Rating: 
Summary: adjust to the style and learn from the basics
Review: I have read many of the reviews of this book and writer and was intrigued to look at one of his books and see if it suited my style. I am not a quick reader and I was a bit concerned to pick up a dry text and try to get through it while studying in addition in Visual Basic Classes. This book fills in all the holes in my accelerated courses, and to my surprise I read 300 pages over 4 days while traveling! IT has helped me to be much more prepared to continue my education in programming Visual Basic. I was a bit put off by the frankly nasty review of his book by certain reviews in this column although by the language they appear to be 3 by the same writer, but I decided to try anyway, and I am pleased I did. Sorry they did not suit him, but you don't have to hate broccoli to decide it isn't for you.
Rating:
Summary: Can't put it down!
Review: I never thought I'd run across a programming book that I can't put down! I really did teach myself to program using this book. This was one of the richest investments that I've made into my future. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: This book was the turning point in my studies
Review: I purchased this book and the Learn to Program Visual Basic 6 together as a package deal. These were some of the earliest books that I purchased while I was trying to learn Visual Basic 6.0. Both of these books are good for the beginner or for developers coming from either an earlier version of Visual Basic or another language. This book is made to augment the Learn to Program Visual Basic 6.0 book. You should read most of that book before attempting to read this book. This book targets specific examples of how-to-do things in Visual Basic.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn to Program Visual Basic 6 Examples
Review: I purchased this book and the Learn to Program Visual Basic 6 together as a package deal. These were some of the earliest books that I purchased while I was trying to learn Visual Basic 6.0. Both of these books are good for the beginner or for developers coming from either an earlier version of Visual Basic or another language. This book is made to augment the Learn to Program Visual Basic 6.0 book. You should read most of that book before attempting to read this book. This book targets specific examples of how-to-do things in Visual Basic.
Rating:
Summary: Has Its Flaws, But Overall A Good Reference Book
Review: I read John Smiley's Intro to Visual Basic book and found it very informative and a fast read (rare for a programming book). So I picked up his Examples book to get an even better understanding of Visual Basic concepts.Of the 100 examples listed, I would say about 20% of them cover concepts that Smiley goes over fairly thoroughly in his Intro book, 10% are incredibly stupid concepts (i.e. why does an underscore in a variable name disappear when it is in the general declarations portion of the code - the separator bar covers it up), 10% are questions cleverly designed to promote either Smiley's other books or books written by his friends and 60% provide very good Visual Basic tips that could come in handy to programmers from time to time. It is these 60% (or 80% if you haven't read the Intro book, but are familiar with the basics of VB) that makes the book worthwhile. I actually was working on an assignment for a VB class I'm taking and got hung up on a concept in a program I was assigned to write. It so happened, I was reading this book at the time and I happened to come across an Example that solved my problem. So there is a lot of good stuff here. A lot of people who post negative reviews of Smiley's books criticize the storytelling way Smiley uses to communicate the material he presents. Sure, the international TV show concept used in this Examples book is pretty hokey, but it is a more relaxing way to learn the material and I think helps the reader grasp the concept better than almost any other programming book. With other books, the author tries to cram so much information into the book that a reader (especially a beginner) can get overwhelmed and just give up. Smiley's approach doesn't do that. I'm not crazy of Smiley's constant shilling for people to buy his other books and especially his blatant attempt to promote other authors by using a question on a concept not meant for a beginning VB programmer. That's why I go four instead of five stars on this review. I think Smiley could have easily come up with 100 unique situatiuons that were (1) not already in his Intro book, (2) not incredibly stupid and (3) were for beginning and intermediate VB programmers. I will say that I did have fun trying to guess the famous people he was using as the callers to his show (i.e. Jimi from Seattle, Abe from Springfield, IL). I do wish that in the fictional part of the book that he spiced up his relationship with Linda, his TV show producer. Instead of coffee and donuts after the show at the local pastry shoppe, they should have had wine and a nice aged brie at the local motel. But that's another book! Overall, Smiley's books are a good way to learn VB if you are open-mined to a new approach to textbook teaching and don't expect to gain all the knowledge needed to be Microsoft certified (as many seem to expect).
Rating:
Summary: Has Its Flaws, But Overall A Good Reference Book
Review: I read John Smiley's Intro to Visual Basic book and found it very informative and a fast read (rare for a programming book). So I picked up his Examples book to get an even better understanding of Visual Basic concepts. Of the 100 examples listed, I would say about 20% of them cover concepts that Smiley goes over fairly thoroughly in his Intro book, 10% are incredibly stupid concepts (i.e. why does an underscore in a variable name disappear when it is in the general declarations portion of the code - the separator bar covers it up), 10% are questions cleverly designed to promote either Smiley's other books or books written by his friends and 60% provide very good Visual Basic tips that could come in handy to programmers from time to time. It is these 60% (or 80% if you haven't read the Intro book, but are familiar with the basics of VB) that makes the book worthwhile. I actually was working on an assignment for a VB class I'm taking and got hung up on a concept in a program I was assigned to write. It so happened, I was reading this book at the time and I happened to come across an Example that solved my problem. So there is a lot of good stuff here. A lot of people who post negative reviews of Smiley's books criticize the storytelling way Smiley uses to communicate the material he presents. Sure, the international TV show concept used in this Examples book is pretty hokey, but it is a more relaxing way to learn the material and I think helps the reader grasp the concept better than almost any other programming book. With other books, the author tries to cram so much information into the book that a reader (especially a beginner) can get overwhelmed and just give up. Smiley's approach doesn't do that. I'm not crazy of Smiley's constant shilling for people to buy his other books and especially his blatant attempt to promote other authors by using a question on a concept not meant for a beginning VB programmer. That's why I go four instead of five stars on this review. I think Smiley could have easily come up with 100 unique situatiuons that were (1) not already in his Intro book, (2) not incredibly stupid and (3) were for beginning and intermediate VB programmers. I will say that I did have fun trying to guess the famous people he was using as the callers to his show (i.e. Jimi from Seattle, Abe from Springfield, IL). I do wish that in the fictional part of the book that he spiced up his relationship with Linda, his TV show producer. Instead of coffee and donuts after the show at the local pastry shoppe, they should have had wine and a nice aged brie at the local motel. But that's another book! Overall, Smiley's books are a good way to learn VB if you are open-mined to a new approach to textbook teaching and don't expect to gain all the knowledge needed to be Microsoft certified (as many seem to expect).
Rating:
Summary: Terrific book!
Review: I read Professor Smiley's first book on Visual Basic and I think this one is even more helpful. Most of the examples that he gives are ones that have troubled me in the past. I highly recommend this for anyone who works with Visual Basic.
Rating:
Summary: Just what you need
Review: I started to learn VB from scratch four months ago and John Smiley's books are the reason I've continued to progress with great success. For once, there is an author who actually understands the frustrations of the beginning/intermediate students. You will not be disappointed with this book. I'm so impressed with Prof. Smiley first two books, that I've already ordered his next one (Visual Basic Databases) even before the first copy has been shipped!
Rating:
Summary: What can anyone say about VB that John Smiley hasn't already
Review: I thought I had found most of the bugs in VB, but was I ever mistaken! John Smiley's book sure will save me a lot of heartaches... not to mention midnight oil! And doing it in a radio call-in show format... I loved it! I almost thought I was reading one of those best selling novels and here I was learning even more about VB. Pure pleasure, what a great read!!!
Rating:
Summary: 8 stars (yes, out of 5)
Review: I will again add mine to another list of great reviews for one of John Smiley's books. As I mentioned in my review of his initial work "Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6", I was not familiar with John's writing until I read that first volume of the LTP series. But I am now hooked on "Learn To Program". "LTP Visual Basic 6 EXAMPLES" is another gem by this author. He is the first, in my opinion, to put great effort into anticipating all the questions novice programmers will ask as they write their earliest programs. As a result, the reader finds himself asking "Why can't other authors and their distributors be this thorough? I can actually learn this all on my own." So many programming writers and their publishers seem interested in only "Rapid Publication Development" with their titles. Guess it says something about how interested they really are in helping the average person flatten the programming learning curve. Gee! $$Wonder$$ what their real motivation is. Well wake up and smell the coffee all of you. Take a page from John Smiley's book/books and truly learn how to write a self-help guide. He is the best author in this sector of the technical books market - by far.
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