Rating: Summary: Full of useful information, but... Review: The author never does address what skill level is necessary to fully appreciate this book. From my reading it should be clarified at the beginning that this book is not for beginners. Being new to ASP I found this book very frustrating to follow. It wasn't until page 51 did the author decide to inform the reader exactly how to 'run' scripts in Windows. From cover to cover I felt the book was organized poorly. However, if I was a more experienced programmer I think that I would better understand the book's layout and be able to 'fish' through this convoluted book.
Rating: Summary: Not much of a reference Review: The book starts with a strange 'Introduction to Programming' chapter, which is for people who don't know what a variable is (good thing _that's_ in a language reference book!) Meanwhile, there is no 'Introduction to VBScript' chapter. I found it very difficult to find simple information on syntax and keywords (just try to find anything on function return types or declaring arrays...) The main Appendix, which contains lots of valuable information, is organized randomly by arcane subjects (and there's no listing of the subjects) so it's difficult to find anything. It also seems to be lifted out of a VB book and contains things that aren't even supported in VBScript. The range of topics covered is useful if you're trying to decide whether VBScript is right for your project . But if you're just trying to write Active Server Pages, I recommend skipping this book and getting 'Beginning ASP' by Wrox -- it uses VBScript exclusively and has a better introduction to the syntax and usage of the language.
Rating: Summary: Wish the examples would work Review: This book had a lot of discussion to educate somebody on the world of vbscript, but was very short with actual examples. My main beef as it is with most books is the examples. The section on page 377 on remote scripting would not work because they had some code positioned on the wrong area of the html page. I tried to download this code from their website only to find the html page blank.
Rating: Summary: The best guide to the latest Microsoft tecnologies Review: This book is not exactly what it's title suggests - I would say it's title somehow underrates it. At first, it helps you understand the core VBScript and how to write code in it. Then, it takes you to a tour to the newest Microsoft software innovations, such as the COM, Distributed COM and COM+, the Microsoft Transcation Server, the Micosoft Message Queue, IIS and ASP, the fascinating new "HTML Applications" and many more... Lastly, it includes the references you expect to find when you buy it - and these are very well-written, practical and organized. However (and that not the book's but Microsoft's fault), VBScript is not the language of choice to manipulate the technologies mentioned above - a REAL programming language like Python can do the job much better. So, no matter how odd this may seem to you, if you want to script the Win32 platform, I recommend the use of this book together with O'Reilly's "Python Proggraming on Win32" by Mark Hammond.
Rating: Summary: Not a reference on VBScript, but on HOW TO USE VBScript Review: This book isn't a reference in the way you would think, but it is good at showing you real world examples of how you'll end up using VBScript. If they really only wanted a reference book they would have just published the pages from Appendix A, which is the part of the book I end up referring to most, but not having an index makes it difficult. Overall, a good reference - not on the language itself, but on its implementation and uses.
Rating: Summary: Great book, be sure to buy the 2nd Edition Review: This is an outstanding book. At first I was confused by some of the older reviews, until I realized that Amazon is still selling the old 1st edition, and many folks are buying that one instead of the newer, much better Second Edition.
Be sure you're buying the Second Edition! That book's ISBN is 0764559931. It's the one with the picture of three authors on the cover.
Rating: Summary: Far more than a reference Review: This is far more than the standard reference book I'm used to. This is a tome of immeasurable quality. I was expecting a dry and cold text that I would refer to occassionaly; instead I got an excellent tutorial. The first 4 chapters define all the basics, and then there follow chapters on WSH, HTA's, COM, ADO, and many other topics that I wouldn't expect a reference book to cover. The book also has 12 appendix chapters which go far beyond my expectations. All-in-all a very thorough, well written and reasonably priced book.
Rating: Summary: It's so bad. Never saw a reference like this. Just rubbish. Review: When I saw the topic of "VBScript Programmer'sreference". I thought this just what I want.(so stupid Iam). Because I'm an experienced VB programmer, a reference seems good enough for me. But in this book, it's not only very difficult to find function, actually, they didn't put a lot of useful functions in this book. If you see the back of this book, they will tell you what this book covered. covered? or mentioned? 800 pages book, mentioned everything but useless.
Rating: Summary: Has everyting I need - just a bit hard to find things Review: Yes, it has everything I need for VBScript. But... BIG font, small font, Bold, not Bold, Boxed, not Boxed, High lighted, not high lighted. All contribute to the already-hard-to-find-things book. I give it five stars in the hope that I will get used to the book.
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