Rating: 
Summary: Excellent source for any new VB programmer
Review: Having recently decided to pursue VB programming, I purchased 'Beginning Visual Basic 6' and this book. I've found so far that the Cornell book is much more valuable - it extends deeper into some of the nuts and bolts information that you need to know while weaving these facts into easy to understand examples. For me the snicker test is always the index - if I have a question and can't find the relevant section of the book in the index then I get frustrated. So far I'm batting 100% with Cornell's book.
Rating:
Summary: Truly awesome
Review: I haven't programmed much and I bought this book because it seemed to assume nothing but was thick enough so that I figured it would cover a lot. So far I haven't been disappointed!
Rating: 
Summary: I assume nothing but I will take you beyond the basics.
Review: Look, it's a thick book at more than 900 pages, it's possible to be intimidated by it. The length is necessary because my idea in this book is to start by assuming nothing and *then* to take you way beyond the basics for each of the topics that I cover--I tried to give you the kind of in-depth knowledge of a topic that prospective programming professionals need. Thus in this edition, even more than in previous editions, I focus on what the prospective professional VB programmer *needs* to know. In fact, many of the changes I made to this edition were based on the feedback I got from the numerous seminars that I have taught over the last few years. These seminars teach VB to people who are either new to programming or who are programming professionals coming from another language. I hope, and in fact really believe, that if you work through all the material I present here, you'll be in a great position to find work as a VB programmer. (Oh, by the way, one other advantage to this edition is that we put the code on the web. This means the book is a lot cheaper than those books with source code cd's <grin>!) Finally, my e-mail address is listed above, feel free to write me with comments or complaints!
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of information, serious lack of explanation and samples
Review: Perhaps this book would prove useful to an experienced programmer, but for a novice it is not a good choice. Cornell "assumes no previous programming experience", then goes on to write in huge, sweeping generalities without adequate explanations. Also, the code in the book is often written so the reader cannot fathom the type of event the code is associated with, and no explanations are forthcoming in the body of the text.
There really is a lot covered in this book, but unless you do indeed have "previous programming experience", not worth the cash.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent tutorial and reference
Review: Another excellent book from Cornell. His "Ground Up" series benefits a lot from his vast experience in software development and his reported "insider" status at Microsoft. I have used the VB and VC++ books from this series..and they are both excellent. I found the VB book to be more logically presented than the VC++ book. This book is useful to learn the basic concepts and also provides an excellent launcpad to more advanced topics such as database management, interfacing other programs, and distributed applications. I am a bit disappointed with the not-so-elaborate examples and discussions on distributed applications. That, however, does not in any way, diminish the value of this book. The generous use of examples in the first half of the book will enable any user to learn or refresh VB concepts and tools very easily. As with any software, reading alone doesnt help. Follow the examples on the computer and program! Learning through mistakes is not a bad way to learn software..but this book will help you learn without making too many of them.
Rating:
Summary: An outstanding Resource
Review: I bought Gary Cornell's book as a beginner, with some basic understanding of how visual basic works. Mr. Cornell's book took me from complete novice level, to lower-intermediate. This is indeed an excellent book to get yourself falmiliarized and experienced with Visual Basic. Sure, some areas needed re-reading, and some parts were just plain unncessesary, but for the price, I have no complaints. I find myself coming back to this book time and time again as a reference material. Its a must have!.
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