Visual Basic .NET Developer's Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Great information...if you're up for the challenge
Review: This is a tough book; "Learn VB .NET in 10 Minutes" it ain't. But if you're willing to put the effort into it, this is a book that contains real meat instead of the fluff you get with so many computer books.

There are a few things you should realize before you begin:

1) This is not an introduction to VB .NET; use some other book for that. This book comes after you've done "Hello World" and a few other minor programs and are wondering how to get from tinkerer to guru.

2) There's a LOT of SQL Server stuff in this book, so if you haven't worked with SQL Server or another OLTP database (Oracle, DB2, Informix, etc.), you won't understand it. You don't have to be a SQL Server guru but you do have to know how to create tables, stored procedures, etc. Knowledge of Access is not enough.

3) Many examples use the built-in SQL Server integration in Server Explorer in the Visual Studio .NET IDE; this requires VS .NET Enterprise. If you have a different version of VS .NET (I have Academic), then get SQL Server Developer Edition (it's reasonably inexpensive) and use the Enterprise Manager to do these parts. Trust me, while you can use Access to do some (not all) of the work, the information in the book is intense enough that you're better off not making things even more complex by trying to use a different database from the examples.

4) It's slow going. That's normal in a nearly 1000-page book which is, unlike most computer books, packed full of information. Don't get discouraged. Realize that you may come to subjects you know nothing about (say, XML) and may have to set the book down, go do some reading, and come back to it. Realize also that if you're used to skimming content-lite books, you'll have to resist the temptation here, or you'll miss a lot.

With all that in mind, if you're a so-so VB .NET programmer looking to make a career of it, or a VB5/6 programmer wanting to learn what's new about .NET, this book is _the_ book you need.

However...I do have to take away a star because of typos in the code. There aren't many, but they seem to occur especially in sections where very similar code is repeated. Think of them as code-reading practice!

Rating:
Summary: Great information...if you're up for the challenge
Review: This is a tough book; "Learn VB .NET in 10 Minutes" it ain't. But if you're willing to put the effort into it, this is a book that contains real meat instead of the fluff you get with so many computer books.

There are a few things you should realize before you begin:

1) This is not an introduction to VB .NET; use some other book for that. This book comes after you've done "Hello World" and a few other minor programs and are wondering how to get from tinkerer to guru.

2) There's a LOT of SQL Server stuff in this book, so if you haven't worked with SQL Server or another OLTP database (Oracle, DB2, Informix, etc.), you won't understand it. You don't have to be a SQL Server guru but you do have to know how to create tables, stored procedures, etc. Knowledge of Access is not enough.

3) Many examples use the built-in SQL Server integration in Server Explorer in the Visual Studio .NET IDE; this requires VS .NET Enterprise. If you have a different version of VS .NET (I have Academic), then get SQL Server Developer Edition (it's reasonably inexpensive) and use the Enterprise Manager to do these parts. Trust me, while you can use Access to do some (not all) of the work, the information in the book is intense enough that you're better off not making things even more complex by trying to use a different database from the examples.

4) It's slow going. That's normal in a nearly 1000-page book which is, unlike most computer books, packed full of information. Don't get discouraged. Realize that you may come to subjects you know nothing about (say, XML) and may have to set the book down, go do some reading, and come back to it. Realize also that if you're used to skimming content-lite books, you'll have to resist the temptation here, or you'll miss a lot.

With all that in mind, if you're a so-so VB .NET programmer looking to make a career of it, or a VB5/6 programmer wanting to learn what's new about .NET, this book is _the_ book you need.

However...I do have to take away a star because of typos in the code. There aren't many, but they seem to occur especially in sections where very similar code is repeated. Think of them as code-reading practice!