Rating: 
Summary: An excellent resource
Review: This book is like having access to a good friend who knows VB inside and out. The size and format of this book make it so much more inviting to use and keep around than your normal 500 page exploratory into VB that the majority of books seem to lean towards today. The topics covered are comprehensive without being overly detailed. The use of pictures and grahics to illustrate points is done with taste and functional minimalism. The book assumes you understand VB and are looking for clear explanations of features (basic through advanced) without having to go through pages and pages of help files. Topics covered include syntactic features, coding conventions, OO, IIS and Web Apps, DAO/RDO/ADO, MTS and COM and bunch more. I wish Sams would produce the equivalent handbook style publications for Visual C++ and Java.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent VB book
Review: This is one of a very small number of computer books I've come across that is concise, well written, lucid, and actually useful. No Dummies fluff, no long winded self serving expositions in search of an editor, just a clear and incisive exploration of the intricacies of VB backed by lots of examples in code. This isn't a book for beginners in that it assumes a certain familiarity with the language, yet beginners will benefit from having this resource available as they need to research topics. I wish that more programming books came even close to the quality of this one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource, but NOT for beginners
Review: This is simply the best VB book I have seen for experienced prgrammers. If you have extensive experience in another language or are an experienced VB programmer and just need to learn the finer nuances of VB, this is the resource for you. For example, the author only spends 7 pages on the obligatory sections on loop and conditional statements, and 40 pages on building web applications. Finally, a VB book that does not assume that you are turning on your computer for the first time! Conversely, if you are new to VB or programming, this book will probably leave you more confused than before.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource, but NOT for beginners
Review: This is simply the best VB book I have seen for experienced prgrammers. If you have extensive experience in another language or are an experienced VB programmer and just need to learn the finer nuances of VB, this is the resource for you. For example, the author only spends 7 pages on the obligatory sections on loop and conditional statements, and 40 pages on building web applications. Finally, a VB book that does not assume that you are turning on your computer for the first time! Conversely, if you are new to VB or programming, this book will probably leave you more confused than before.
Rating:
Summary: rare
Review: Very rare indeed that you encounter a VB book worth the paper it's printed on. With the Hardcore series out of print and nearly every other book prefaced with beginner, it not often you find a good book on VB not written by Kurata or Appleman. As the title says, it is a "code-intensive resource." That, backed by the wide range of topics covered (Lang Basics, File I/O, ADO, NT Services, some COM, Win32 API, etc) makes it a solid resource. I've worked the Net services and .com industry for three years and this is the best VB book I have come across. Of course, I hate VB and would rather write Java...but that's another story.
Rating:
Summary: rare
Review: Very rare indeed that you encounter a VB book worth the paper it's printed on. With the Hardcore series out of print and nearly every other book prefaced with beginner, it not often you find a good book on VB not written by Kurata or Appleman. As the title says, it is a "code-intensive resource." That, backed by the wide range of topics covered (Lang Basics, File I/O, ADO, NT Services, some COM, Win32 API, etc) makes it a solid resource. I've worked the Net services and .com industry for three years and this is the best VB book I have come across. Of course, I hate VB and would rather write Java...but that's another story.
| 
