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Summary: No Strategies and Basic Concepts
Review: Most people like me would buy this book knowing that the Author has had some remarkable books. But unfortunately this book is not of that level. I did not see any strategies in the book since any information in the book was already known to me and if you read MSDN probably it would give you most. Moreover the beginning example of using a linked list in VB6 and then comparing it with VB.NET is absurd since how many people write linked list in VB. Additionally in concepts like threading , explanation on basics of thread seems to be too basic that I would be surprised if there are programmers who are not aware of it since the book is mentioned for experienced programmers.
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Summary: WOW !!!
Review: WOW !!! is all i can say ! well done Dan Appleman on a fantastic, fresh and interesting book. who would have thought that a developer could have a sense of humor :)As an experienced VB Developer myself, i found Dan's outlook incredible. Once again he does not simply rehash the documentation but actually shows you how to think ... Eg. he starts off the section on MultiThreading by showing you how not to do it and introduces you to some of the pitfalls of using this powerful new functionality. imagine trying to debug an error that only occurs one in 14 million executions ... hmmm WELL DONE DAN !
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Summary: Don't let this man scare you
Review: Kudos to Dan Appleman for trying something different with this book - great to see an author writing about a technology without falling into the trap of believing it's the solution to all the world's troubles. But it's a shame to see him devote so much time to trying to scare VB developers. Yes, .NET's a big change, and the inheritance and multi-threading capabilities of .NET offer VB developers something they've never seen before. But Dan seems determined to warn you off using these features at all. He commits the worst sin of logic by showing an example of the inappropriate use of inheritance (a linked list - who would ever implement a linked list through inheritance?), then concluding that since inheritance is wrong here, it is wrong everywhere else too. Dan's a competent author, but he's not got high opinions of his readers' ability to deal with change. He's afraid that VB programmers will misuse .NET's power, so he wants to scare them off trying. Go elsewhere, learn about inheritance and concurrency, and then make up your own mind about whether they're going to warp your tiny little mind, as Mr Appleman seems convinced they will.
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Summary: Shame On You Dan!
Review: With books such as "Dan's Developing Com/Activex Components With Visual Basic 6" and "Dan Appleman's Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to Win32 Api", which I already, I purchased this book on his reputation and now I feel a bit shorted. I have questions to if he even wrote the book or if he simply rubber stampped. To the defense of the book it was written on Beta 2 and hopefully they will tighten it up. But for those of you who are looking to get knowledge on .NET goto the source. Microsoft has much more detail and examples. Additionally they provide this at no cost.
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Summary: Finally figured out what was bothering me about it
Review: I found this book to be a helpful introduction to VB.Net, yet there was always something in the back of my mind that bothered me about it. I found some of the code difficult to follow. It's not because it is poorly written, but rather he tries to demonstrate way too many new concepts at once in one program. He needs to keep his examples simpler so that I don't miss some of the important new concepts.
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Summary: VB Guru did it again
Review: There is nothing to tell about Dan. He was my VB guru from the day he published that Win32 API for VB programmer book. I myself was playing/experimenting with VB.NET from beta 1 and wondering whether Dan is still my guru or not at the arrival of VB.net which is fundamentally diffrent from all previous VB. After reading this book my answer is - absolutely YES and the feeling is "guru did it again". I bought couple of books on VB.net and this one is the best beyond doubt. VB.Net is not VB 6. We need firm foundation of the microsoft mindset about the .net technology. We need clear conception about threading model, structured error handling, OOP,.net framework and how to use hundreds of system .net classes. This book covers all those aspects and more. Ofcourse this book is not for those who want to start instant programming without going deep into the underlying technology. If you really want to build a solid foundation about VB.NET this is the book.
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Summary: A book that accomplished its mission statement
Review: A book that accomplished its mission statement. Dan was true to his introduction. The book is intended for the experienced programmer and to that end Dan did a terrific job. Toward this end Dan had to make some compromises, some details were left out. I feel that Dan could have covered the last chapter and especially strong names with a little more details. Otherwise the book gets 2 thumbs up from me.
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Summary: excellent book
Review: Very well written. I don't recommend this book to someone who is new to VB or programming. Very well written and actually engrossing, as compared to the many other dry tech manuals out there. I've read other books on the .net platform (from ms press and wrox) and found this to be the best of them so far.
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Summary: VB Guru gives us his opinion - Perfect
Review: As the title suggests, this is a book for moving to VB.NET and not one to seriously assist in developing on the .NET platform today (e.g. as a reference or describing advanced techniques/tips, design patterns etc). It only helps (in a great way) VB6 developers to start thinking about the .NET platform and what needs to change in their thinking approach to developing software for the .NET platform. Obviously, if you are not a VB6 developer then look elsewhere; even if you have commercial experience with other languages (e.g. Java) then again this might not be the right book for you. Another prerequisite is to have access to the .NET documentation, as the author does not repeat what is in it and indeed some of the chapters require that you have read Microsoft's documents. The first 3 chapters (part of 'Strategies') are aimed at an audience who has never heard of .NET before. Alternatively they may be targeting an audience who has, but is waiting on Appleman's opinion on how .NET fits in the world - as opposed to the marchitectural views we find in Microsoft slides at various conferences. They make a good (if not very subjective) read. Four chapters (part of 'Concepts') follow, that are just essential reading to any VB developer. The migration from COM to .NET and multithreading are covered, as well as a view on inheritance (although more could be said on this matter). The final 4 chapters (part of 'Code') are full of must-knows and cover some of the .NET namespaces at exactly the right level, leaving the reader wanting to go write some code themselves. No doubt once development on the .NET platform has matured you will want a more advanced book, but at this moment in time Dan hits the spot.
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Summary: Concepts, Concepts ....
Review: This IS a excellent book, though there is one thing you have to keep in mind when you buy this book. Dan does not make any effort to include as many code as possible to make it a bestseller. (because programmers like code). The key goal of this book is that the book does EVERYTHING possible to make you learn VB.NET the RIGHT way, without later on running into problems that you get when you dive into a programming language without knowing the true Concept behind the language. Yes, sometimes you get a little nervous because you do need see any code in the first 3 chapters, but understand that this is the whole meaning. 'Moving to VB.NET' is a book that let's the .NET Concept 'snap into place' for you, while you are learning VB.NET very well. Knowing Code never helped any programmer, Knowing OO and the Concept of a language helps EVERY Programmer !
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