Guide for Experienced Programmers" and Appleman's "Moving to VB .NET: Strategies, Concepts, and Code", I think Troelsen does a better job. The two previous books are excellent with insight and tips on how VB has changed in VB.NET. (And yes, it's almost a new language.) Yet Troelsen takes the time to illustrate the concepts with very basic code and examples including output. Cornell/Morrison and Appleman have code examples too, but I felt they were cramped for space in their books. Thus, they left out some minor explanations that may make you say, "Aha!" Because of the sheer size of this book, it has plenty of fascinating details to programming with .NET. By the way, the sample code for all these books are available on-line which is really helpful when it comes to investigating how things work in depth. Something that stands out is that Troelsen starts with explaining the .NET Platform in detail enough to understand why VB.NET behaves as it does. For example, strings are immutable. Each of these books stresses and illustrates what this means, but Troelsen is the only one that clearly defines why. Troelsen also writes clearly and concisely; his book is part teaching and part reference. For advanced programmers, perhaps Appleman would be a better choice as he jumps into complex topics and illustrates them with bare-bones examples (as an aside, Appleman is a very colorful writer and he tries hard to make reading enjoyable). For the rest of us with some programming experience, Troelsen goes that extra step to make it easier to understand. For the completely new programmer? While Troelsen does spend some time on the basics, I think some solid understanding of OOP and some VB6 exposure are really required. Good luck with .NET everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Simpler explanations help
Review: Being a VB6 programmer, I was looking for a good book to introduce VB.NET. After reading Cornell and Morrison's "Programming VB .NET: A Guide for Experienced Programmers" and Appleman's "Moving to VB .NET: Strategies, Concepts, and Code", I think Troelsen does a better job. The two previous books are excellent with insight and tips on how VB has changed in VB.NET. (And yes, it's almost a new language.) Yet Troelsen takes the time to illustrate the concepts with very basic code and examples including output. Cornell/Morrison and Appleman have code examples too, but I felt they were cramped for space in their books. Thus, they left out some minor explanations that may make you say, "Aha!" Because of the sheer size of this book, it has plenty of fascinating details to programming with .NET. By the way, the sample code for all these books are available on-line which is really helpful when it comes to investigating how things work in depth. Something that stands out is that Troelsen starts with explaining the .NET Platform in detail enough to understand why VB.NET behaves as it does. For example, strings are immutable. Each of these books stresses and illustrates what this means, but Troelsen is the only one that clearly defines why. Troelsen also writes clearly and concisely; his book is part teaching and part reference. For advanced programmers, perhaps Appleman would be a better choice as he jumps into complex topics and illustrates them with bare-bones examples (as an aside, Appleman is a very colorful writer and he tries hard to make reading enjoyable). For the rest of us with some programming experience, Troelsen goes that extra step to make it easier to understand. For the completely new programmer? While Troelsen does spend some time on the basics, I think some solid understanding of OOP and some VB6 exposure are really required. Good luck with .NET everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Rich, in-depth but highly accessible
Review: I am continually impressed by this book. Each chapter maintains a high level of depth, without overwhelming the reader. Andrew has a good ability to anticipate what the reader is thinking, with frequent "You may be wondering why..." discussions. He does take some care to point out differences between VB 6.0 and VB.NET, but not being a VB developer, I can't assess how helpful this is. As an experienced OO programmer, I find Andrew's explanations and examples to be crystal clear in most cases, and even when I find myself puzzled, Andrew has helped me to gain the skills to explore things on my own to better understand the subtleties. A great, great book. I owe a lot to Andrew.
Rating:
Summary: A Fun Book to Learn .NET/VB.NET
Review: I am using this book for classroom training of VB.NET. It is easy to understand and fun to learn from. Some points about the book that I have include: : This book dedicates a chapter to graphics programming with VB.NET using GDI+. Most other .NET books don't cover this. : There are plenty of illustrations in the book to help explain the topics being covered. Too bad that there are fuzzy images (although still readable) in the book up to page 157; the remainder of the images are sharp. : There must be an internal joke at Intertech about how to spell the word "busy" (see page 375). I thought for sure he would correct it after his C# book (see page 339, ISBN: 1-893115-59-3) came out. Maybe I am reading this section wrong. : Much of the content of this VB.NET book is similiar to the content of his original C# book but with the VB.NET language and content corrections. This is an improved book! : Many of the examples in his .NET books build upon each other. If you need to try an example in the middle of a chapter, you either need to build from the start of the chapter or download the source code. : The online errata is quite nice on the Apress site. The author was given the power to update it on the Apress web site as he wishes. : The info is skimpy on web services (roughly 45 pages). You will need another book on advanced web service techniques. I expect this with a "blanket" book on VB.NET. I recommend this book to people wanting to learn VB.NET. It was written by a teacher who knows his stuff. The book is easy to read too.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book but could be better
Review: I bought this book based on all the 5 star ratings and I was a little disappointed. A better VB.NET book can be written and I'm sure one will if there hasn't been already. On the plus side:
What the book does well is give its readers a detailed understanding of the .NET framework and what all the files that go with the .NET applications are about. It is definitely enough to get you started programming in VB.NET with confidence. On the negative side:
Long chapters (approx 70 pages) that aren't broken up very well. I thought this book was boring even for a programming book. I prefer shorter chapters with more detailed end of chapter summaries and maybe exercises / examples at the end. On the cover they claim to teach oop. I think if you teach this subject you have to point out why and your code is oop rather than having one chapter that gives the same basic explanation you can read anywhere and then have no follow up discussion what-so-ever. The cover also claims to have no toy code. I'm not sure what they mean by that but if toy code is a simple useless program that you find in programming books to teach some concept then this has the same one repeated in different forms in most of the chapters. Basically its about a car that blows up if it goes to fast. It teaches the concepts fine but don't be fooled by the marketing on the cover. On the neutral side:
I don't remember reading anything about printing and many of the subjects you may be writing programs for databases etc, leave it up to you to learn on your own. I didn't have a problem with this as that is what online help and online resources are for.
Rating:
Summary: Good book but could be better
Review: I bought this book based on all the 5 star ratings and I was a little disappointed. A better VB.NET book can be written and I'm sure one will if there hasn't been already. On the plus side:
What the book does well is give its readers a detailed understanding of the .NET framework and what all the files that go with the .NET applications are about. It is definitely enough to get you started programming in VB.NET with confidence. On the negative side:
Long chapters (approx 70 pages) that aren't broken up very well. I thought this book was boring even for a programming book. I prefer shorter chapters with more detailed end of chapter summaries and maybe exercises / examples at the end. On the cover they claim to teach oop. I think if you teach this subject you have to point out why and your code is oop rather than having one chapter that gives the same basic explanation you can read anywhere and then have no follow up discussion what-so-ever. The cover also claims to have no toy code. I'm not sure what they mean by that but if toy code is a simple useless program that you find in programming books to teach some concept then this has the same one repeated in different forms in most of the chapters. Basically its about a car that blows up if it goes to fast. It teaches the concepts fine but don't be fooled by the marketing on the cover. On the neutral side:
I don't remember reading anything about printing and many of the subjects you may be writing programs for databases etc, leave it up to you to learn on your own. I didn't have a problem with this as that is what online help and online resources are for.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't ask for more!
Review: I can't imagine a more concise, oraganized, or clearly written book about VB.NET programming concepts and examples. This book provided a solid foundation on VB.NET, and at a pace that will delight even intermediate level VB 6 folks. My highest recommendation!
Rating:
Summary: Another 5 star by Andrew Troelsen and Apress
Review: I had received a copy of Andrew's C# book in one of his classes earlier this year, and had to get this book as soon as it came out. I loved this book too. I've been reading technical books for a long time and each time I pick up a Andrew Troelsen book I never regret it. With this new book, Andrew has delivered another winner. This book is a must have for any developer looking to make the jump to VB.NET. There is a ton of code packed into this 900+ page book. I would certainly recommend this to any VB developer looking to move to VB.NET. It is an easy-read and Andrew is really a gifted author. Thanks Andrew!
Rating:
Summary: Great advanced resource
Review: I read this book as an experienced Visual Basic programmer (3..6) who also, prior to reading Troelsen, had used the Beta releases (1..2) for about eight months. I found Andrew's book useful, well-written, and illuminating on all the core topics. I use it as a reference in place of the Microsoft CD. The Microsoft documentation is also excellent. However, we need authors like Andrew. This is because as independent parties they provide assurance that a given feature will work. Experienced developers often "reinvent the wheel" because of an epistemological problem with manufacturer documentation. This is because they know that the manufacturer will put the best possible spin on available resources and recommend the use of features which do not fully perform as advertised. This militiates against getting full value from a product such as Visual Basic .Net, which provides many tools such as serialization which remove, in the case of serialization, the need to write code to convert objects to and from XML (Andrew describes this feature in particular.) Developers don't "reinvent the wheel" out of vanity although in our culture, a Puritan strain means that the developer who successfully does so is at times accused of being vainglorious. Developers reinvent the wheel in most cases to perform their jobs. A book like this is therefore worth its purchase price since it provides a way for the experienced developer to see by example that given functionality actually works. About the only objection is Mr. Troelsen's code example, which is a well-written but sterile cars application. My personal preference happens to be more encapsulated solutions that can be dropped into my code as DLLs. For example, I'd consider, in presenting serialization, "wrapping" the functionality into two Shared functions, object2XML and xml2Object. I acknowledge of course that this ignores binary serialization and is based on a personal preference for XML. The bottom line is that the method thereby is available either as cut and paste (as it is in Troelsen) or as something that can be used immediately. However, in the MIS and VB book market place it appears that the bias is to present, as does Mr. Troelsen, code as cut and paste. My personal preference happens to be for the style that is found in Numerical Recipes. This is a minor issue with an excellent book.
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