Rating: 
Summary: TMS does it again and again - many thanks!
Review: A simple must for all professional developers - I've had the book three days and cannot put it down although I've had to as my head will surely explode - it's already started to expand (and my daily rate with it too!).The best chapters are for me (so far) are: On Error GoTo Hell, Taking Care of Business, Minutiae, VB's Guide to Dating (a Y2K MUST read), Starting with the Bases Loaded, Databases are for Dorks, Accessibility in VB. Nicely written and researched and written by some very well informed people. Thanks again.
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Summary: About ...
Review: A small disclaimer: I'm actually the 'lead author' on this book - it was written by a group of us here at The Mandelbrot Set (International) Limited - TMS. I wrote 3 chapters in the current edition and contributed to others as required. When we first started to write this - series - (as we're now in to the second edition), we held a brainstorming session to establish the chapter titles - what we should write about in other words. Our problem was, and still is, that like Dr. Who's TARDIS the Visual Basic 'box' is small on the outside but somewhat larger on the inside! In fact, our main problem has always been one of 'content' - what should be in, what should be out. In the end we chose to write on the subjects that we felt were the most appropriate, and truly 'key', for our target audience - the Professional Corporate Developer. He or she is the person we know best, as we work with them day in, day out. If you have suggestions for themes you'd like to see covered (should we do another edition), please let me have them. You can email me directly as peetm.bookteam@themandelbrotset.com (similarly, each author can be emailed by changing the peetm here to the author's name, e.g. marks will get you through to Mark Sewell, jonb to Jon Burn etc.). Also, for book purchasers, we have a mailing list where we post updates on the book (and other related news). That list may be subscribed to by sending mail to TMS-List-Server@themandelbrotset.com. In the BODY of your mail, put - 'Subscribe TMSBookList'. Please note that this is a closed list for purchasers only - our public lists can be seen, and then subscribed to, by sending the list-server the 'Lists' command instead of the 'Subscribe' command. We hope you enjoy this, the second edition - we aimed, in writing it to provide at least 70% all new material - we rev'ed the remaining 30% to bring it thoroughly up to date. We succeeded I'm glad to say and the new edition is very different from the first (and interestingly, thinner but with more pages!). BTW, anyone know what TARDIS stands for? Peter J. Morris
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Summary: Great!
Review: Didn't get the first edition but after reading this version I will. According to the authors the new version contains nearly 70% new material and 30% that's been revamped. That must make version 1 a MUST READ also! Amazon - can I get the 'old' version cheap(er)?
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Summary: If you think you don't need any more books on VB
Review: I thought I don't need any more book on VB .. then I found this book and started browsing .. there are enough small pearls hidden here and there which makes this book worth buying. You should better know VB before buying this book .. must for all professional developers.
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Summary: if you think you know VB, Read this.
Review: If you think you have learned VB for all it's worth, Take a browse through some of this book's fascinating chapters (especially the first one) for a glimpse of VB techniqes like youve never thought of before. Even though i am an MCP in VB (70-176 & 70-175) and have been programming for a while in it, I could still find very good tips about everything, starting from Error handling techniqes such as "Error handling as transaction processing" or "Smart data types -Smarties". The writing is pretty funny at times, but is to the point.It DOES assume you know VB and and Object Oriented basics, and have been writing small-medium sized software for a while before reading it. There is a very nice chapter about the principles of programming for the WINDOWS CE interface which was illuminating. This is something i keep for reference on my shelf in our company offices and every once in a while i would remember a good solution to something were working on and look it up . The 1st chapter alone is worth the price of admission, and has changed the way i program drastically, giving me power tips and advanced techniqes no programmer should go without. Stuff like "How to trace call stacks after compilation" and the "ERL" function have really made my day. "How to use assertions" is one of the better guides to program code that tests itself. Cool information about extended use of API and subclassing, plus some of the undocumented functions of VB and a few undocumented API functions as well. (p.s If you don't know what ERL means, it returns the line No. of an error and is undocumented..except this book) In short, Buy it.
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Summary: A Waste of Time and Money
Review: If your looking for technical information on the How's and Why's of VB6 this is not the book. This book is for those with to much time on their hands not someone who is looking for answers. The authors are to be commended for their corruption of significant technical information into useless pros. A good door stop!
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond advanced
Review: More of a 'Special Topics' book. Don't expect to run through an introductory book and right into this one. Though the first chapter has some useful suggestions for handling bugs.
Rating: 
Summary: Content is non programmer-specific
Review: Most of the content in the book tries to examine the dissection of a programmer's knowledge as taken up by an employer and it is difficult for a hardcore programmer guy to swivel and adapt to the entirely new viewpoint. The reader could more often be gathering tips as to what a good developer should or should not do. Some parts of the book present radical new ideas but on the whole are supported by very little example code which is mostly what a programmer understands. On the whole the book is good - only the developer will have to place himself for once in a totally different seat and take to the content in a different angle.
Rating:
Summary: Content is non programmer-specific
Review: Most of the content in the book tries to examine the dissection of a programmer's knowledge as taken up by an employer and it is difficult for a hardcore programmer guy to swivel and adapt to the entirely new viewpoint. The reader could more often be gathering tips as to what a good developer should or should not do. Some parts of the book present radical new ideas but on the whole are supported by very little example code which is mostly what a programmer understands. On the whole the book is good - only the developer will have to place himself for once in a totally different seat and take to the content in a different angle.
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Summary: VB ramblings
Review: One of the few books I've bought that I'll probably not refer back to again. This book needed a strong editor to turn competent programmers into good writers. The book rambled aimlessly, not really giving a hint as to where they were going or why one piece of info related to another. I know we all need our 15 minutes of fame, but each chapter's autobiographical data was a little over the top.
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