Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6

Rating:
Summary: good
Review: it is a really good book.i started out knowing nothing but now i can write some pretty good applications in vb.not indepth though

Rating:
Summary: The Absolute Best - FOR A NOVICE
Review: This book is NOT for everyone. If you're accustomed to learning at a fast pace, or are looking for a quick reference treatise, there are other titles far better suited to your style and needs. However, if you're new to Visual Basic and Event-Driven Programming, have the time and want to develop a solid foundation at a leisurely pace, not only for VB6 but a logical, step-by-step approach to program design as well, you'll not find a better resource short of an actual classroom - assuming you could find an instructor as good as Penn State's Professor Smiley.

For me, having over two decades of experience with DOS based programming (Quick Basic and Professional Development System apps) it was, until I began reading this book, a real struggle to get into the Visual Basic mind set. As crazy as it sounds, the question "Where to begin?", in my transition to this new way of programming, had been not been answered - UNTIL I began to read "Learn To Program with Visual Basic 6".

Yes, Professor Smiley's writing style ("He said", "I said", etc.) seems quite strange at first ands tends to be initially distracting. But once you get "into it", you'll find yourself feeling as though you're sitting right there in a friendly and casual classroom with one of the best instructors around at your side. I also believe there was a "method to his madness" in choosing this (perhaps unorthodox) writing style. By "stretching" things out a bit, he allows you, the student, to absorb the material being presented more fully before moving on.

In this book, as well, you'll build a "real world" application from the ground up, including everything from intially meeting the client to program design, coding, testing and final delivery to the client. Compare THAT with the traditional one liner: "Hello World" program and code snipets found in most other books.

Bottom line? If you're new to programming for Windows and want to go the Visual Basic route or are trying to transition from "Procedural-Based" to "Event-Based" programming, you won't be disappointed - THIS book is a WINNER! FIVE Stars to Prof. Smiley and "Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6".

Rating:
Summary: True Beginner's Book-Author has Disconcerting Writing Style
Review: This book is truely for a beginner. If you have any sort of programming experience, this book is not for you. I have some experience with VBA and was looking to cross over, this was not the book for me.

The author provides a solid background for basic programming techniques, such as loops, do..while, variables, constants, etc.

The author's writing style becomes very disconcerting as it is written with full quotations of what he "said" to his class, and their answers. For example the author might write: As I walked into class, I asked the them, "How was your day, class?" and they replied "Good, John!"

For a tutorial style book, these becomes very tough to deal with. I felt like I was reading a transcript from a court case.

Suggestion to author: Don't write in this style! I'm suprised your editor allowed you to proceed with this.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I highly recommend this book, as it was really the first book to sit you down, and really think like a programmer. Most other books I've purchased, start you off with a "Hello World" program, while nice, doesn't really give you anything other then your first VB program. Mr.Smiley's book really sits you down, and teaches you what methods and steps one goes through as a programmer.

A great book, and I give it my highest recommendation!

Rating:
Summary: Good for first timers
Review: This book will be useful only to a person that has never used VisualBasic before. The book is good in the sence that is intended to the beginners and explain all the basic features of visual basic to create windows applications.

Rating:
Summary: WAY TOO EASY
Review: I bought this book because of the high rating, but it is REALLY INTENDED for REAL beginners, those without ANY programming experience. If you have a good porgramming logic already, this book is a WASTE. It doesn't even cover arrays until some 200 pages into the book. Too easy for any engineer trained w/ programming experience.

Rating:
Summary: Student
Review: Very good book for someone who has never programmed. If you have taken courses before, start higher up the latter. The author did not mean this for you. He has other other books more fit for you, but if you're just starting, this is a good one. The disk has programs from the book and a limited copy of Visual Basic. I think the only difference is that it does not have a Help file. That is what you have the book for. Good luck.

Rating:
Summary: A great book to teach visual basic to anyone.
Review: i am a 15 year old, and i finished this book in, oh about 2 weeks 1 day. very easy reading, was never hard, and best of all even if u did have a question, right then and there in the book it would be answered. he wrights with a personality, a good 1, not some stuck up college professor that just ploops all the information at u, this book is what i would Totally recomend you buy, hey,,, 20$,,, ^_^ to anyone with out even knowlege of programming, although a understanding of how to navigate around the computer would help <its not required. i did have a problem with the free cd though, it was missing a comdlg32 file, but i downloaded it off microsoft's website, added the file, and everything went fine. <happy reading.

Rating:
Summary: Too wordy!
Review: It's a horrible book! I can't tell you how many times I read the words "after the students got back from their break" and other useless words. It's poorly organized. You have to re-read chapter after chapter if you want to refer back to a subject. There are much better books - I just ordered Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Step-By-Step and Visual Basic 6 Unleashed, Professional Reference Edition.

Rating:
Summary: Never Seen a Visual Basic Book with so many reviews
Review: I don't know how come this book got 250 reviews. I never seen any VB book with so many reviews. I think the Writer must have hired few people to write all the reviews. I also bought this book, but I think its more like a 4th grade book. It will definitely not make you a good programmer.If you buying it for your son in high school, its a good start, but If you want to become a programmer there are better books. Choice is yours.