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Summary: It is very easy to understand.
Review: It is very easy to understand. I knew nothing about visual basic. But when I read this I knew evrything a beginner could know. This is very easy to use and very helpful for reference. It is great!!!
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Summary: The one and only TRUE beginners book!
Review: This book reads like a novel. I am in the process of re-reading the book for the second time. I started a VB course at the local college this summer, and while "cruisin'the web", I saw the review of this book. I have not looked back at the purchase of this book. If you have never even seen VB then this book is for you. I will purchase the rest of Smiley's book series for the duration of school as a supplement.
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Summary: THIS IS THE GREATEST!!!
Review: I WAS SO EXCITED WHEN I FOUND THIS "BEGINNING" BOOK ON VISUAL BASIC DUE TO THE FACT THAT I KNEW I WOULD NEED A GOOD BEGINNING BOOK. IT TURNS OUT THAT I LOVE IT. MR SMILEY DOES A WONDERFUL JOB AT EXPLAINING VISUAL BASIC FOR THE NEW PROGRAMMER AND I AM SO THANKFUL AND LOOK FORWARD TO ANY OTHER BOOKS HE MAY WRITE AS I KNOW THEY WILL BE IN ENGLISH THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND AND FOLLOW
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Summary: This book rocks!!!
Review: This book is NOT boring, its not like reading a bunch of techno babble that makes no sense. He actually explains everything with real-world words and secnarios. It makes me feel like a real student in his class!!! I never thought I could ever learn how to program but this book makes it feel like learning how to ride a bike! Definitly buy this book!!
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Summary: Terrific book for beginners
Review: I highly recommend this book for any beginner. This book explains everything in great detail from data types, loops, and arrays.
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Summary: Great Book!
Review: This is a great book for beginners! Without knowing a thing about Visual Basic or programming, I am now starting to feel confident that I will soon master VB. I look forward to reading John's other books. Thanks a lot for such an excellent book!!
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Summary: Please read---this is a BEGINNERS book
Review: I just finished reading this book, and I must say it's the best beginners Visual Basic book I've ever read. I don't normally post reviews, but I hate to see a book that is universally acclaimed for its 'beginner' friendliness receive a 1 star rating because it's 'Too much of a beginners book'.The reviewer who knocked the book for being too much of a beginners book must not have read the cover which plainly reads 'for Absolute Beginners'. The Visual Basic coverage is excellent, and John Smiley's book is the only book on the market that deals with the difficult issues of Disk File Operations---something I need to use every day in work. Databases are the smart way to go when developing from scratch, but many of us are using Visual Basic to read from and write to legacy disk files that have been in use in our companies for years---and aren't going away soon. Hardly 'ancient' and 'outdated' techniques, my VB programmer cronies tell me the same techniques he teaches are equally applicable to Database operations. Furthermore, if you check John Smiley's future offerings, you'll see that his book on Visual Basic and Databases is due out in August---I've already ordered my copy, and if it's anything like this book, written in a clear, lucid and entertaining style, it will be a best seller. Concerning the CD-ROM problems that another reader suffered---the CD-ROM contains the Microsoft Working Model Edition of Visual Basic, and the fault for the installation problems are Microsoft's. I didn't install the version of Visual Basic that comes with the book, having purchased the Pro Edition of VB6. But I can tell you that ANY version of VB6 requires the installation of Internet Explorer---so if that bothers you, you should contact Bill Gates.
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Summary: Too much of a begginners book
Review: I know this book is for beginners..but come on, where is the real world knowlegde that we all need to program? This book will give you a very small foundation of which to build upon. My main problems with the book is that there are no chapters dealing with "real world" data access techniques. Instead the author shows us the ancient and outdated techniques of reading and writing to flat files. Ok..but HELLO?? Most of us beginners need to learn something about a relational type database structure and how to get data into our applications..i read this book about two months ago and then was given a project. My manager started talking about DAO,RDO and ADO and I had no clue what he was talking about. Unfortunately, what I knew about flat files was not important since my company is using access and sql server databases. I have since surveyed many fellow friends and colleagues and have found that the methods in this book are somewhat outdated. For what its worth, the book's writing style is good...but if you do pick this up..do yourself a favor and get another one that deals with data access in more realistic ways. I reccommend QUE's VB book..
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Summary: CD install caused BIG problems
Review: After reading the initial chapters, the author introduces the VB development environment. A CD is provided with the book which includes a version of VB that can be used to complete the exercises. I should have stopped when the setup program informed me that I had to install IE4 to complete the VB install. Although a checkbox is provided for the Install IE4 "option", when it's unchecked, the buttons to continue the install are disabled. What this means: if you don't agree to install IE4, you can't install VB from the CD. This being the case, I left the IE4 "option" checked and accepted the default values provided by the setup program. When the install was complete, I attempted to reboot -- and my machine (a Compaq laptop) was hosed. The message I get says it can't load IE, and I must reinstall Windows. I called the publisher's number, and to their credit I did receive a call back the following day. Their solution: reinstall Windows (hello?). It's unbelievable. First of all, what is the reason for REQUIRING a user to install, not only a product they don't want, but an OLD version of a product they don't want -- and a product which should have nothing to do with Visual Basic? I got a book on VB. That's what I wanted to learn. Instead I'm looking at serious time wasted resurrecting my PC. While the text of the book may be fine (I couldn't continue reading it after what happened), the rating here reflects my experience with the CD.
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Summary: Great For Begginner
Review: At first i didn't even know what Visual Basic was, bu after I read this book I had everything i need to start programing. The book's layout is nice, it explains everything. If you are just starting programing like I am, I suggest you read this book.
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