Programming Visual Basic .NET

Rating:
Summary: Great Comprehensive Book
Review: Excellent book with a comprehensive view of using VB.NET to develop Windows-based and Web-based solutions, including Web services.

The second chapter in the book, "The Visual Basic .NET Language" was particularly helpful with an in-depth view of the VB.NET language constructs and keywords. The third chapter explains the .NET CLR, assemblies, garbage collection and other concepts new to .NET very clearly.

This book is excellent for programmers moving from classic VB to VB.NET, people new to the VB.NET language, and as a language reference for more advanced users.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent VB.NET Guide and Reference
Review: Programming Visual Basic .NET does an excellent job of covering all of the language elements and associated .NET framework topics that a developer will need to become an effective VB.NET programmer. This book is successful by getting straight to the point and tackling the issues that programmers need to understand the new language, how it fits in with the .NET framework, and how it differs from Microsoft's previous incarnations of Visual Basic.

In the early chapters Dave covers all of the important VB.NET language constructs and the .NET framework with a clear tone and effective examples. The chapters on Windows Form development are particularly helpful in understanding GUI programming in the language, and how to take advantage of the many new features in .NET including control docking and anchoring, and menu programming. He covers both using the tools in Visual Studio.NET, as well as exploring the creation of Windows Forms through code. This type of in depth information is very helpful for any developer who really wishes to know and understand what's going on behind the scenes of Windows Forms.

The later chapters are similarly well presented and explain the important aspects of additional technologies of the .NET Platform that are central to successful application development. The chapter on ASP.NET does a great job of explaining user controls, form validation, and security in ASP.NET. I've found this information critical in designing solutions that target the web. While the chapter on ADO.NET is perhaps not as comprehensive as the rest, I found the information to be quite helpful and informative enough to implement complete data access solutions. Similarly, the chapter on programming web services in VB.NET has been a great help in understanding how web services function, and their importance in communications across the internet.

Overall I find this book to be a great introduction to the Visual Basic .NET language itself, as well as a great tool for understanding how to use Visual Basic .NET to harness many of the exciting features of the .NET platform.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent VB.NET Guide and Reference
Review: Programming Visual Basic .NET does an excellent job of covering all of the language elements and associated .NET framework topics that a developer will need to become an effective VB.NET programmer. This book is successful by getting straight to the point and tackling the issues that programmers need to understand the new language, how it fits in with the .NET framework, and how it differs from Microsoft's previous incarnations of Visual Basic.

In the early chapters Dave covers all of the important VB.NET language constructs and the .NET framework with a clear tone and effective examples. The chapters on Windows Form development are particularly helpful in understanding GUI programming in the language, and how to take advantage of the many new features in .NET including control docking and anchoring, and menu programming. He covers both using the tools in Visual Studio.NET, as well as exploring the creation of Windows Forms through code. This type of in depth information is very helpful for any developer who really wishes to know and understand what's going on behind the scenes of Windows Forms.

The later chapters are similarly well presented and explain the important aspects of additional technologies of the .NET Platform that are central to successful application development. The chapter on ASP.NET does a great job of explaining user controls, form validation, and security in ASP.NET. I've found this information critical in designing solutions that target the web. While the chapter on ADO.NET is perhaps not as comprehensive as the rest, I found the information to be quite helpful and informative enough to implement complete data access solutions. Similarly, the chapter on programming web services in VB.NET has been a great help in understanding how web services function, and their importance in communications across the internet.

Overall I find this book to be a great introduction to the Visual Basic .NET language itself, as well as a great tool for understanding how to use Visual Basic .NET to harness many of the exciting features of the .NET platform.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, comprehensive guide
Review: This is an OK book but there are better books. The treatement of the essential language issues isn't very good: for example, Cornell's book is *much* much better at teaching the Visual Basic .NET language and in particular the Object Oriented Principles you need for VB NET. Troelsen's book (also from Apress) is much better for applications than this book. The book "Coding Techniques for Microsoft VB NET" by John Connell is also a book to consider over this one. In sum, while there is nothing very wrong with this book, there are just much better books.

(Question to O'Reilly - why didn't you just port Liberty's book from C# to VB NET. It would have made a better book than this one and would have been one of the best books out there....)

Rating:
Summary: Great Comprehensive Book
Review: While this book does contain a little bit for everybody, it's not presented as well as in some other books. Some great explanations and examples, but most are at a very introductory level.

The chapter on ASP.NET is well organized, and everyone interested in using ASP.NET will learn something. There is a great section on data validation and a clear explanation on how to use the Application, Session, and Cookie objects. ASP developers should have little trouble ramping up to ASP.NET quickly. Be aware that the coverage of ADO.NET is sketchy at best.

All in all, Programming Visual Basic .NET is a good book. Not the best book you'll ever read on the subject, but a good beginning level book. If you've every had any experience with Visual Basic or ASP, most of the examples will be very easy to pick up on. However, you'll want to pick up at least one additional book to cover some of the gaps left by this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good book...not great
Review: While this book does contain a little bit for everybody, it's not presented as well as in some other books. Some great explanations and examples, but most are at a very introductory level.

The chapter on ASP.NET is well organized, and everyone interested in using ASP.NET will learn something. There is a great section on data validation and a clear explanation on how to use the Application, Session, and Cookie objects. ASP developers should have little trouble ramping up to ASP.NET quickly. Be aware that the coverage of ADO.NET is sketchy at best.

All in all, Programming Visual Basic .NET is a good book. Not the best book you'll ever read on the subject, but a good beginning level book. If you've every had any experience with Visual Basic or ASP, most of the examples will be very easy to pick up on. However, you'll want to pick up at least one additional book to cover some of the gaps left by this book.