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Summary: Great tutorial
Review: I love this book! That about covers it. It takes you through the process of creating a program and it is layed out like in a classroom setting. He never assumes you know anything. Having some background in programming helped me, but it is definitely not needed. John Smiley covers it from the beginning to the executable. Starting a new job in VB programming, I was kind of weary of what it would be like so I bought this book. I feel much better about taking on this new job. I look forward to getting the next few books in the series to further develop my skills in VB.
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Summary: Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6
Review: This book is very good for Absolute Beginners....step by step information.....and you can enjoy reading this book....written in easy English. Well done Prof Smiley
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Summary: Good Job! Excellent VB Book
Review: This is a book any person that wants a good foundation in VB must buy. I bought the book less than two weeks ago and i have learnt a lot from it. I took a VB class but at the end of the class, i had no idea about what have learnt. I searched for VB books on the internet and came across this book, read the reviews and went ahead to get a copy. This is truly an Excellent book to start off with VB. It explains everything in details. Working with the class has been fun with the questions Mr. Smiley's students have on almost every topic. It is a great book. Working with the China project helps in understanding the material better, since it is an opportunity to code a real life project using VB 6. I am going ahead to order all of his books. Thank you Mr. John Smiley. I wish i can participate in your bootcamp on VB6 only if i have found your books before now. Great Job. Keep it up!
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Summary: Hats off to John Smiley
Review: I had absolutely no programming experience prior to my purchase of this book. That is no experience in any programming language. I am finishing up the book now and can't wait to move on to the next John Smiley book. He teaches in such a way that even someone like myself with absolutely no programming experience can learn and enjoy programming in Visual Basic. I would suggest to anyone starting out to buy this book. It is written in plain, clear terms that anyone can understand. I wish there were more books out there with this clarity.
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Summary: Excellent Beginner's Book
Review: I found John Smiley's book to be an excellent beginning book to get me on the road to programming. The book was easy to read and very entertaining. It was difficult to put down. In fact, I completed the book in about two months in my spare time including all of the exercises and have already purchased John's other three Programming with VB books. The illustrations and exercises were easy to follow. I found that one of the best assets of the book was the troubleshooting (debugging) help offered throughout the book. These tips helped me find the errors in my programming very quickly. If Mr. Smiley teaches the same way that he writes, I would truly enjoy participating in his classes. Thanks very much for a great product.
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Summary: For absolute beginners, it's the best there is.
Review: For someone with virtually no programming experience, I have to say that this is the best book in its field. At last, a book that gives clear and understandable explanations of all those things that you're ashamed to have to ask or that other books assume are already known. I've now bought two other books in the series on the strength of this one.
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Summary: Learning VB6, but not just....
Review: I am not aware of any other author using Mr. Smiley's teaching technique, at least in medical textbooks. I was so impressed by it that I am not sure if I am learning VB6, or concentrating in capturing the didactic tools he uses, in order to apply them in medical teaching. It's an extraordinary approach to explain difficult subjects (that do not lack in my specialty). And of course, the "feeling" and understanding I am getting of VB6 I didn't get from any other book about the subject.
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Summary: A fun, informative, easy to follow book. Finally!
Review: I, like most newbies, have spent a lot of time in the bookstore looking for the perfect "teach me everything I need to know to start using this as soon as possible without any headaches" book. Until now, I was never able to find a book like that. John Smiley has written a book that keeps your interest for more than 10 pages, and writes in an enthusiastic, real-life, easy to understand style. I finished his book in record time, and am now using VB6 on a regular basis, with little or no difficulty. Thank you, Mr. Smiley. Please write more books on topics like ASP and SQL. Anyone who's looking for a great book on VB should purchase this book without hesitation. You won't be disappointed!
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Summary: Learn to Program with John Smiley
Review: This is a great book for the beginer. I have some VBA experience and this book should be enjoyable enough for everyone. It does not ramp you right into programing though. What it does do instead is take you step by step through the process that a real programmer goes through in the development and writing of an actual real world program for a real company. No "Hello World" here. If your are antsy then go buy something else. If you are serious then be patient and Master every aspect of the book one step at a time and know what you are doing with the in-depth explanations that precede and follow your work. I used this book as an intro to ramp myself up for the Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic Fundamentals, a Microsoft certified curiculum class and I found myself far above and beyond the understanding level of the others in my class. They were missing pieces of information that were necessary in their development as a programmer. I rate this 5 stars and have since purchased the examples book as well as the database book. Thanks John I look forward to all of the books that you will write.
Rating:
Summary: A superior approach
Review: This is a by far the best beginner programming book I have ever read. The first chapter alone is worth the price of admission. Many books discuss the theory of the software development method but none come close to explaining how to implement it in a real project. Mr. Smiley explains it step-by-step in a clear and concise manner in a language anyone can understand. The use of a story to teach Visual Basic 6 is a superior approach and keeps this book from being just another dry introduction to the world of programming. If you want to learn to program, and that includes any language, then start with this book. The fundamentals that you learn from this book can be utilized for any programming language you wish to learn in the future.
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