Coding Techniques for Microsoft(r) Visual Basic(r) .NET

This unique title, written by an award winning Visual Basic author, goes beyond simply using academic snippets of code to demonstrate a point or language construct to teach Visual Basic.Net. Mr. Connell feels that the best and quickest way to learn Visual Basic.Net is to build fully functional programs that use several dimensions of the language and explain how they interact in real programs. Designed for the beginning, self-taught, or even experienced programmers who are switching to Microsoft Visual Basic.Net from other languages, this book provides insights on the innovative Visual Basic.Net language, it's integrated development environment (IDE), increased support for XML, and new functionality such as the disconnected ADO.NET, ASP.NET and the new Web Services. If you wish to quickly learn Visual Basic.Net in a clear and concise way, this book will certainly fulfill that goal.

User review
Bridging the Gap
This is the book that bridges the gap between abstract concepts and practical application. There's the parable that says 'if you give me a fish I eat for the day, teach me how to fish and I can eat for a lifetime.'

Similarly, 'show me some code and I can copy it or show me how to apply the information in the .net Framework and I can figure out how to code it myself.` If I were going to write a book about how to write VB code for .net this would be it.

I'm amazed that it was written in 2002 and it is still relevant. Way to go John Connell.

User review
For vb programmer beginner with lot of money to spend
Le titre de ce livre ne convient tout simplement pas. En achetant ce livre, je m'attendais à ce que le contenu soit avancé. Habituellement, lorsque l'on est rendu au point d'apprendre des techniques de codage, on a pas besoin de savoir ce qu'un integer ou d'avoir un exemple de programmation orientée objet avec une classe de 1 méthode et 2 propriétés. Enfin bref, un autre livre sur lequel on peut dire qu'on apprends rien d'autre que des petits trucs simple et faciles à trouver sur Internet gratuitement. En plus, le livre coûte bien trops cher. Je ne pouvais pas mettre 0/5 alors je me suis contenté de mettre 1 étoile.

User review
too bad it's out of print
As a VB programmer who has struggled in the past with OOP, this book was written for me. It's one of the most readable technical books I've had, and explains the OOP approach without talking down to you or using contrived examples. Now I'm really fired up about switching to .NET!
This book is an overview, not a reference, but the way it is written allows you to really think through how programs should be written in .NET

User review
Yassine
The Book is good, give a good intro to vb.net but those interested more in the language should dig deeper Msdn, Blogs, Compiler Spec, etc.
There is one thing though I disliked and hope it will be taken care of by Mspress, the problem is the Code Samples that obviously requires correction and shoulb be taken care of Asap.
I am aware of the Kb article published on Microsoft site, still not enough.
Other than that, great book and you can clearly sense from John's writing that he is a teacher and a good one as well.

Hope this review would help one or more Vb Developer and that my message passed as well to the right Folks

Yassine
Regards

User review
Your Second .net Book
One of the trivial but irritating problems with this book is that the author and the publisher seem to be unclear about who the target audience for this book is.The back of the book says that 'whether you are a beginner or a self taught programmer,a professional looking for a refresher n coding techniques ,or a programmer coming from another language ,this is the VB book for you.'Now in the second para of the book's introduction the author says that 'This book was written for visual basic programmers by a visual basic programmer'.

Though the title of the book suggests that the book is meant for atleast intermediate programmer's in VB rather than a beginner the author at some places seem to be targeting a complete beginner.His explanation about why one should use a property procedure instead of a variable to prevent invalid values for classes seems to be absurd.Propety procedure are a very much part of VB6 and I am sure that no programmer moving on to .net from VB6 needs any explanation about the benfits of using property procedures over private variables.

Overall I would still recommend this book simply becoz it's a good one.Some of the topics covered ar quite advanced and will cater to people who have finished reading books like Programming MS Visual basic.net by Francesco Balena.
This book essentially should be your second book on Visual basic.net , the one you should read after say the Balena Book