Rating: 
Summary: User needs to get used to the format
Review: The book is truly basic beginning with common computer information that many users may skip. I found the book to be easy to deal with since it went slowly from one topic to the other. But I must admit that having to read it like a novel, with "Laura said" and "David asked" and to review what would be a classroom dialogue, was frustrating. I much prefer the style where a topic is introduced and information available in other than question-and-answer fashion. This aspect made the book a bit harder to follow, but it may be simply my preference.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6
Review: I found this book to be a refreshing and welcome change to the boredom encountered with most text books (in general). The book is not cluttered with unnecessary information like the "history" of programing. I later decided to take a college level class in VB6, and this book put me ahead of the class. Learn to Program with VB6 is a lot better than the text used in the class.
Rating: 
Summary: Grossly Padded
Review: It is not that the author doesn't know his subject -- the trouble with this book is that fouyr-fifths is padding. There are unbelievable questions from imaginary students, internal thinking of the teacher, and endless dopey conversations. All of the padding is no help, and blows the book up to 774 pages from a useful 150. The claim is that the book is for absolute beginners, but unless your idea is beginning by reading conversations that never did and never will take place, buy something shorter and better.
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Summary: Visual Basic made easy!
Review: I'd previously tried to learn Visual Basic from another book and stalled as it got too technical for a beginner. This book was fantastic as it allowed me to be a "fly on the wall" during a university class and learn as the students learned. The easy-going style of the book, recording both teacher and student comments as they interacted, made it so easy to assimilate the new information. Many of the questions the students asked in the book were the same ones I had as I worked through the projects. I highly recommend this book if you are wanting to enter the world of Visual Basic. I've subsequently added all of John Smiley's books to my now growing VB library.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book! A Must Buy!
Review: I really did not like all the classroom talk of the book and to me it was a waste of reading. That's the only reason I give it 4 star and not 5 star. But despite this I have found this to be a excellent book to learn VB6. I understood everything the author was saying and the content is superb. You will need more than a couple of books to learn Visual Basic 6 - just make sure this book is one of them. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I found this book to be an exceptional value. I went through two other books before settling on this one as the starting point for my visual basic education. I chose it because it takes a very methodical and systematic approach to programming and VB itself. You don't even write any code until somewhere around chapter 8. It is very comprehensive, and provides a solid foundation for the aspiring application programmer. I would have given this book a five star rating, but I have one bit of constructive criticism for professor Smiley. In the book, he takes the class through the building of a real world application, called the china shop project. However useful this is as a learning tool, it would have been much nicer for the student if the project that the student completed was a useful learning tool *and* a useful, unique piece of software that the student could take pride in being able to utilize after the book has been completed. Other than that, I heartily recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Learn to Program - VB6
Review: I used this title as a textbook with some of my students who had decided to take the plunge into programming; they were all absolute beginners. None of them had any trouble following the actual content, as it had been clearly devised with beginners in mind. Many of the students were champing at the bit to write code, and were less than interested in the early chapters - this, I must point out is a fault of the students, not the book. The actual project covered in the book was interesting, and the majority of students got into the event in a way satisfying to me as a teacher. The presentation (or narrative style of the presentation, to be more accurate) was either liked or loathed by the students in about equal measure. Clearly this title was not devised as a textbook, and as a consequence it has some flaws. Two of my major quibbles would be a lack of clear definitions for programming terms and commands, and (more seriously, from a teaching standpoint) a real lack of practice exercises and spot tests. On the plus side, it has some excellent insights into program conception and design, for those who take the trouble to peruse the early chapters. Also, the actual project covered in the book is meaty, and gave a sense of real satisfaction to the students on completion. The style might not be to everyone's taste, but the book more or less achieves everything it sets out to do. Rating: - 8/10 Martin Hamill
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: I have read many books in the IT field. I have programmed in the past. VB is a new language for me. By far this is the best book I have read to date. Detailed explanations made the book an easy and quick read. I went through 700 pages over a weekend. This is without a doubt a fantastic read. Worth every penny!
Rating:
Summary: Learn to Program really works
Review: MORE USEFUL THAN A BEGINNERS COURSE: I have taken a Visual Basic Course, but did not learn as much as I did using this book. This book is a step by step plan to walk you through a course with an intructor. The author also intersperses comments of other "classmates" throughout the book so you have in a sense some of your questions answered in a bit more detail than if you were reading a purely technical book. This book is pretty basic, so some of the questions are. LIMITED TOPICS BUT HAS YOU DOING THE WORK TOO: It covers a limited amount of topics, but gives you a comfortable feeling of how to start to program. To ge the best use out of the book you should do the exercises as they are assigned. You will definitely get your moneys worth. NOT GOOD AS A REFERENCE BOOK: I would not recommend it as a reference book, but as one worth going through cover to cover. I did and have now many programs under my belt. Going back to this book with a question not pertaining to the lessons will not be useful, unless it is identical in format. MORE BOOKS LIKE THIS AT A HIGHER LEVEL: I have bought two more of his books because of this one on more complex topics. I haven't gone through them in detail yet, but I plan to. He has a nice style and you can backtrack easily and not lose too much ground if you have set the book aside for awhile. A comfortable learning experience
Rating:
Summary: The best I've read.
Review: I've worked in an IBM Mainframe COBOL enviornment for 10+ years. I've tried several books to try and get a handle on PC programming, with not much luck, since that's the way the worlds gone. I saw the author on ZDTV and decided to try it, as he was "impressive" with how clear he was. Best darn computer book I've EVER bought. By chapter 2 I had an idea how to tie what I already know from the COBOL/CICS world into the PC Windows world. If you are starting, the requirements gathering he goes over is a must read. I'm still working through the book, but in a week and 1/2, an hour at a time, actually programming in Visual Basic. When I'm done with this book, I plan to start buying the others in the series. GREAT JOB!. I've had it on my desk at work and at least 3 others in my group of 9 have, or plan to, buy it. It's that good!
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