PRObooks
Pro VB 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform
Visual Basic 2005 is a powerful programming language. In order to explore its core features you need good reference material. Pro VB 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform by Andrew Troelsen provides comprehensive coverage about the language, starting with the fundamentals.
The book is divided into seven parts, consisting of 28 chapters of high-level technical content. Troelsen kicks off the book with a detailed outline covering the evolution of the .NET Framework and its various fundamental concepts, such as Assemblies, Common Type System, Common Language Specification, and IL Disassembler. The final chapter in Part 1 explores the installation of the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK and building VB 2005 applications using various tools and editors, such as TextPad, SharpDevelop, Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, and Visual Studio 2005. Troelsen also provides brief coverage of the various elements of the Visual Studio IDE, including a reference about some of the other tools available for developing Visual Basic 2005 applications.
Part 2 provides detailed coverage about the various VB 2005 programming concepts, such as strings, flow control, iteration constructs, sub routines, functions, method overloading, arrays, and enumeration. Part 3 examines the core OOP techniques such as encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism, exception handling, garbage collection, and finalization. Part 4 deals with such advanced techniques as interfaces, collections, callback interfaces, delegates, events, boxing, unboxing, operator overloading, generics, and nullable DataTypes.
Part 5 examines some of the advanced concepts associated with .NET assemblies. The part begins with a basic introduction and then delves deep into reflection, late binding, attributes, processes, app domains, contexts, and CLR hosts. Troelsen wraps up this section by providing a comprehensive explanation about multithreading and .NET interoperability.
Part 6 begins with a chapter devoted to the System.IO namespace, with detailed coverage about each class and method associated with the namespace. The author then explores object serialization, .NET Remoting layers, development of Windows Forms, and GDI+ Applications. This part ends with nice coverage of the various controls included with the System.Windows.Forms namespace and an excellent overview of ADO.NET. The author also examines accessing databases with ADO.NET. I would like to have seen Troelsen include a demo Windows Forms project to illustrate the various concepts associated with the manipulation of a database.
The final part of the book examines the development of ASP.NET 2.0 applications and Web services. Troelsen needs to be complimented as he provides elaborate coverage about the various Web controls, themes, master pages, and state management techniques. The source code for all the chapters can be downloaded from the publisher s Web site (http://www.apress.com/book/supplementDownload.html?bID=10040&sID=3463). Moreover, you can also download a sample chapter from this site.
From my point of view, chapters in Parts 5 and 6 should be rearranged. I felt some of the chapters in Part 6 should be moved to the beginning of the book; Troelsen should cover advanced topics at the end of the book. Currently, advanced-level chapters are outlined in the beginning of the book, which may create confusion among beginners. It would be great if the author had provided a sample project using all the features of VB 2005 discussed on the book so that developers could get real-world experience, rather than simply going through some console-based applications, as discussed in the book.
Troelsen s writing style is lucid, and each chapter includes detailed explanations about each concept with complete source code and relevant comments and screenshots. Troelsen includes a list of important methods and properties in each chapter, which is sure to help any reader grasp the content more easily. Each chapter concludes with a short summary.
I would not recommend this book for beginners, as it contains lots of advanced topics which will confuse a novice programmer. The book will be highly useful for Intermediate and Advanced developers as the author has explained all the advanced concepts associated with VB 2005 programming.
Anand Narayanaswamy
Rating:
Title: Pro VB 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform
Author: Andrew Troelsen
Publisher: Apress
ISBN: 1-59059-578-5
Web Site: http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10040
Price: US$59.99
Page Count: 1,088
