Rating: 
Summary: I Bought 5 Copies
Review: I've been building sites for 3 years using JavaScript, but recently was commissioned to build a site using VBScript and ASP. I bought this book and ASP 2.0 by Wrox. The first 4 chapters of this book taught me sufficient VBScript to create a custom site virtually from nothing. There are 4 great COM chapters that were invaluable to me. I was so impressed that I bought a copy for each of my team. They all love the book too.
Rating:
Summary: VBscript Programmer's Reference delivers the goods
Review: In this day and age, finding good CURRENT books on VBScript is becoming more and more of a holy quest. In the last year, only two come to mind: this book by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes et al (Oct. 99) and VBScript in a Nutshell by Paul Lomax (April 2000). Well, I have both of these books. They are both very very good and both are very deserving of their overall high ratings. Even so, I find myself using the VBScript Programmer's Reference a bit more than the other book. It is very comprehensive, very clear and I find myself having to pull it off the shelf time and time again. It's that good. So, VBScripters out there, I recommend that if you only have enough money for two books on VBScript, purchase VBScript Programmer's Reference and VBScript in a Nutshell. I recommend that you buy VBScript Programmer's Reference first!
Rating: 
Summary: A VBScript Book for Everyone
Review: My name is Daniel Read. I am only one of several authors of this book. I would just like to say that I am proud to have been involved with this book and to be associated with the other fine and knowledgable authors, editors, and technical reviewers who worked on this book. This book is awesome. If you are a total beginner, no worries. Chapter 1 will introduce you to the absolute basics of programming, with all of the examples written in VBScript. Chapters 2 through 4 will walk you through the basics of writing code with Microsoft's VBScript language. Chapters 5 and 6 get a little more advanced, but we're still covering the basics. However, even if you are already familiar with another language, you will be able to read the highlights of Chapters 2 through 6 to learn how variables, data types, control of flow, modularization, error handling, and object use are accomplished in the newest version of VBScript. If you are already an accomplished VBScript developer, we did not forget about you. The remaining 600 pages of this 800 page book are dedicated to how to do the really cool stuff. We cover how to use VBScript in the context of the Windows Script Host (WSH), Active Server Pages (ASP), client-side web scripting, ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), Windows Script Components (WSCs), DHTML, and Remote Scripting. Plus we go into detail on how to create the new HTML Applications (HTAs), which are full-blown HTML/DHTML script-based applications that run in their own window--outside the browser, free of the browser's security restrictions. No more communicating with users exclusively though MsgBox() and InputBox(). We also go into detail on writing COM classes in VBScript--previously an activity that was limited to VB, C++, J++, and Delphi developers. It doesn't stop there. Chapter 16 will show you how to use the Microsoft Script Control to integrate scripting capability into your Visual Basic applications. All of these chapters contain a mixture of expository material--which is especially useful when learning the subject matter for the first time--and reference material--which is invaluable on a day-to-day basis as you write VBScript code. We cover all of the major objects, and their interfaces, and it's all formatted for easy look-up when you need it. No more scouring the web for all that documentation. There are a ton of *real* code examples (not your typical help file code examples), and even sample scripts and VB projects which you can download for free from the Wrox site. I have not even mentioned the 300 pages of appendices in this book. Appendix A alone is 80 pages, and covers the syntax of all of the VBScript functions, keywords, and operators. Appendix A is worth the price of this book all by itself. Every language element is covered in detail, including syntax (parameters, etc.), code examples, usage notes, cross references to other language elements, and even a list of any named constants that a given function supports. For you Visual Basic programmers who are migrating to VBScript, Appendix A touches on Visual Basic language elements that are not supported or implemented differently in VBScript, and Appendix B lists all of the ommitted language features in an easy to consult table. Appendix D is tremendous as well. It contains a very useful list of Visual Basic named constants that VBScript also supports--color constants, comparison constants, date/time constants, etc. Appedices F through K contain object models, which are quick-look-up references for the object families you use with VBScript every day: the Scripting Runtime, WSH, IE, ASP, and ADO. Finally, we top all this off with an explanation of how to use the new Microsoft Script Encoder to "encode" (which is similar to encrypting) your scripts so they're not so easy to "borrow." I did not intend for these comments to run on so long, but this book really is tremendous. The people who wrote and helped shape this book are people who use VBScript in their jobs and in their free time. This is not a regurgitation of the documentation. If you want to learn VBScript, then this book will get you there. If you already use VBScript at your job every day, then I predict that this book will seldom leave your desk. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Love It!
Review: Of all of the VB books that I've seen (which is few), this is the one that I always come back to. I use VB in our campus labs and even more with ASP on our website. This is the book that I recommend to all my friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Would be 5 star but for a MAJOR annoyance
Review: Other glowing recommendations are all accurate. HOWEVER, the book is not really a VBScript reference, it is more of a "How to Implement VBScript" manual. The entire VBScript functions reference is contained in an appendix, and (here is the REALLY annoying part) that appendix is not indexed! So, if you want to find the proper syntax for the 'Mid' statement (the sort of thing for which one might expect to turn to their VBScript Reference), do not bother going to the index and trying to look up 'Mid'. It's not there. Nor are the other VBScript functions. Instead you need to find the appendix, and skim through it to find what you need. Not a fatal flaw, but extremely annoying. If the rest of it were not so good I would have given this one star.
Rating:
Summary: Decent overall.
Review: Overall, VBScript: Programmer's Reference is pretty good and fairly useful. High points:
- Wide range of relevant topics.
- Good examples.
- Extensive appendicies. Low points:
- Already out of date.
- Worthless and frustrating index.
- Lots of undefined acronymns.
- Discontinuity of writing styles between the many authors. I have been writing embedded software for a long time, but am relatively new to VBScript and Windows. I found this book to be useful for me, but I suspect that there are probably better books out there.
Rating:
Summary: Decent overall.
Review: Overall, VBScript: Programmer's Reference is pretty good and fairly useful. High points:
- Wide range of relevant topics.
- Good examples.
- Extensive appendicies. Low points:
- Already out of date.
- Worthless and frustrating index.
- Lots of undefined acronymns.
- Discontinuity of writing styles between the many authors. I have been writing embedded software for a long time, but am relatively new to VBScript and Windows. I found this book to be useful for me, but I suspect that there are probably better books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: for browsers
Review: Perhaps the most common use of VBScript is for client side scripting for browsers. Given IE's 90%+ dominance of this market, and that it supports only VBScript and JScript, you can well see the need for a book like this one.
The authors point out that VBScript has broadly equivalent functionality to JavaScript and JScript. It makes sense to choose VBScript or JScript over JavaScript if you are coding to browsers. But why VBScript over JScript? The book suggests that if you are hailing from a VB background, then the transition to VBScript can be relatively painless. Helped of course by these authors.
Hopefully, you should not have too much trouble with VBScript, whatever your background. It is a simpler language than C++, Java or C#. Plus, the style of the typical problem tackled in the book is such that a program of 100 lines or less usually suffices. You may not notice it, but such choices of problems are strategic. If solutions were thousands of lines long, then stronger procedural or object oriented techniques would be useful, leading to other languages.
Rating:
Summary: Subs, functions, and procedures are all there!
Review: Subs,procedures, and functions all covered in the book in Chapter 3. "A reader" doesn't read much! I think Wrox and 1000's of other people who buy may noticed if Subs and Functions missing! One of best books I buy. But I would like Appendix A (BEST VBScript reference ever!) to be alphabetical - easier to look up, but I love book anyway. I recommend to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Make Sure You Get the Second Edition!
Review: The 2nd Edition of the VBScript Programmer's Reference is a total rewrite of the first edition. Unfortunately, a lot of people are confused because both the first and second editions are for sale, and it can be hard to tell which one you are buying. Do not buy the old first edition! The new second edition is a much better book. I am a co-author of both editions, so I can say that with confidence.
Please check the page you are on and make sure you are purchasing the Second Edition. You can identify the Second Edition because the cover has three faces on it, and because there are only three authors, not a dozen. The Second Edition of the VBScript Programmer's Reference is the best VBScript book available. You won't be disappointed!
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