Rating: 
Summary: We need more books like this!
Review: If we had had this book six months ago, we could have saved ourselves tremendous headaches and months of lost time.The book is very well strucured and explains the intricacies of Oracle to the uninitiated (we came from SQL Server) in a very readable way. It covers everything you need to get to work with Oracle (which is quite a bit), with emphasis on the most important point: the interface between VB and Oracle and how to optimize it. I wish all books on computing would be this well structured, comprehensive and practical!
Rating: 
Summary: Heavy in Theory, Better Examples Elsewhere
Review: If you compare the size of this book with Dov Treitch's Visual Basic Oracle 8 (wrox), you might think you could get further using this book. That may be true if you're interested in doing Oracle dba tasks. But this book is titled "Oracle Programming". The first 6 chapters, 210 pages, are dedicated to Oracle architecture and administrative tasks, such as deploying an Oracle db. In my opinion, if you're programming you may need to know about 10 pages worth of this info, good luck finding it, and if you're doing dba work on an enterprise server watch out if you've only read these 200 pages. Then, when it comes to actual programming an app against Oracle the book also falls way short of the wrox title. There is not a single example in the book that actually demostrates how to create a FORM (remember those?) that links to Oracle. Published in 1999 the code is also behind, with large sections of the book dedicated to DAO, RDO, and ODBC Direct. And, as others have stated, the code describing the use of stored procedures is either wrong or out of date. If you want to read a long book, get this one. There are some good, clear descriptions of the theory behind cursors and the mechanics of the various middleware connection layers. If you actually want to develop against Oracle, get the wrox book!
Rating:
Summary: Heavy in Theory, Better Examples Elsewhere
Review: If you compare the size of this book with Dov Treitch's Visual Basic Oracle 8 (wrox), you might think you could get further using this book. That may be true if you're interested in doing Oracle dba tasks. But this book is titled "Oracle Programming". The first 6 chapters, 210 pages, are dedicated to Oracle architecture and administrative tasks, such as deploying an Oracle db. In my opinion, if you're programming you may need to know about 10 pages worth of this info, good luck finding it, and if you're doing dba work on an enterprise server watch out if you've only read these 200 pages. Then, when it comes to actual programming an app against Oracle the book also falls way short of the wrox title. There is not a single example in the book that actually demostrates how to create a FORM (remember those?) that links to Oracle. Published in 1999 the code is also behind, with large sections of the book dedicated to DAO, RDO, and ODBC Direct. And, as others have stated, the code describing the use of stored procedures is either wrong or out of date. If you want to read a long book, get this one. There are some good, clear descriptions of the theory behind cursors and the mechanics of the various middleware connection layers. If you actually want to develop against Oracle, get the wrox book!
Rating:
Summary: A little Misleading
Review: Oracle owns the relational database server market and Microsoft owns the desktop market. Visual Basic is the language of choice for the WinTell development world. One would expect dozens of books available to support this paradigm, but there are not. I recommend this book to everyone who must use Oracle. The first 10 chapters summarize Oracle better then Oracle summarizes Oracle. Snowdon assumes that the reader is familiar with SQL Server, but he does not assume ANY Oracle knowledge. By the time this book was available I had already written two production class programs for Oracle without the benefit of experienced Oracle DBA's to help me. This book would have saved me hours of frustration had it been available. I have just purchased Dov Trietsch's, "Visual Basic Oracle 8 Programmer's Reference," so I cannot compare the two. If you are going to survive in an Oracle environment, you will need to learn PL/SQL, Oracle's extended SQL programming language for triggers and stored procedures. Snowdon has an excellent introduction, but the definitive source is Steven Feurerstein's "Oracle PL/SQL Programming" by O'Reilly and Associates. I DO NOT recommend any of the Osborne books on Oracle, even though they are Oracle's vendor of choice. Oracle makes a big chunk of its money in consulting fees and, in my opinion, the Osborne documentation protects that revenue stream.
Rating:
Summary: Oracle Demystified, Not Just For VB Programmers
Review: Oracle owns the relational database server market and Microsoft owns the desktop market. Visual Basic is the language of choice for the WinTell development world. One would expect dozens of books available to support this paradigm, but there are not. I recommend this book to everyone who must use Oracle. The first 10 chapters summarize Oracle better then Oracle summarizes Oracle. Snowdon assumes that the reader is familiar with SQL Server, but he does not assume ANY Oracle knowledge. By the time this book was available I had already written two production class programs for Oracle without the benefit of experienced Oracle DBA's to help me. This book would have saved me hours of frustration had it been available. I have just purchased Dov Trietsch's, "Visual Basic Oracle 8 Programmer's Reference," so I cannot compare the two. If you are going to survive in an Oracle environment, you will need to learn PL/SQL, Oracle's extended SQL programming language for triggers and stored procedures. Snowdon has an excellent introduction, but the definitive source is Steven Feurerstein's "Oracle PL/SQL Programming" by O'Reilly and Associates. I DO NOT recommend any of the Osborne books on Oracle, even though they are Oracle's vendor of choice. Oracle makes a big chunk of its money in consulting fees and, in my opinion, the Osborne documentation protects that revenue stream.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: The book is thorough and well designed. It is the absolute best coverage of VB and Oracle in one book. This book has saved countless hours of development time. Almost every aspect of development involving VB and Oracle are covered in enough detail for the beginner while being comprehensive enought for the experienced user. Some of the data objects covered have been updated by Microsoft since the books publication. The best example is that you can now retrieve parameters from a package in Oracle with the latest RDO. In the authors defense, it is impossible to keep up with technology advances. As with any book, if it references a limitation, check the vendor's web site for any updates. The hardest part about using the book is getting it back from other developers in the shop. This book is a must have for the serious VB / Oracle developer.
Rating: 
Summary: Oracle, VB, and Rock Stardom
Review: There are very few books with "Oracle" and "Visual Basic" in the title. This is unfortunate for developers that want to gain insights into developing quality solutions with those technologies. This is especially so when the developer does not have the benefit of Oracle / VB experienced peers. Fortunately, however, Mr. Snowdon provides us with a well written book on both subjects under one title. The content is quite broad and rather simple and the examples are easy to test out. With that being said, this is definitely a great book for the novice (an experienced VB developer with little experience with Oracle or vice versa or just a plain ol' novice). Beginners could swallow it too, however, the breadth of content may prove somewhat daunting. The senior developer may encounter a degree of frustration with the simplicity or generality of some of the content, but oh well I guess...I found the following discussions very useful: Oracle physical architecture, data access (specifically ADO and the use of DSN-less connections), calling Oracle stored procedures and functions). I should mention that about half of the book deals with basics such as database design, SQL, VB, etc. So, if you need to get up to speed fairly quickly and you're not building a monolithic OLTP system then this is a good addition to your library. Besides, the price is right. I also recommend Dov Trietsch's 'VB Oracle 8' from Wrox which is better for the more advanced VB programmer (use of classes and better coverage of ADO especially in the area of dealing with server sided objects--stored procedures and server sided PL/SQL cursors). As a final remark let me add that Oracle developers with VB skills (or vice versa, yet again) are capable of commanding large salaries or hourly rates. This is your opportunity as a computer geek to get the recognition you deserve and to live like a rock star. Order yours now!
Rating:
Summary: Extensive coverage of VB connectivity to Oracle.
Review: This book extensively covers, in minute detail, every aspect of working with Visual Basic and Oracle. The author demonstrates his vast knowledge of both programs by walking the reader through Oracle architecture, Oracle programming, and the various ways of connecting to Oracle databases from Visual Basic. It is assumed that the VB programmer has little or no experience with Oracle. It would be ideal for an Oracle novice to obtain hands-on experience in Oracle either through classes or through self-instruction as the author does not intend to teach Oracle in this book, even though there are many examples of Oracle code included in the book. There are two serious drawbacks to this book: first, sometimes the author is prone to "overkilling" a topic and, second, the reading is very dry. However, I would recommend this book to any programmer who needs to connect to Oracle databases with Visual Basic. All the necessary techniques are in one place.
Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction Book
Review: This book is a wonderful resource for Oracle-VB programmers. The most important part of this book starts at Chapter 11. You can read the first 300 pages from any other Oracle book.
Rating:
Summary: You don't need to know anything about Oracle 8
Review: This book is excellent at covering all the bases. It explains everything from how to create an Oracle database to the different ways of accessing an Oracle database through Visual Basic. As the only programmer in my company I found myself doing many things a database administrator should do. This book helped in making those things very clear.
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