Rating: 
Summary: Starts Great But Doesn't Follow Through
Review: This author does a marvelous job of "teaching" Visual Basic for about the first 11 chapters. However, like so many books I have studied, they stop teaching after the first 8-10 or 12 chapters. When the book progresses to the more complex areas of VB, this author like so many others, seems to be unable to follow through with the great "teaching" method with which he began. After chapter 11 the author simply proceeds to throw a bunch of unfamiliar code at you to "study". As if to say "Hey, I'm tired of teaching this stuff. You are on your own. Here is a bunch of code, figure it out."As great as this book started out, the last half of the book was equally disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the best beginner level Visual Basic Book I've read
Review: If you looking for a good book to start learning Visual Basic 6 with - you just found one.
Rating:
Summary: The first step...
Review: I actually used this book many moons ago, but saw it on my shelf and thought id offer my thoughts. I remember when I wanted to get into VB a few years ago. Every book I got confused me even more. I thought I was stupid. I may be...but THIS book was able to get past that and give me a working knowledge of VB. Its first few examples will have you understanding properties, methods and events in their most basic forms. The book continues to do increasingly more complex examples. About halfway though the book, i pretty much felt comfortable going off on my own into more advanced topics. I refer to it every once in a while, but mostly, I gained the foundation I needed and havent needed it since. I would highly recommend this for the beginner who just doesnt know where to start. This book paired with the Visual Basic Black book from Coriolis will have you doing everything short of API calls in a couple of weeks. Happy coding. One word of advice... Be cautious with the Step by Step books from MS press. Halvorson did an excellent job with this one, but other Authors have failed miserably at other topics in the same line.
Rating:
Summary: Superb step-by-step directions.
Review: I have a modest background in programming but I wanted to get a firm foundation on the basics of VB again. I haven't seen many other books which are as clearly explained and laid out as this one. The author knows how to teach. Every example was beautifully explained and left no question about how to proceed without being overly verbose. This book covers many of the procedures I'd probably need in day to day VB coding on the job. This is definitely recommended for conscientious beginners or those looking for a carefully written refresher. All code examples are included on the CD and although there were remarkably few typos there is an errata page available on the publishers website.
Rating:
Summary: Superb step-by-step directions.
Review: I have a modest background in programming but I wanted to get a strong refresher on the basics of VB 6 again so I picked up the first edition of this book. I haven't seen many other books which are as clearly explained and laid out as this one. The author knows how to teach. Every example was beautifully explained and left no question about how to proceed without being overly verbose. This book covers most of the procedures I'd probably need in day to day VB coding on the job. This is definitely recommended for conscientious beginners or those looking for a carefully written refresher. All code examples are included on the CD and although there were remarkably few typos there is an errata page available on the publishers website.
Rating: 
Summary: Step by step beginners guide.
Review: If you are a beginner, and don't know a thing about visual basic, ths is the book you definately should read! It explains basic stuff only. So if you are more into visual basic hardcore programming, that's not the book for you. I mean this book isn't for some one who's looking for "Hello World!" or "Lucky 7" beginner programs... I recommend this book to any genious out there, that doesn't know basic VB commands or how to compile a project.
Rating:
Summary: Step by step beginners guide.
Review: This book is for beginners only!!! I would not recommend anybody that book for something more advanced that goes further than ADO. However this book is really great for beginners. Author of the book knows how to explain each step of any piece of programming that book has. If you are a beginner and don't know a thing about Visual Basic, this is the book you should read!
Rating:
Summary: A great book to get up to speed with
Review: I picked up this book to help fill in gaps in my knowledge and to go through what I had picked up in bits and pieces and learn it in a coherent fasion. This book has been great for that. The author takes the time in the early part of the book to walk you carefully through examples and let you work hands on, so that the lessons are reinforced instead of being talked to. Much of what he does builds upon the earlier lessons, so you learn something and then see it in action, with other components. The main problem I have with the book comes in the last one-third of the book, where the author moves into more advanced topics such as using Active X controls, or the Windows API, and the tone moves from collaborative teaching to more of a lecture style. The examples get more complex, but the author does less to guide you through it in a serious coherent fashion. The book also shows its age when discussing Internet topics, showing how technology has barreled on forward enhancing and changing the development environment. But in his defense, if you are heavily working with Internet technologies, you are better off now looking at Visual Basic. Net than version 6. I walked away with a lot better idea of what I was doing and how to accomplish programmatic goals. It is worth the time investment in the 24 lessons. (And don't worry about the estimated time cited on the first page of each lesson, they are all on the high end - the book moves more quickly than you expect.)
Rating:
Summary: An educational, easy-to-follow and fun book.
Review: I bought Visual Basic 6.0 Step by Step to touch up on some of the bad programming habits I've picked up over the years. I found this book to be exceptionally easy to follow and the tutorials included are fun to do. After doing the tutorials, I found myself adding features and using the programs for daily tasks on my PC. If there's anything wrong with this book, I'd have to say it's a few outdated examples, thus, when you get to the Lessons involving internet technologies, you will encounter a few problems that, with logic, can be corrected. If you are wanting to learn Visual Basic, this is a great book to get started.
Rating:
Summary: My Teacher
Review: This book was and still my best book. I was 8 years old when I bought this book, and I really didn't know ANYTHING about programming, and even computer!! But everything changed when I bought this book, everything, including my computer :). As it's name says, it takes you step-by-step, read it, from the very first page to the end. Believe me, you'll know computers and programming as never before. After that, I emailed Michael, and he really was so friendly, he did reply to me, on all my emails. He helped me,and I really do appreciate that. Now, I'm 14 years old, and I have a website (it's becoming famous), and I know how to program with Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java/J++, JavaScript, PHP and Perl. If don't know anything about programming, or computers, then buy this book, you'll be *AS PROFESSIONAL AS* Michael Halvorson (the author). Regards
--Aziz
| 
