Rating: 
Summary: Well, written, Easy to use.
Review: Opened up a whole new world to me. Found it easy, informative and no obscure sentences.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent all-around VB book
Review: Special Edition Using VB6 is the best all-purpose VB book I have seen since the VB3 days. It covers a wide array of VB programming topics, including many features that are new to VB6. If you're looking for in-depth coverage of a specific VB6 feature, such as ADO database programming, then a "special-purpose" book may be your best bet. For easy-to-follow, well-rounded coverage of programming in VB6, Special Edition Using VB6 stands alone.
Rating: 
Summary: May gain a few muscles carrying it around BUT...
Review: thats all you will get from this book. I was forced to purchase this book for a programming class and found that this book by far, has to be the worst book ever! If you are looking for sample code, you wont find it here. The industry standard for programming books normally follows: 1) concept is introduced, then 2) the code is given to show the implementation of the concept. HOWEVER: this book will go into detail for about 3 or 4 paragraphs on a concept, then show you three lines of code. A similar scenario: Hey, let me describe my girlfriend to you - she is beautiful, long hair, etc, etc, then i draw a stick figure on a sheet of paper ... and you are supposed to completely understand how she looks and is as a person. Cant be done! (That was ME being SARCASTIC!) Just dont waste your time with this book. Period.
Rating: 
Summary: CD unavailable
Review: The book is typically QUE--fair to acceptable content. However, there is no CD included, only a website address. However, the files are no longer available there. Worse--they did not answer the email response for clarification. If your other customers are like me and appreciate the CD I would steer clear of this book. (This publisher?)
Rating:
Summary: Not a special book!
Review: This book covers a wide range of VB but just introduces each topic with a narrow extend. I bought it because of the title 'Special Edition' and I think I can learn much from it. The programming listings are poor. The programs are mostly stand-alone procedures and you cannot test them. How can the reader understand the meaning of the programs? It teaches programming with several lines each chapter. You just learn some brief descriptions to the topics. Only one topic is more practical: Appendix B Packaging your applications teaches you to create a Setup.exe. If I am a beginner, I think 'Using' series is better. If I am an Intermediate, I may choose 'Platinum Edition' series(quite similar with Special Edition'). I don't why the QUE want to print this book. If you want to learn more specific topics, try other books! You don't know what you've learned and what you can write after reading the whole book. Worthless!
Rating: 
Summary: Great for intermediate users
Review: This book is a great tool for anyone who is familiar with Visual Basic and Object-Oriented Programming and just needs a little more help to get his or her first application started. It touches on several different aspects of VB. One thing that I would like to have seen more of is examples for creating WebClasses, IIS components, and MTS Components. However, the GUI development content is very good and informative. This is a great book for those of us who don't need a reference for advanced programming objects and capabilities but do need a reference for the basic IDE and non-programming aspects of VB.
Rating:
Summary: Very Basic book (Only for The beginner)
Review: This book is extremely basic and extremely disappointing. Covers DAO and RDO but barely touches ADO and OLEDB the defacto standard for Database Access. Doesn't cover many of the main new features of VB6 such as Hierarchical recordsets, Data Environment, Visual database tools, DHTML Applications and more. This book is basically a VB5 Book This book is very Un-QUE Like...
Rating:
Summary: well written, easy to understand
Review: This book is well written, easy to understand, and does a good job presenting the basics of VB. It covers a lot of areas but doesn't get into too much detail in any one area. I found very few errors in the text of the book. It came up short in a few areas, however. Many of the control icons shown in the page margins are incorrect. The cover indicates "Source code available on the Web!" but much of the source code is either missing or incorrectly indexed. Despite these drawbacks I still would recommend getting this book.
Rating:
Summary: A good second step for those learning VB on their own.
Review: This book presents some beginning basics for VB but in my view is a good second step after an elementary book such as SAMS. The authors treat some very important techniques that are constantly used but rarely developed elswhere. A good example is string parsing. The authors teach the major functions (InStr, Replace, Mid) with some examples. Unfortunately, little information is given about strategies to use in handling complex parsing. As is the case with most of these books, there are few meaningful projects or larger contexts to put this information in. Perhaps if a tool were developed (such as a database application or a text editor or spreadsheet) in the course of the book, the new developer could get an idea of the complexity and number of forms, modules, and code required to achieve a useful product. As noted by others, the coverage is broad (with some notable gaps) but is lean in most cases. Take the discussion of the tree view control for example. There is little development here. The reader should consult the MSDN for details on the use and properties of various controls. Even then, the code snippets there are often no more than a syntax example. Nevertheless, I recommend this book at the intermediate level and as one of the few that reasonably clarifies SQL, database structure, file structures and a host of other topics for the budding developer or hobbiest. Use this as a jumping off point to attack more specialized treatises like Appleman's API book.
Rating:
Summary: a good book for beginners
Review: This was a very good book in terms of clarity. It contains a simple overview of most VB topics. Those with some exposure to VB or VBA will want to start reading in the mid-end range. Because of the 'how to' nature of the book, I would not recomend it as a reference, but if you need an 'intro' book that will take you through an all-inclusive tour, this is a great choice.
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