Rating:  - Best book on VB.NET
I have read through a few best selling VB.NET books and I believe this is the best book on the topic. The best part about this book is that it does not give the rehashed technical manual feeling that most other books would give you. Instead, you can tell the author had been planning to write this book for a while and he added many fine details about VB.NET and Framework which might have been puzzling you. However this book only comvers the core topics and there are some other fine details which are missed, so I recommend you reading together with Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer). That book gives you the rehashed feeling, though.
Rating: - Very Good Reference
If you are looking for a beginners book then go elsewhere. If you are looking for a very well written reference on the more advanced features of VB then this is your book. It covers all advanced aspects very well and has lots of sample code to assist you in your development efforts.
As a very experienced VC++ and STL developer switching to VB, I needed a reference on how to code my ideas in VB2005. This book was the best investment of the 5 books I have purchased on the system.
Rating:  - VB 6 TO VB 2005 With Ease
I found this to be the best source I've read that reveals the code changes from VB 6 to 2005. The code samples explain in detail how to easily accomplish tasks in VB 2005.
Rating:  - What it covers it covers well
This book is outstanding for what it covers. It's a great reference for some core topics, as well as for techniques most programmers may never use, but just might. If you ever happen to need to use reflection or multithreading, for example, look no further than this book for a thorough explanation.
The author's style is elegant, though at times a bit too concise. Many sections I had to read over three or four times to really understand the material (e.g., the chapter on regular expressions). On the plus side, there were remarkably few typos, and practically all the code samples worked. The book clearly was written in an admirably painstaking, workmanlike fashion one could only wish for in a great many technical tomes.
The presentation was dry, typical of a "reference" work. It is better suited to looking up what you need for a particular project, rather than for reading cover to cover. I did read it cover to cover, however, because the book is practically a blueprint for the MCTS exam. I had to keep waking myself up to get through the advanced topics.
The main problem with this book is what it *doesn't* cover. As others have noted, there is nothing on ADO.NET nor ASP.NET. In addition there is nothing on XML, nothing on Windows forms and their component controls; I could go on. My point is, how can this be a core reference? Sure, you can get coverage of these topics in other books, but what if your budget is limited to one book? It would be nice if a "core" reference had at least some coverage of every core topic.
I intended to give this book 4 stars, but Amazon wouldn't let me edit my original selection of 3.
Rating: - Delivers on its Promise
Why is this is an excellent book?
I always agonise about choosing similar books and end up with a few with the same coverages. To rate a books worth, I often go by where a books is on my bookshelf, those now with in arms reach when at the PC; this is one of them.
It cover lots of other VS2005 features which gets the most of you a developer - not unlike having an experinced mentor by your side.
The only down side is that I bought this book at full price($60) at the store where I should have got it on here in the second hand section :)
|
