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Rating: 
Summary: Overall, a good book
Review: I am currently taking a class and the book that Instructor uses is not really useful. I purchased this book to complement that and I started with chapter 8(class module). So far I find this book useful but poorly written. You could read and try to punch the code in but it does not compile. Care must be taken in writting books since people use it to learn.
Rating:
Summary: Redemption review!
Review: Not too long ago I wrote about another VB book, the one we had for our first VB class at Scottsdale Community College, in Arizona (Programming With Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, by Diane Zak): talk about a bad book! Now, for the VBII class we're using this one. I have to agree that the evolution of the topics is not the best there can be (i.e. there is a jump between somewhat unrelated topics), but saying that it's the worst book or that you should not buy, etc. are not statements that do justice to the book, in my opinion.The one thing I found about the book that I'm very happy with is the step-by-step way in which it presents the topics covered, no assumptions made. Plus the companion CD it comes with contains ALL the samples discussed in the book, which make things easy at the time of figuring out components of a program that are not visible from the code alone, because they are set within the Properties of an Object. All in all I am taking away one star because of the way in which it's organized, as I mentioned before, but each topic covered is done in a very clear way, which leaves the programmer with no doubts about it.
Rating:
Summary: An "ADVANCED VB" book.
Review: The authors start out well by giving a review for the students on VB, and they even provide a test to make sure the student's knowledge level is where it should be to go further in VB. There is a good range of more involved topics than what you find in a beginner's course. The book covers DataGrid, DataCombo, and DataList, plus, ADO, ActiveX Data Objects, SQL, DataReport, MSGFlexGrid, MSChart, FlexGrid, Class Modules, Collection Class,Windows API, and some Internet FTP and Winsock control topics. Many of the sample programs and exercises are pretty lame, but none the less give the student a chance to see the technique applied. The reader or student will struggle using this book to learn more about VB. It is so poorly written that the student would be better off consulting other VB books on the same topic, or go to a VB web site or MS's web pages. The authors often start to explain a topic but go on to another topic before finishing the discussion of the previous. There are typos and erradata in the text as well as the sample code. There is a CD which does help to straighten things out. There are much better books on VB such as "VB 6.0 Advanced Topics" by Ekedahl, "Murach's VB 6 Beginner to Pro", "Pure VB" by Fox, "VB 6 Unleashed" by Thayer, and "Mastering VB 6" by Petroutsos, and "VB 6 Black Box" by Holzner. Irvine's & Liang's book is probably an example of the publisher's attempt in making sure they had an Advanced VB textbook for the many tech schools, colleges, and universities to use for a very popular course.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy read yet powerful
Review: This book gave me current information that other books don't offer, and the exercises and programming projects are excellent. The topics on database, ADO, DRD, the SQL query language, ActiveX Controls, and OOP are right on. I had no problem with this book. Great work!
Rating:
Summary: An "ADVANCED VB" book.
Review: This book will make you work! Won't spoon feed you the information, more like a graduate level course: concepts are given, but you must apply it. If you are willing to put in some effort it provides a good foundation in advanced topics of VB 6.0. Note:Recommend installing service pack 3 and using oledb 4.0 rather than 3.5.1. Found 1 database problem where the oledb 3.5.1 connection would crash the program, changing to the oledb 4.0 solved the problem. All the example programs thus far have compiled an run without a problem with SP3 loaded. Good: Covers advanced topics like ADO,SQL,Toolbars, Active X, API calls,intro to the internet,trees and many other useful subjects. Assumes you know the basics already- NOT for someone just starting out in VB- so it doesn't waste a lot of time and pages reviewing what one should have learned in an introductory course or book. Has chapter review questions, practical problems which help re-inforce the material in the chapter. Complete example problems on the companion CD. Possibly a problem : A good instructor would be a help. Does use code snippets which some may find inconvenient. Looking at the complete listing on the companion CD compensates for this. At times presentation can be somewhat brief. It really helps to take a concept open a new project, and play with the ideas presented as well as working problems.
Rating: 
Summary: A Terrible VB Book!
Review: This has to be the worst book I have ever used in my entire life. This author does not know the first thing about writing a text book about VB. He jumps around from subject to subject. He does not have a clue on how to lead student from subject to subject. And last but not least what is it with all the code typos and errors? Save your money, buy any other book on VB but not this one!!!!!!
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