Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Way To Learn!
Review: This was my second book by John Smiley; I bought "Learn To Program Visual Basic 6 Examples" first, and even though I already had other VB books, I was so enthralled that I immediatly bought all 3 of his other books. John Smiley uses a 'virtual' classroom to teach VB, and in the process uses a conversational approach to reinforce the concepts that he is teaching. After having already read other beginner books on VB, this book was just a review of much of what I had already learned. But, the reason for my 5 stars was in the way that the conversational method reinforced what I 'thought' I already knew! It makes you feel as if you are sitting in a real classroom and learning by answering the questions of your classmates who don't understand the material as well as yourself. A VERY entertaining book and worthwhile even for experienced programmers.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book for newbies
Review: Well, I will be just concise cause many people has said my thoughts about this book right perfectly. The only thing I will say is that if youre a newbie in Visual Basic, then you should read this book. John Smiley's way of teaching the subject is just funny and at same time very original, and never forgoting you can LEARN alot with him.I love these books P.S. Im sorry cause my English isnt as good as I would like
Rating:
Summary: An excellent piece of work
Review: I've finished reading this book, and I'm thinking the same things I read on these reviews. It's so clear and easy to follow. I'm getting the rest of the books Prof. Smiley wrote, because I'm sure they're just as excellent as this is. Hope you take my advice!
Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: My title for this review says it all; this book is the "Real Deal" for anyone new to programming, as are all John Smiley's books in the "Learn to Program" series. I have read lots of computer related books over the years, but in terms of thought preparation by an author, this one is without peer. Not a single time throughout the book does this author seem to forget who his target audience is - beginning programmers. Absolutely NO assumptions are made concerning the reader's knowledge of coding, nor any other facet of computer program development. If you have ever considered a career change into the field of programming and I.T., but felt you never knew where to start, START HERE - DEFINITELY START HERE. Before I make my final statement, let me say that I have no vested interest of any kind in promoting John Smiley's books, nor those of his publisher. I had not even heard of either until I bought "Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6". I now look for the latest "Learn to Program" title each time I am at Amazon's site. Oh, that final statement: If you TRULY want into the field of computer programming but have always felt you were completely outside your element even thinking about it, John Smiley's books will change your life. They did mine.
Rating:
Summary: ANYBODY Can Learn To Program...
Review: Anybody can learn to program with this book! Clear, easy reading, complete details, and a new (to me anyway) approach to a programming book, actually make it fun. Some may feel that the format (a mythical college class) is a bit hokey( I did at first) but it's a lot easier to read and understand than any other programming "how to" book I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: It will empower you
Review: I bought this book even though I have been writing programs for over 10 years. I had no formal training and although my programs always get the job done, I was never really sure if I was doing the best I could do. So I read this book for the insight it gives into the process more than anything else. It was well worth the price to me. Starts at the basics and builds from there. A truly great book from a gifted teacher.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book from an excellent author
Review: I've written software professionally for over 25 years, in any one of 2 dozen languages, but never wrote a Windows application. All my code was for mainframes, network servers and DOS. After unsuccesfully trying to figure out MFC as it relates to C++, I figured I'd give Visual Basic a try to get me accustomed to the Windows programming environment and jargon. I purchased 7 books on VB at one time, intending to go thru each one to pick out the gems of knowledge. This book was the first I touched, and it is THE best programming tutorial I've ever read regardless of topic. Mr Smiley has one element of his style that is sorely lacking in most computer books. He anticipates the questions that arise as you read the text, and within a few sentences of when the question popped into your mind he invariably addresses it. This anticipatory nature of the text eliminates that deserted no where to turn feeling you get with most authors. Clearly, he is able to do this because he's heard the most obvious questions hundreds of times in his classroom. Good judgement on his part included those obvious questions and their answers as a routine part of the text. The conversational style of the writing is a bit odd at first, but after a while you just feel like you're the third person listening in on a conversation between a very apt teacher and his students. If Mr Smiley creates a series for Microsoft's Visual C environment, I'd buy it simply because he'd save me lots of time in understanding the IDE. This is an excellent book from an excellent author.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book! It has helped me immeasurably in my career.
Review: This is the only VB book I've read that seems like the author really cared whether I learned the information. It attempts, and suceeded with me, to teach the reader the whole process of creating and deploying software. If you haven't ever done any programming at all, this is the book to buy. If you're like me, and have tried to learn programming from other books before and failed, this is the book to buy.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Approach to the Book!
Review: Other Authors who write learning programming books should really take a look at John Smiley's approach in book writing. He really makes you feel like you're right in his class room. I've learned a lot from this book and I look forward to learning from the other books he offers.
Rating:
Summary: One in a million
Review: As a newcomer to visual basic, I had searched high and low and all around the town, to find the perfect beginner programming book in visual basic.I figured there was no such thing, every book I browsed through seemed to be too technical,with no flow or direction and a need to have a fully functioning professional version to be able to do the excercises in the book. I was about to give up on learning visual basic, because I could not afford to buy a fully functioning version of visual basic. And then I picked up John Smiley's book, Learn to program with visual basic 6, well eureka! this is exactly what I'm looking for.It is a well written book for the beginner, well structured,with a flow that eases you into the fundamentals of programming. Best of all you learn to program with a real world situation,designing and coding a project for a real client.John Smiley knows how to teach the subject of programming.What I also liked about the book is that it comes with a working model of visual basic 6,everything you need to learn programming right away.I liked the book so much that I went out and purchased Learn to program with databases, and also Learn to program with objects.I would recommend John Smiley's books to anyone wanting to learn to program visual basic the sensible way.
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