Skip navigation

Beginning VB.NET 2003

PRObooks

 

Beginning VB.NET 2003

Many developers were shocked when Wrox publishing went out of business because of financial setbacks. They were deeply concerned that few, if any, other publishers would be able to fill the void. The smart people at Wiley Publishing realized the tremendous brand value of the Wrox name, and more importantly they recognized the talented collection of authors that Wrox had brought to the market. As such, Wrox was reborn as a Wiley imprint and developers everywhere, especially those making a living using Microsoft s technologies, can again rely on the straightforward approach and uncomplicated page layout that made Wrox titles so popular and easy on the eyes.

 

Beginning VB.NET 2003 is an update to the Beginning VB.NET series. Since the original edition was released in October 2001, the book has gone through a second revision based on reader and reviewer feedback, culminating in this, the most polished release to date. Although the 2003 refresh is missing the writing contributions of Matt Reynolds, it still succeeds at delivering a solid, easy read for people new to the art of computer programming. Sadly, contributing author, VB.NET expert Richard Blair, lost his battle against cancer in December 2003, and future editions will surely lack his passion for introducing new coders to the joy of programming.

 

The level of this book is at the lowest rung of the learning how to program ladder. The authors use VB.NET s syntax to teach the basics, which makes it a good book to share with Computer Science 101 students learning to program for the first time within the managed code boundaries of the .NET Framework.

 

The first third of the book features the obligatory orientation to the Visual Studio.NET 2003 IDE, followed by the fundamentals of GUI programming: flow control, data structures, creating a window, dialog boxes, menus, debugging and error handling. Midway through, readers are catapulted into the world of object-oriented programming, building class libraries, custom controls, and graphics. A meager two chapters briefly discuss interacting with databases via SQL Server and ADO.NET. These are by far the weakest chapters in the book.

 

Chapters on Web forms, Web server controls, XML, and Web services follow, and the book concludes with application deployment and building mobile applications using the .NET Compact Framework. Although brief, the last chapter is particularly useful for Windows mobile device users. This chapter serves to reinforce the power and development simplicity of .NET beyond the desktop. It also leaves readers with a small, yet practical, Web-enabled starter application to build upon.

 

Although segments of the book have been updated to reflect the changes between the VS.NET and VS.NET 2003 IDEs, little more has changed between editions. What this book really serves Wiley with is a way to redistribute some excellent work that, because of Wrox s situation, was hard to find. Readers of prior editions won t have much incentive to purchase this 2003 update, but newcomers to programming via the .NET roadway will find this educational text an easy read that will satisfy their key learning objectives.

 

Mike Riley

 

Rating:

Title: Beginning VB.NET 2003

Authors: Thearon Willis, Jonathan Crossland, and Richard Blair

Publisher: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

ISBN: 0-7645-5658-4

Book Web Site: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0764556584.html

Price: US$39.95

Page Count: 840 pages

 

 

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish