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Summary: Finally, the ADO book I'd been looking for...
Review: After several frustrating hours with the David Sceppa (Microsoft) and WROX Press ADO books, I finally found in Bill Vaughn's work exactly what I'd been looking for: a list of best practices for working with ADO in a client-server environment. Excellently written, great examples, and just as compulsive as me!
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Summary: Great Book
Review: I do a lot of browser-based application development with ASP/ADO/SQL Server and found this to be one of most useful books I have ever owned. The coverage of ADO is superb and the author's writing style is very enjoyable.
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Summary: Fabulous book by the master
Review: I started reading Bill Vaughn when he privately published his "Hitchiker's Guide to VB" a long time ago and have not been disapointed with his work - ever. (The Hitchiker's Guide is still available from Microsoft Press.) This book is just as good as his great Hitchiker book and so is a must purchase for the experienced user of ADO. Note if you are new to ADO I wouldn't recommend this book as your first book! Instead I recommend two other books: Jeff McManus's "Database Development with VB" from Sams and Macdonald's "Serious ADO" from Apress the same people who published Vaughn's book.
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Summary: The perfect book for VB and ASP refinement
Review: I've been developing ASP solutions for nearly five years and pure Visual Basic applications for two, and have never read a book with such valuable, pithy information in so little text. In ~350 pages, Vaughn covers all of the pertinent topics when working with ADO: "best case" connection strings, efficient uses of recordsets, marshaling and persisting data... literally, everything you really need to know. Most importantly, and to his credit, Vaughn does NOT cover (or re-hash) the basics of ADO or data access- this book is for developers seeking to refine their ADO knowledge, not first-time database programmers. You won't find an explanation of what an RDBMS is, or why databases are valuable in the enterprise. You will find a reference to keep on your desk (not your bookshelf) and use every day.
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Summary: Full of great tips
Review: If you have already been working with ADO for some time and you want to learn advanced tips and tricks, this is the book for you. Written in a light and entertaining style this book will advance your understanding of ADO to an expert level.
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Summary: Great information for the Developer
Review: If you use ADO, you need this book. Much like Bill Vaughn's early "HitchHiker's Guide to SQL Server" this book tells you everything Microsoft forgot to warn you about in ADO. Filled with tips, tricks and gotcha's, this book could save you countless hours of debugging, and endless frustration. It has for me. Plus, Bill Vaughn is an amusing author, who makes what could be a very dry and boring subject actually entertaining.
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Summary: A Book for the VB Professional - Buy It, Read It.
Review: If you're looking for an ADO Reference, buy a different book. If you develop and maintain VB Database Applications w/ SQL Server back-ends, do yourself a favor and GET THIS BOOK!! Does your clients applications run fine on one computer, and behave weird on another all of a sudden? Read this book to confirm what you have been thinking and learn proven ways to get around the "side-effects" (Bugs!) in ADO, and the 'migration' issues between ADO 2.0, 2.1, 2.1 (GA), and 2.5. It's a pleasure to read a book written by someone who has obviously been in the ADO trenches. Vaughn does not pull his punches, so you will get the straight scoop on how ADO really behaves - not how it's supposed to behave as with the typical ADO Reference Book. Enjoy!! -Rob
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Summary: If you develope VB with SQL you must have this book.
Review: It's not common to want to write a review about a book this one deserves taking some time out for it. Though I'm not new to programming I am to VB with SQL. I have been developement a quite complicated application with VB with SQL and not a day goes by that I have not used this book and found true real solutions and insight. This book was written for developers and answers the question we make quite directly. It is small but the point. Takes you by the hand (great for begginers in SQL developers, but has enough information for intermediate and advance developres.
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Summary: Beuatifully Written
Review: This book covers programming with ADO thoroughly and well. Vaughn does not only take you thru the best practices but also thru the questionable ones. You will learn why a best practice is a best practice. You will also learn the proper syntax to use in commands as well as the purpose of many of the options that are w/in a command. (The options we see in the VB IDE but never know how to use.) I found the book extremely readable and obviously extremely valuable. If you plan on using ADO you should have this book, it really should be part of the VB programmers canon. The one negative on the book is that while it references ADO 2.6 alot it does not really get into it. There also is not very much XML support. i am sure future versions will correct these mistakes.
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Summary: How to program w/ ADO correctly
Review: This book covers programming with ADO thoroughly and well. Vaughn does not only take you thru the best practices but also thru the questionable ones. You will learn why a best practice is a best practice. You will also learn the proper syntax to use in commands as well as the purpose of many of the options that are w/in a command. (The options we see in the VB IDE but never know how to use.) I found the book extremely readable and obviously extremely valuable. If you plan on using ADO you should have this book, it really should be part of the VB programmers canon. The one negative on the book is that while it references ADO 2.6 alot it does not really get into it. There also is not very much XML support. i am sure future versions will correct these mistakes.
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