Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Eazy to understand and fun to read.Perfect for people who want to learn programming. I would recommend this book to everybody.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of Beginner's Programming Books
Review: Finally - somebody gets it right!!! This is a WONDERFUL, SPLENDID book - it really truly sincerely assumes you know nothing about programming. The writer must be a master teacher as he uses truckloads of *terrific analogies* to get his points across. The analogy/description on arrays, for example, using an analogy based on floors in a hotel, is the finest and clearest I have ever read on the subject. There is much else that is *so right* about this book, setting a shining standard which others should follow of what a programming tutorial/instruction book should be, but so few have, given the majority of badly written and ghastly, confusing disorganized drek out there. Five stars is too modest a rating for such a great book - why not six, seven...ten, for accuracy's sake? May the publisher prosper greatly and continue to bring out many more titles like this and meet the same high standards for TEACHING content, not just lecturing it, as most books and many alleged teachers, unfortunately, do. This author really *works* at teaching programming using VB, a hard job when done right, but such effort on the author's part makes things all the *easier* for enabling the student to learn *and* retain what they learn. Would love to see such a book put into a hypertexted, multimedia instruction module, distributed on a CD-ROM. It would be well worth the extra cost!

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book written in a brilliand and perfect style!
Review: After stumbling in the pitch-black darkness of novice VB Programming and going through what seemed like an endless cycle of buying VB Programming books, and returning them, I finally found a beacon to guide me out of the madness - John Smiley's book answered so many of the questions to which I couldn't find answers in any other books. His book reads with such ease, his logic is very simple to understand and his style flows from the text to amazingly lucent examples and back to text. The whole book interleaves within itself and it left me feeling on top of the world, because I finally understood so much about VB!

Rating:
Summary: He really can teach you how to program!
Review: Professor Smiley lives up to his boast that he can teach anyone to program. So many books teach language syntax and assume you know what programming entails; this one assumes you know nothing about programming or Visual Basic, starts with a life-like business need and shows step-by-step how to analyze requirements, design, code and test the program. Imagine the nerve of including SDLC in a beginning book. All in all, if you're going to Learn to Program, learn how to do it right! John Smiley did it right in this book. By the way, this book is a great refresher for experienced programmers and teachers of programming alike. It's fun reading, too!

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: Having decided to learn VB6 I did what many people would do. I went out & purchased VB6 Learning Edition software from Microsoft & flogged my way through the tutorial. At the end of this process I felt that I had learned something, but what? I certainly didn't feel that I could work as a programmer! So I then went out & purchased the Dummies book with the same result. So I then purchased Learn VB6 in 21 days which also didn't solve the problem. Ready to give up I had one last go with John Smiley's book, you get a working edition of VB6 software & his easy going Classroom approach really works. I can't wait for the sequel because I am missing my class mates already! I have wasted a lot of money to get this far.

Rating:
Summary: this book is excellent
Review: This book is really different than the other books that I red about programming. The book covers about SDLC which is the six phases of programming. Also the books teach you how to program from the ground up with no programming exprerience on your part. I really recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good for learning VB, but not for learning about programming
Review: If you are a busy person, you work a lot with programmers and you need a general understanding of programming, this is not the book for you.
If you have time on your hands, and you want to learn VB, this could be the book for you.
After I bought this book I realised I was fooled by the title. It should be called 'Programming in Visual Basic for beginners'. The point of this book is to teach you to program in VB6, not to teach you the basics of programming using VB as an example language. While I can understand that the verbose classroom approach may appeal to some, I found it patronising and time wasting. I eventually bought 'Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours' by Greg Perry which gives a concise summary of programming basics, an overview of the most common languages, and exercises to drive home the lessons. Exactly what I was after.

Rating:
Summary: A must have!
Review: I'm a hobbyist, not an IT professional, and have been programming in BASIC since I bought my first PC in the 70's. When I decided to tackle Visual Basic to write programs for Windows, I purchased five "how-to" books on the subject. Unfortunately for me, John Smiley's book was the last one I bought. If I had ordered "Learn to Program" first, I could have saved more than $100. This is a clear, concise, and sure-fire way for the beginner or experienced BASIC programmer to transition to the powerful yet simple language of Visual Basic. John Smiley's book easily allows the reader to understand the concepts of event driven programming and the differences from procedural driven programming. Consider it a "must have" for the novice with little or no programming experience.

Rating:
Summary: Learn to Program Visual Basic Database
Review: After reading this book. I was able to make some changes to a tardytrakeing system we have at school. The Best Part about this book is Mr. John Smiley makes it very easy to understand, even if you have very little knowledge of access and visual basic.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent source for the beginning VB programmer
Review: As a former student of Professor Smiley, I have read his book. I find that it is typical of his books. In this book, he presents examples and projects that are laced with his great teaching style and humor. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to become a programmer in Visual Basic 6.0. Since being a student of Professor Smiley, I've gone on to owning my own software company. Do yourself a favor and read this book. You won't be sorry! It is excellent! Thank you Professor Smiley!