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!!!!
Review: An excellent read for the beginner in all of us the way the book is laid out actually pulls you in and makes you feel you are right there in the classroom and he also sticks to one full blown kick a** program Not a whole bunch of small ones. So you never get lossed and talking about commitment I had a question and emailed John(the author) on it and he answered me within 24hrs this book and any of Johns books in my oppinnion is well worth the money and you can tell he loves to teach we need more mentors like him in the world today.Thanks
Mike
http://www.searchnlink.com
http://www.hitngo.com
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!
Rating:
Summary: Learning made Easy
Review: As someone who had no previous knowledge of Visual Basic, I set about looking for a book on Visual Basic, which would keep me interested enough to want to learn and keep learning.
I think that the problem with a lot of books is they can get too technical, too quickly and before you know it you either lose interest, or just find things too difficult to understand.
Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6 by John Smiley was the book I chose and I enjoyed learning from it so much that I have since bought 3 other books on Visual Basic(Databases,Objects & Examples) all written by John Smiley. John Smiley uses a unique way of writing(teaching), by making you feel like your part of a class working towards a project. With each chapter you learn about different aspects of Visual Basic whilst creating a project while you are doing so. This may sound odd, but I actually felt that I was learning in a class group, which helped to keep me interested.
For anyone looking to Learn Visual Basic from scratch or anybody with a little bit of experience looking to further there knowledge of Visual Basic, I think this book is absolutely perfect. It would also serve as an excellent reference book for anyone with more experience of Visual Basic.
I am now studying Visual Basic at College, and still use the book now and again to refer to.
Rating:
Summary: Found this book to be very easy to work with.
Review: Being a main frame programmer for years, learning to program VB6 was having to have a change in thinking. I found this book and it's narrative approach very easy to make the transition. I was really impressed that when emailing Mr. Smiley with a question he responded right away. I would suggest that anyone that wants a straight forward approach to learning VB6 to try this book
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Introduction
Review: I felt compelled to address a couple of recent negative reviews. John Smiley wrote his book for people like me who really are absolute beginners to programming. His book has three great strengths: It gives you an introduction to thinking like a programmer, it provides a method for developing projects (the Systems Development Life Cycle, or "SDLC"), and it teaches you to always program with your clients' needs in mind. To me, this last strength (which mirrors John's service orientation) is its greatest. (Also, it just so happens that the book is well written. The comment that the book "looked as if it had been written by a 13-year-old for his "teacher-for-a-day" class" is unwarranted and thoughtless.) And as for the comment that "you will not be proficient in VB after reading this book", that reviewer is probably right. I've read through the book, done all the exercises, and even taken notes. Do I consider myself "proficient in VB"? Of course not. However, that's not the purpose of the book. The purpose is to "Learn to Program", like the title says; Visual Basic 6.0 just happens to be the vehicle John uses. I recommend this book highly, and I'm confident I'll be able to move on to other books that do address VB in greater depth.
Rating:
Summary: A tutorial to keep you interested
Review: I wanted to learn some Visual Basic programming skills and have tried several books over the past couple of years. The problem was that the format was always similar to a 1950's maths text book; very difficult to work through and boring. Then I discovered John Smiley's excellent book "Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6". This held my interest because no preknowledge is assumed and it is quite honestly the best text book that I have ever come across. There are far too many authors out there who could follow John Smiley's example and consider the fact that not every student has an immense IQ able to soak up every item of information like a sponge. A good teacher has to be a great communicator. Well done John and thank you.
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: 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: 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.
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