Product Description
Microsoft's Visual Basic has become the standard language of programming. In addition to teaching Visual Basic, this unique programming guide will teach readers the fundamental programming concepts they need to grasp in order to learn any computer language. This non-intimidating reference enables readers to take the skills they learn and apply them to their own situations. A truly one-of-a-kind book, this guide assumes the reader has no programming experience and offers the fun approach of game creation as a teaching tool. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Fun topics, experiece needed.
Allow me to begin by stating that while I am an experienced Basic programer, I am a beginner to Visual Basic.NET. This is the background from which I write this review. My understanding of Basic programing in general gives me some advantages which someone totally NEW to programing will not share.

The trouble with many books on Visual Basic is that they focus so strongly on fundamentals that you never get to the fun stuff until very late.

For example, I bought a different book; 'Visual Basic.NET How to Program', by Deitel as my introduction to VB.NET. (Please note: If you have NO experience in Basic, the Deitel book is not for you.) The book is wonderful. It goes into great detail on the topics and is information-dense. But it is a dry read doesn't get to the FUN stuff, like timers and simple graphics until late in the book. After pouring over that book for the better part of a week, I was ready for a break. I wanted to do some FUN stuff!!

Browsing over the selection at the book store I finally settled on 'Visual Basic .NET Programming for the absolute beginner'. This book has many strong points and a few flaws. The flaws have been spelled out by other reviewers, so let me focus on some of the things I really liked.

First, if you read many VB book reviews you will see that a common complaint is that a book was written using a beta version of Basic .NET and that the examples do not work, or do not work well with the final release. This book does not seem to suffer from that flaw. That is GOOD!!

Second, the author has a great writing style which is a refreshing break from the rather dry text of my main instructional book. The author gives some excellent explanations on important core concepts, such as classes, inheritance and OOP. I found the second perspective on these topics very helpful to my understanding of them.

Third, the author does some Fun Stuff. You will learn, through the example of an arcade game how to use a timer to control events in a program. This knowledge will give you the keys for implementing your own ideas, be it writing a savings calculator which actively shows your hypothetical savings as they grow month after month and year after year, or writing your own graphing-programs which plot in real time.

The author also covers sequential and random access files, which are an important function for many programs.

My main lament is that the book does not cover page flipping, sprites, collision detection and buffered screens. For any book supposedly focusing on game programing, this is a serious lapse to my way of thinking.

Still, the author probably left those topics out because the book was supposed to be aimed at beginners, but this is no book for beginners! You are going to need some VB experience if you hope to get any real benefit from this book, so the absence of those fundamental programming topics is keenly felt.

That having been said, I am not being fair in faulting this book for failing to be what it was never intended to be so my complaint is neither relevant nor valid.

The intent of the book was a good one; to be a fun introduction to Basic .Net for the absolute beginner. But the authors good intentions may have been sunk by an aggressive editor and/or other publishing constraints (price or page count). That is too bad. This could have been a 5 star beginners book (or a 10 star gamers book!)

Conclusion: Here is a good complimentary book to your main VB.NET studies, but definitely not a stand alone text. If you are on a budget and totally new to Visual Basic. NET, this is not the book for you. If you have some Visual Basic experience and are looking for some fun and another perspective on key topics, you could do worse than to buy `Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programming for the absolute beginner'.

Visual Basic...but not for the Absolute Beginner
...I liked its approach of using games and "fun" lessons for teaching Visual Basic.I've already completed SAMS "Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 Hours" so I'm not the "Absolute Beginner" that is the target audience of this book.With that in mind:

1) This book is NOT for the absolute beginner.There is little if any discussion on how to use Visual Basic/Studio at all.No handholding at all.Often, items are mentioned only in passing (like how to do comments in your code) with little explanation.It seems an effort was made to make the book less intimidating by keeping it under 350 pages.The net result is a book with far too little explanation and information.

2) Throughout the book, when it comes time to add controls to your programs, you're simply given a chart listing all the controls and *some* of the properties you have to set.So what's the problem?The chart doesn't list any of the size or placement properties for the control!So you constantly have to flip back to the screenshot of the program - usually several pages earlier - to give yourself some idea where the item is supposed to go and how big it's supposed to be.In another example, in the animation program from chapter 3, you're supposed to assign a picture to 9 image controls.Problem?You're never told the NAMES of the picture files to assign!The author simply says that the images can be found on the CD with the book.Only they're not there!They're included as one large bitmap file on the CD which won't work for the program being worked on!

3) Code errors - in chapter 3, the author twice makes mention of using a particular Boolean variable in his program, making sure to allocate it by using "Dim".The problem?It's never used!All he does is allocate it, it never gets put to use!

4) Also in chapter 3, the author mentions the "Keydown event, which you've already seen earlier".I couldn't remember seeing it earlier, so I looked in the index.Turns out that "Keydown" is discussed only once in the book - IN THE SENTENCE THAT SAYS IT WAS DISCUSSED EARLIER.

That said, there are some good things to be gained from this book, as the author uses some events and controls that other beginning books don't touch as relate to games, so that's good.But if you're a true beginner, forget it.

This book is mis-named
I do not think this book is for the "absolute beginner".It has been frustrating trying to build the programs in the book, because, even in the first chapter, the author does not explain how to do things, he just says "do it".I am sorry I bought the book.I am now using "Visual Basic 6 Complete", which I find much better for a beginner like myself.

Thumbs Up From Mrs. Programmer
I've had the book for a couple of months, but I've only recently been able to wrestle it away from my 15-year old son. This is a great way to learn Visual Basic. Finally, a teaching tool that takes advantage of how fun programming really can be. I can't wait to check out other books in the series. They're already on my kid's Christmas list. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

required for school
Only reason I read this book is for school and it seems to teach bad habits.
You could tell it was written by former VB 6 and earlier programmers since they use old VB prefixes for all their variable names. Also not enough code examples. Only 1 complete runnable program per chapter. Didn't feel like I learned VB 2005 after reading this book. Too simplistic.
Good things were easy to read lots of use of screen captures. End of chapter projects.
Printing code that actually works.
Snowman program in graphics chapter. ... Read more

Product Description
If you have basic programming experience, this book is your ideal guide for writing games using Visual Basic .NET and Managed DirectX 9.This Second Edition includes almost entirely new coverage. While coverage of game design and 2D artwork remain, this edition includes more detailed coverage of the DirectX game code and utilizes the free Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition compiler. A true beginner's guide, this book covers each essential step for creating your own complete role playing game, including a character creation screen and a combat system. This book serves as a comprehensive introductory guide for readers who are new to programming or new to programming for games. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Comment from the author
This book was not intended to be a game project book, like "Build your own RPG MAKER in 10 easy steps", but unfortunately that is the impression that many readers seem to have, and it's a false assumption. This book is about learning to program VB.NET 2005 or 2008 with Managed DirectX. That's a very difficult subject, so the game was intended as a way to improve learning. This book teaches how to program 2D games in VB.NET and Managed DirectX, with an emphasis on top-down tile based scrolling. A very large scale tile-based game world is developed using a world editor called Mappy, with tutorials on how to create your own game world. The book even recommends creating your own game levels, and that the one presented in the book is only an example.

Please, if you don't know VB.NET, don't buy this book as your introduction to the language! This is a very difficult subject to master! DirectX9 should only be approached after one has learned VB.NET first. So, please read a primer and learn the language, and then give DirectX a try. =)

Here is the outline for the book:

Part I: The Game Engine
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: Introduction to Visual Basic .NET
Chapter 3: Introduction to Managed DirectX
Chapter 4: Sprites: The Key To 2D Games
Chapter 5: Printing Text and Getting User Input
Chapter 6: Tile-Based Scrolling
Chapter 7: Entity Management
Chapter 8: Playing Sound Effects and Music

Part II: The Game World
Chapter 9: Designing The Celtic Crusader Game
Chapter 10: Creating The Game World
Chapter 11: Exploring The Game World
Chapter 12: Adding Scenery and Objects

Part III: The Characters
Chapter 13: Creating The Player Character
Chapter 14: Building The Celtic Crusader Engine
Chapter 15: Keeping Track of Inventory
Chapter 16: Adding NPCs and Monsters
Chapter 17: Engaging in Combat

what not to do when making a game
The book was interesting for the first few chapters, but then it became frustrating.The classes for the games were constantly modified on the source disk from chapter to chapter without notifying the reader of any changes.The reader either has to open the source file for each chapter and type the changes into their source code, or the reader has to use the source code itself. One thing not to do is load the whole map.Its okay for a small map, but the author loaded a 48000 X 64000 pixels or 1500 X 2000 32X32 pixel tiles.In addition, the map is refreshing every 10 milliseconds.When I tried to run the completed game from the source disk and found out it took 300+ MB of RAM, and this is not a complete game.This takes more RAM than some 3D games I played like Orochi Warriors on PC.The game also drained 30% of from the battery from my friends laptop in less than five minutes.When testing out the actuall game play, I found that I was killing enemies behind me when I was attacking the one in from half the time.When printing text on the screen, the author .png files and placed the them on the screens like tiles.This method would make it really difficult to print text in other languages like Japanese and Chinese that contain thousands of characters.It will take a lot of effort to modify the author's code to make the a more efficient game.

Shot the editor
I like the concept of the book, but there are a lot of inconsistencies in the code for the projects.Up until the fifth chapter I was fully ready to endorse the book to my district as a textbook for an advance Visual Basic class on game programming. I like the fact that he builds a game one step at a time, starting with an experiment to illustrate the concept, then building and testing a class for the game. However, when he got to the fifth chapter, he changed his naming conventions and added code to the classes with no mention in the book of these changes. This can be frustrating especial to high school students or any new programmer. There are several places though out the book where he made changes to the classes on the CD that he does not mention in the book. Then he adds the class method to the current project and your left wondering where it came from. I felt he needed to make changes in the book, so that the code was consistent though out the book and matched what on the CD.

In my opinion, His editor should have caught this. Thomson as a publisher is starting to get a repetition for there badly coded books. It is obvious that an editor should be reviewing the code in a book along with the grammatical errors in the book and Thompson fails to do that. If you understand visual basic and you are looking for a book on game programming concepts the book is good. However I would not recommend this book if you are new to Visual Basic and I would definitely not recommend it for teenager, it will only frustrate them.
... Read more

Product Description
This is an introduction to programming using Microsoft's Visual Basic.NET 2010. It is intended for novice programmers with little or no programming experience or no experience with Visual Basic. The text emphasizes programming logic and good programming techniques with generous explanations of programming concepts written from a non-technical point of view. It stresses input, processing, and output and sequence, selection, and repetition in code development. File I/O and arrays are included. Later chapters introduce objects, event programming, and databases. By taking a slow and steady approach to programming ideas, this book builds new concepts from what the reader has already learned. VB tips and quips inject both humor and insight. The book includes numerous programming examples and exercises, case studies, tutorials, and "fixing a program" sections for an in-depth look at programming problems and tools. Quizzes and review questions throughout each chapter get students to think about the materials and how to use them. Each chapter has a summary and glossary for extra review. The accompanying Web site, www.cambridge.org/us/McKeown, has code downloads, I/O, and database files from small, simple files to large files with thousands of records, flowcharts, deskchecks and audits to aid with program design, coding, and debugging; PowerPoint files for every chapter; and hundreds of ideas for programs and projects. ... Read more

Product Description
If you want to learn the fundamentals of programming, don't get bogged down with pages of technical jargon that most books on the market offer! Instead, explore Clearly Visual Basic: Programming with Visual Basic 2008, an innovative book that prides itself on teaching the basics of programming through visualization and application. Designed for beginners with little or no previous programming experience, this resource emphasizes solid programming principles and teaches the Visual Basic language in the process. By putting standard concepts, like input, output, selection, and repetition, at the forefront, instead of focusing solely on a specific language, readers will gain knowledge and insight that is easily transferable to other languages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good book for beginners
I have only done 5 chapters so far. What I have discovered is to this point the book is very informative. It walks you through step by step. Being a true beginner that was important to me. I might be boring to someone who has some knowledge of VB. The really cool part so far is that you also get video demos to look at, so you can see the written text actually put to practical work. Every textbook should have this feature!!!!! On a scale of 1 to 10 so far I would give it an 8. Always room for improvement.

Programmer's Dream
This book covers programming from the basics of no knowledge of programming and builds up to a very well-structured teaching method for the basics of programming.Using the knowledge obtained from this book can greatly help with future programming languages and furthering knowledge in Visual Basic. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Visual Basic 2008
I thought it was great until Chapter 8 "Classes and Inheritance" which is where I'm at now.This chapter seems overly complex and I question the need for it. There must be easier and clearer ways of accomplishing the goals. It certainly not straight forward.This Chapter is convoluted.

Easy introduction, lack of illustration
Thought this was a well written book for the beginner, at least it appears to be a primer for beginners. Easy read and to be honest i thought the exercises at the end of each chapter was good but more examples could be created to illustrate key concepts introduced in each chapter.

So-so book
This would be a great book, but for two things . . . 1. The worst was, I got to page 332, then realized that the next page was 359!I want my missing 27 pages!2.The author's attempts at humor are just plain lame, because they distract from the content.You are in the middle of reading a sentence, and within that content, he throws in some off-the-wall comment . . . it was irritating, when you are trying to follow the flow of information.That said, there is some pretty good information in the book, otherwise, I would have considered it trash.

Great for getting ideas for your own apps
I don't feel this is a book for beginners, chapters 2-7 were easy to grasp, but after that it definitely gets complex. I would recommend the book for someone who already read a VB2008 intro book with at least some light OOP and wants to get some ideas for his or her own applications.For the solo developer I think the book is priceless.

One reviewer stated the snippets that are installed in visual studio for quick pasting of code was a bad thing but I found it it to be amazing.If you feel compelled to rewrite the code by hand, you could easily do so, but memorizing code is not the purpose of the book as it might be in a beginners book. The book also comes with a visual studio template project for each chapter, one for "before code" and one for "after code".The author explains where to paste the snippets in the "before code" templates per chapter while explaining what each snippet of code does. If you get stuck, just look at the "after code" template and run it/debug/step through it.

This method was very convenient/original and took away a lot of the tediousness of positioning every little label and button for all the forms and creating repetitive code.This allowed me to quickly understand why the author built the app the way he did and how the code worked.

VB Programming... Not so Much
OK, I'll try to be concise. I have experience in C++ and VBA but needed a deeper understanding to further my career as a controls engineer.

This book is good for teaching some basics in a strict didactic format. It is also good for starting fires -- it's made of paper.

Now, on to the rest. If you are hoping for a guided tour of PROGRAMMING, get a different book. There is a project that the author goes through step-by-step within this book (interesting but not useful in my opinion), but you won't do ANY of the actual programming. The code is contained in snippets that you will inert into the already created templates. Not really useful. It would have been much more useful to have the reader do the actual coding of the project and make the project less complex. Perhaps this book is geared for the much more advanced user, though it is not touted as such. The project is geared towards business applications which might be useful for some, but I needed to learn to write the actual code -- again, you won't write ANY for the "project" in this book unless you have an already extensive grasp of VB.

This book is an easy read and did not put me to sleep as other texts have done. The text is engaging with some weak attempts at humor. It also covers a great swath of VB commands and syntax at a decent pace; however, again, you won't be USING this new knowledge on any examples from the book. If you are completely new to VB, do not get this book, you will be disappointed. If you are intermediate to advanced, some of the advanced techniques that are used can be employed in code you might already be working on.

I cannot recommend this book to anyone as I found it to be useless in TEACHING VB. As a reference, maybe, but I learn from doing, not from reading.
... Read more

Product Description

An Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic 2010, Eighth Edition, — consistently praised by both students and instructors — is designed for students with no prior computer programming experience. Now updated for Visual Basic 2010, Schneider focuses on teaching problem-solving skills and sustainable programming skills. A broad range of real-world examples, section-ending exercises, case studies, and programming projects gives students more hands-on experience than any other Visual Basic book on the market.

Product Description
Unlike most other database programming books, which discuss and present database programming techniques through huge blocks of programming code, this book uses a unique writing style to show readers how to develop professional and practical database programs using Visual Basic.NET 2005 Design Tools and Wizards related to ADO.NET 2.0, and to apply codes that are auto-generated by using Wizards. Avoiding overly large blocks of code, the book shows a simple and easy way to create database programs and enable the reader to build professional and practical databases more efficiently. In addition to Design Tools and Wizards, the runtime object method is also discussed and analyzed to allow users to design and implement more sophisticated data-driven applications with complicated coding techniques. Three popular database systems - Microsoft Access, SQL Server 2005, and Oracle Database 10g Express Edition (XE) - are discussed in detail, with practical examples and sample projects. This book will attract college students, programmers, and software engineers alike.Sample code and additional exercise questions for students, as well as solutions and lecture slides for instructors are available via the web (www.cambridge.org/9780521712354). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Database Programming with Visual Basic.NET

This is one of the best books so far I have read for this topic - Database Programming with Visual Basic.NET. Unlike other similar books, in which a huge block of codes starts from the first page and ends until the last page of the books, this book starts with a new style - Design Tools and Wizards, which greatly reduced the learning curves and simplified the program development processes, to help beginners to learn the database programming in a much easier and simple way!
In addition to that new style, three popular databases, MS Access 2007, SQL Server and Oracle, are covered by this book with a quite few of real example projects. The book also contains the real time object method, which is suitable to experienced database programmers and made the database programming as a fun. A lot of advanced database programming techniques, such as stored procedures and Web Services and applications, are discussed in detailed in the book with real project examples.
I highly recommend this book and hope your guys can learn something useful from this book, too.
... Read more

Product Description
Bradley; Programming in Visual Basic 2010The author team of Julia Bradley and Anita Millspaugh remain the guiding light for countless students around the world in Programming with Visual Basic 2010. How better to master the most popular object-oriented programming language than to use the bestselling textbook? Be at the cutting edge of technology with examples, feedback questions, and a full Hands On Programming Example.Apply the concepts yourself with Case Studies and Exercises.Screen captures, step-by-step exercises, and thorough appendices ensure that Programming Excellence Begins Here. ... Read more

Product Description
The author team of Julia Bradley and Anita Millspaugh remain the guiding light in Programming with Visual Basic 2008 for countless students around the world. How better to master the most popular object-oriented programming language than to use the bestselling textbook? Be at the cutting edge of technology with examples, feedback questions, and a full Hands On Programming Example.Apply the concepts yourself with Case Studies and Exercises.Screen captures, step-by-step exercises, and thorough appendices ensure that Programming Excellence Begins Here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Excellent
It was the book i need for one of my classes and was very informative.

Aweful college textbook, beg your school to use another
I am not going to repeat the exact words of all who have disliked this book as I agree with all of the other examples given by reviewers, jumpy, confusing, missing info, etc. This book along with my instructors use of short cut words for commands has me totally lost. I believe that to get thru this class I might need to purchase a better rated book for explanation.

Not sure what everyone's problem is?? It's a good book.
I've read so many reviews of this book and everybody says it is hard to follow or ... I think this book is excellent and makes visual basic fun to learn, granted I've had a little programming experience before entering this class. I took an online programming class with Python through MIT and compared to what I had to read for that, Programming in Visual Basic 2008 by Millspaugh is a picture book.

Absolutely the worst textbook I've had to purchase yet!
I'm taking a beginning Visual Basic course and this is our textbook.The book jumps around from topic to topic and doesn't actually show you what anything is doing.It's not chronological, so it's not like you can even follow the book, type in the code and get something to work.It's all very random and meaningless.When I need to figure out what something does, the book doesn't even explain it well.Also, the Case Studies the end of each chapter are USELESS!It shows you how to create the user-interface AND it gives you all of the code.Talk about a no-brainer???You don't have to use your brain in order to do the homework, which means you aren't learning ANYTHING!So, now I've been given the "calculator" challenge.I'm completely clueless, because the book taught me nothing so far!If I could give this book a 0 stars, I would!

Programming in Visual Basic 2008
It is a very explicit and easy-to-follow textbook; it's flowing from one chapter to another.
Its clarity and many illustrative examples I wished I would have had in all my textbooks.... and they were plenty! ... Read more

Product Description
This revision of Schneider’s best-selling guide is designed for readers with no prior programming experience. It focuses on developing good problem-solving skills, building a strong foundation that will give readers a sustainable understanding of programming.  KEY TOPICS: Based on Visual Basic 2008, the book starts with a brief review of the preliminaries of Windows, and then focuses on problem-solving. A broad range of real-world examples, section-ending exercises, case studies, and programming projects gives readers significant hands-on experience.  A useful reference for both beginning programmers and those moving from another language and that want to learn more about programming with the latest version of Microsoft’s Visual Basic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Depends on the class you're taking...
I ended up getting this book on Amazon because efollet had it on backorder for weeks.

The Seller I got it from was great!

The book, eh, it depends on how your professor wants to teach the course. I'm taking a Intro to Visual Basic class - HOWEVER, the professor prefers to teach the course via using console application, not GUI like the book. So, to me, the book is "useless" when it comes to using examples in the book and modeling them to your own programs. If your professor teaches the course following GUI, then I think you'll appreciate the book because there are tons of examples and exercises to practice with.

Useful
While I don't particularly enjoy the class, this book is a very clear, step-by-step walk through of what I'm told are the main controls of Visual Basic. The examples are very clear and at times have illustrations matching exactly how they appear on the screen and the practice projects at the end of each chapter are really useful.
Overall a pretty valid purchase.

Pleased Customer
The book that I bought was the cheepest one I could find.However, quality was still very good and the condition of the book was as good if not better than what the seller had described.

Helpful for Beginners
If you are beginning your programming career, Visual Basic is an excellent start.This book is good for beginners.It is easy to read and follow.

Relatively Difficult to use
The book is written for intermediate learners in programming. I would not recommend the book for beginners. The assignments are hard to comprehend and the integration between the exercises and the samples are so extensively different.Use this book only if required. ... Read more

Product Description
Get ready to create your first complete 2D-based role-playing game using Visual Basic 6.0. If you have experience using Visual Basic, you already have the essential skills that you need. You will learn, step by step, how to construct each part of an RPG game using DirectX components such as Direct3D. As you work your way through the book, you will write short programs that demonstrate the major topics in each chapter. Dive into the exciting world of game programming, learn how to write your own code, and take complete creative control over how your game operates. Let your imagination loose as you create amazing new adventures! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Tough book to learn from
I have tried to wade through this book twice and haven't been able to get far. The explanations are either missing or opaque. The author has you typing commands that you don't understand, then he tells you not to worry if you don't understand what you are doing. Not very helpful! There really is no reason he can't explain what some of the commands mean. In short, this book is a frustrating waste of time and one learns little about game programming. I am now looking for a replacement.

Agree with the last review
Ok, yes, 2005?VB6???Are you aware that Microsoft has discontinued selling and supporting this software??This software was first published in 1999!!!Find a book that is using a little bit more of state of the art technology. This one is a waste of time and money.

I have been looking for a book like this, a VB.Net perspective
Overall I find this book good at what it advertises to be, a tour through the process of making a DirectX game in VB that would be very interesting and appealing to a novice programmer (teen).The game is a simplified 2d rpg/adventure game, called `Celtic Crusader'.While functional, in the interest of simplicity and time by the author's own words it isn't a fully featured game, it lacks features such as character inventory or network play.

If you are looking for detailed information on DirectX, this is not the book.This book does not explain the DirectX methods used, or even display their signatures, it just tells you what the routine you are coding does as a whole, and gives you the code.

I currently work in VB.Net, but I am experienced in the last few incarnations of VB, so the conversion of the provided code examples into VB.Net is not much of a problem.I would say someone familiar with VB.Net but without experience in VB6 will not have much problem; in fact the DirectX method calls in VB.Net are more logical than in VB6.

For example
d3ddev.Present(ByVal 0, ByVal 0, 0, ByVal 0)
becomes
d3ddev.Present(Handle.zero,Handle.zero, 0, Handle.zero)

If you pay attention to the intellisense balloons then the DirectX method calls are fairly easy to figure out.

The author doesn't fully qualify all his references, so be aware and supply the appropriate qualifacation for the constants.Be sure to Imports DxVBLibA

For example
d3dpp.SwapEffect = D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD
becomes
d3dpp.SwapEffect = CONST_D3DSWAPEFFECT.D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD

The VB side of the code is the same (an If-Then is still If-Then) except that you will need to recognize form events as such by their names instead of their handles keyword.

The DirectX8 for Visual Basic type library reference is still available with DirectX9.0c in VB.Net (just look under the Com tab when adding the reference) and seems to work fine in XP (I have tried it on 3 different machines.)I have not worked through the entire book yet, but so far I have not had any problems with compatibility.

This book is thinner than the typical programming book (tome) you normally find.It leads the reader directly through the creation of this adventure game, cutting out many side details as mentioned earlier.However, I find it delivers enough to create a decent working game, and a nice resource for a programmer looking for straightforward code examples.

VB6 is alive and well!
Don't believe those that tell you VB is dead, vb is still alive and well! Just look at Microsoft Access 2003(A database program)when you build advance coding in it you are using vb language,even in the latest Access edition, VB is still there. Just visit your local book store, you will still see VB books out there.Another proof that VB is still alive, look at many E-commerce shopping carts, many of them are build in VB, and they are functioning with great precision.
The book is intended for the teenager that wants to explore programming in a fun, and easy method, and Vb can deliver that without advance codes that will make a teenage kid left in the dark.It will give them the opportunity to learn to write simple executable codes, once they do that, then they can move on to Vb.net or C++.And with that, the author would accomplish his/her mission, and that is teaching a young mind.
Go ahead buy the book, play with the codes, and have fun!

Good Book
Just started programming and VB seems like a good place.
Johnathan rambles on a bit to much about maps but I learned alot. Rich D ... Read more

Product Description
Create professional-quality applications, components, and user interfaces faster and more efficiently than ever with the powerful object-oriented programming capabilities in the Visual Basic 6.0 development system. From Windows® common controls to data access, Internet, and ActiveX® programming, this book covers core development topics for version 6.0—providing insightful explanations and expertly rendered examples for rapid acceleration of your Win32® productivity.• Expedite development with the object-oriented capabilities in Visual Basic 6.0—including events, polymorphism, and object hierarchies• Develop great user interfaces that use the full range of controls in Visual Basic and take advantage of OLE drag and drop, data-driven forms, and advanced Windows API techniques• Build datacentric solutions using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) 2.0 and 2.1, the DataEnvironment designer, and RDS components for remote activation over the Internet • Master ActiveX technology to create controls, learning advanced techniques such as COM callbacks, multithreaded components and applications, and windowless ActiveX controls• Deploy rich, Web-ready components and applications with Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and Microsoft Internet Information ServerAn electronic version of this book is available on the companion CD. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (89)

A great book for any serious VB programmer
I'm a C/C++ programmer, but for some reason I had to learn VB too. I tried two different books (both with good ratings), but as far as I'm concerned this book is ways better. I recommend it to all those programmers who really want to start using VB as their second (or first) programming language.

Why am I writing a review for this supposedly outdated book
Because Visual Basic 6 remains a very useful programming environment for me.Mr. Balena's style goes way beyond a tutorial through menu creation.He tells us about pratfalls ofthe Microsoft environment ( while writing for Microsoft! ) and useful ways to work around limitations ofthe environment.If you are still using VB6, like I am, this is a useful reference.We might want to start looking at .NET, eh?

Staright forward walk through
Good book for the novice with some experience programming but new to VB 6. Walks through the differences between other versions, and has some nice documentation.
I would recommend.

author shoud be banned from writing programming books
code snippets are fragmented and some variables are used without
naming their types, causing confusion in many cases.

the chapters on classes and objects and databases are worthless:
i'm glad i didn't learn objects and databases from this guy.

many explanations are needlessly lengthy and confusing.

i've documented with profane remarks so many problems in this book that are simply not sharable.

Best VB 6.0 book I own.
This book is a must have for any VB 6.0 programmer period. So buy it.

Not only is this book extremely informative, but Balena writes excellently. The way he communicates the information help's make the info stick in your head.

As for the informative part Balena covers all the major bases in depth and some of the more obscude/advanced topics to get your feet wet. He also shows you different and more efficent ways to write code.

If I had one complaint is that his code is not the most readable, Balena seems to center more on condensing his code and making it as efficent as possible rather than making it readable. He attempts to offset this with comments.

But that is also a postive about the book Balena covers different ways to write a statment to make it most efficent. ... Read more

Product Description
Think Visual Basic is just to slow to write a decent game? Think again! Microsoft Visual Basic Game Programming with DirectX gives you all of the tricks and techniques that you need to create awesome games using Visual Basic. Offering equal parts theory and hands-on exercises, the chapters in this book begin with a discussion of completing a task using Visual Basic then move on to enhancing the code with the Windows API. When applicable, the chapters conclude by delving into the details of how DirectX fits in. The final section of the book is devoted wholly to developing a variety of complete games: role playing, strategy, scrolling arcade games, and more. Whether you are new to game programming or new to Visual Basic, this book gives you everything you need to create amazing games by combining the hidden power of Visual Basic with DirectX. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

Visual Basic Direct X
I am a programming insrructor and I new alot about the basics of Visual Basic but not much on the graphic and Direct X side of the house. This book has shown me alot of tricks and I haven't finished it yet.

Good information, however it's a little dated
This book, came out when the original xbox came out.So the information and code are a little dated.Personally, I think they need to come out with a visual basic@net version of the book.

However, I am giving this book a 3, because it has some good ideas.You'll get an idea of the things you can do.One thing I especially like is the multiplayer game in the example section.

Direct x and Direct Visual Basic
First of all I'd like to say that this book is really good because it is step by step in its foundation.It explains how to set up the programs it discusses.What I had problems with were that I understood the code from a template kind of perspective but did not understand exactly what each line of code was doing without a substantial background in Visual Basic 6.I jumped right into learning the game aspects instead of building a solid understanding of the concepts of the language of visual basic 6.Even though I was lacking certain pieces of the puzzle Mr. Harbour did a pretty decent job of explaining things even a novice like myself could grasp.I recommend this book to anyone who is interested but get the foundation in Visual Basic 6.0 first.This book is alot better than some of the books I've read before which stick code snippets throughout but have no semblance of order as to where they fit in. This is a must read!!!! It covers all aspects of creating a game and even gives multiplayer capability.All n all I give this a three thumbs up!!!

Needs to be updated to VB .Net
This book was written about the time VB .Net was coming out and the author even mentions that he considered writing some of the code in .Net.I bought the book, realizing it was dated, thinking that it would be a good learning experience to convert the examples to VB .Net.Of course, it's proving to be very frustrating.

This is a good book and well written and if you are determined to stick with VB6 and want to learn game programming.However, if you're moving on to .Net I would suggest looking for a different title.(If you find a good one let me know.)

I really wish they would publish a new edition with re-written examples.That would be ideal.

Good Reference, However...
This book is in fact a good reference, but I hit snags trying to run the sample code.I have Visual Studio .NET and I love it, and thought that this book would be a good starting point for game programming.And it was until I hit the first program "ChunkyPixels"I put the code into the VB.NET IDE and it would not compile.The examples are all writen in VB 6.0 and has no compatibility with VB.NET.So, in conclusion, if you want a good reference and do not have VB.NET, buy this book, but if you have VB.NET you are, as am I, out of luck

PSIF anyone knows of any websites that would have updated code samples, I would be happy to hear where! :) ... Read more

Product Description
This book is designed to teach Visual Basic programming to preteen kids with a hands-on approach and a step by step teaching style. This book is preteen tested, and their feedback was used in the writing. Whether you are 8 or 88 years old, this book is an easy and fast way to learn how to program a computer using one of the most prominent programming languages of our time. The Color images in this book are key to making it simple and easy to follow (and why the book is expensive). Although this book is written using Visual Studio 2010, this book can be used, and the programs will work, in any version of Visual Studio. ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive book equips readers with the skills necessary to develop computer applications in any language by helping them develop a framework for creating programs. The program development cycle and fundamental programming concepts are emphasized.Comes with free software: Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Working Model. To highlight emphasis on programming concepts instead of GUI elements, a limited number of program controls are used in the examples.For anyone interested in learning to program in Visual Basic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

One of the Best
This is one of the best textbook for Visual Basic 6 programming, for MIS students or professionals.It is easy to follow and designed for self-starters.The reference materials in the Appendix A-C are very handy and useful.I have used this book for my introduction to Visual Basic, at a few colleges.

Warning!
This book does NOT teach object based event driven programming of VB6.This book teaches code based 1960's structured programming in a VB5 environment.Unfortunately the authors do not know VB6 code.This book is a VB6 desert.

Using this book as a textbook for a 2 quarter course
I have been in the teaching profession for over 30 years!Currently, I teach COP 2172 Visual Basic, and COP 3170 Advanced Visual Basic: a two quarter course sequence at Florida Metropolitan University and have used this as a textbook.The presentation style of the authors of this book is excellent. They use the theory introduced in each chapter in a large number of worked out examples and programming projects in each chapter.Then each chapter ends with a good selection of programming exercises as well as programming projects.The book also provides a CD-ROM containing all the worked out examples and projects of the book and the publisher usually supplies another CD-ROM to instructors that also contains the solutions to the exercises and projects appearing at the end of each chapter.I found all this material to be excellent instructional tools.If you wish to view the qualifications of this reviewer to judge the validity of his review, feel free to visit:....

Introduction To Computer Programming with Visual Basic 6
As the title suggests, this is a book that stresses (really) programming and programming logic for beginning programmers.Though the book was written as a classroom textbook, I have really developed a clearerunderstanding of Visual Basic programming through self-study following theexamples and exercises (hey authors, how about providing answers to thecoding exercises at the end of each chapter for non-students like me?).Itwas painstakingly written and explained, stressing programming exampleswith each topic introduced.In addition, at the end of each chapter, codeand screen shots are provided for a composite programming example coveringthe topics of the chapter.I cannot stress enough that this book isexcellently written and a great choice for the beginning programmer inunderstanding the core of Visual Basic programming.Good work, and thanks! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (14)

No fluff, just useful stuff.
I really, really like this book. If you are new to programming, this might not be the best book. Get an introductory book, then get this one. If you are a vb.net coder beginning asp.net, this is THE book. Jesse Liberty covers in a few hundred pages, what other books take six or seven hundred to do. Excellent book. I will be buying more from this author. Very professional.

fun read, but slightly incomplete.
If you got this around the time it was published, it was gold.after 2007, probably not so much.Some of the chapters reference software that needs to be downloaded from the publisher/author's website.Can be problematic.Skill set and info is pretty darn good, though.

Great Second VB Book
I have been through many VB books including expensive college texts.I immediately found this to be the best one.I picked it up at a Borders (oops...) because I was sick of ordering books online and not liking them when I finally got them in the mail.After I read the first chapter in the book store, I didn't want to wait to get started so I paid the $40.

I found that something simple like naming conventions or form design can ruin a potentially great book.Jesse Liberty uses the standard naming convention (txtName, btnSelect, etc.) and is not nearly as strict with form design as most books I have been through.

I recommend this as a second book because, though chapter 15 and 16 are superb in describing the basics, the complete beginner may be better off with a "For Dummies" book or something like that.

Some SQL knowledge also makes the book go down easier.

Jesse Liberty Fails to Update the Errata
After spending many hours trying to figure why the sample code didn't work, I found the answer buried on Jesse Liberty's message board.A fellow reader points out an error on Jan 21 and as of June 26 Jesse has yet to update his errata.Most tech books have a decent size errata and that is to be expected, but for an author to fail in his responsibility at the cost of many collective hours by his readers is extremely inconsiderate.This book is in my trash can at the moment.

Not a complete transition to VB.Net
I absolutely love Jesse's books and articles. However, this book does not have a page dedicated to ADO.Net nor does Jesse talk about the debugging methods of VS 2005.

I understand writing a book is not easy, but I feel these are two critical components of .Net development ... Read more

Product Description
Assuming no prior computer programming knowledge on the part of the reader, the updated edition of David Schneider's best-selling Visual Basic 6 book now includes an introduction to Visual Basic.NET.This book uses Visual Basic 6.0 to explore the fundamentals of programming in general and to explain how to use Visual Basic as a front end to take control of major applications such as Microsoft Office. A broad range of examples, case studies, exercises, and programming projects gives readers significant hands-on experience.Introducing good programming practices that are in-step with modern programming methodology, this book uses well-chosen examples to illustrate every new concept. It includes carefully designed examples that both reinforce the text and challenge the reader to make original connections. The book also incorporates real, current, and sometimes humorous data throughout to add fun and interest to the overall presentation.The updated edition of Introduction to Programming with Visual Basic 6 includes the addition of "named constants" throughout the book, an update of all the data, and the addition of new programming projects in each chapter. An essential reference for every programming professional. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

I'm Impressed!!
Just like the subject says: "I'm impressed".I was someone who had absolutely NO IDEA of how to begin with VB (I didn't even know what VB was for anyways!).But now I know, and trust me, I'm good at it (I do have to spend time reading it :P).I love the fact that it has practice exercises which leaves you in an analytical environment (very good help for future programmers who are independent enough).

Anyways, if you're into VB, then this is the best selection out there.Hope this helps.

If there had to be only one...
I've always been interrested by the computer world and one day decided to teach myself programming. I picked up this book and started to read. At that moment, I didn't even know what a programming language was. I read it from cover to cover and didn't have the impression to learn something but suddenly I found myself programming small applications. I read other books then and today I'm a MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer). During my whole journey on the learning of programming, this one was the clearest book I've read. So, if you're a complete beginner in programming, get this book fast ! I would even recommend you to read it BEFORE moving to .NET books. If you already are a programmer coming from another language, it may not be the right choice.

College text used - not happy
I have my VB final due tommorrow.I have to agree with another reviewer.The examples don't explain what you need to know for the projects.My teacher is very smart but she grades hard.Between that and this difficult to learn from book our class has gone from 22 students to get this 4. There are 4 of us left in what should have been a beginner type programming class.
I am going to buy a Thompson Learning VB book instead.I am sure it will be better.
The only guy who did well with this book already had C++ I and II.

Great get-to-the-point book on VB
I had to use this book for a VB programming class. I really like the style. Instead of laboring the point, Schneider briefly presents information on a topic, then uses examples to explain the details. If you are learner by tutorial, then this book is NOT for you because it is not a lot of hand-holding. But if you can read something, see an example, then grasp the concept, then you will enjoy reading this text and find it very beneficial.

My class project was to build a conctacts database, and this book has some great examples of how to build a database application both in the front end (forms and controls) and back end (coding SQL and VB data-handling commands).

Not for raw beginners
Most of the reviewers for this book seem to have had some previous programming experience, and thus, armed with an understanding of programming generally, i.e. the jargon, the logic, and general concepts, this book might well deserve a good wrap. However, it has been my first exposure to programming and I am finding that it is not a great help to a raw beginner.

This is the prescribed text for a uni subject I am doing, and I know of other students who have been very critical of the book also.In fact, the lecturer recommended that those with no prior experience refer to other books for a better explanation of the concepts!

I do not want to be a programmer - and I am not someone who enjoys spending every spare moment experimenting with code - my interests lie in other areas of IT. Having said that, I have put as much effort into this subject as any other that I have done.

Specifically, I have found that the book skips over the basics, and makes a lot of assumptions about the reader's prior knowledge. I often find myself leafing backwards and forwards through the book looking for information that I know I have previously read, but cannot find again without wasting a great deal of time because of its poor layout. There is a dearth of explanation - I know that the best way to learn programming is to do it, but if what you're doing isn't working you need to understand why and be able to fix it without wanting to throw the computer out of the window ;-)

I am searching now for some books that will help me to finish the subject.I don't want to go into the exam on a wing and a prayer, I'd actually like to do well. This book on its own is not going to get me there.

Perhaps, it's different these days, as kids leaving school may have already studied computing subjects before going to uni, but for mature age students new to programming, there is a lot of catching up to do before this book would be helpful. I hope this has been of assistance to anyone else in the same boat. ... Read more

Product Description
Intro Programming course is estimated currently at 150-200,000 and growing.Visual Basic is taking over where BASIC, Qbasic, and QuickBasic once dominated, in the Introductory Business Programming course.That trend will continue as VB continues to encroach on other less progressive languages such as COBOL and the Basic variations listed above within CIS and Business departments.The courses that can be supported by this text are not specific to any one type of institution, since VB in a Business course is largely a functional topic needed by all types of students from 2-4 year, to Vo-Tech, to extended, to even adult education. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

good for a classrom book
good book as a classroom study, not so good as a self learner. lot's of info missing that you would get in an interactive environment, such as the exercise answers. and no website available for more info as many others provide. as a class text this is understandable as the students normally wouldn't have all the answers available to them except thru the teacher.

Programming in Visual Basic 6.0
I NEVER ordered this book but you sent it and charged me for it anyway. I returned it upon its arrival but had to go to extreme hastles to communicate with you people. Have you re-embursed my account yet? That's the first time I've ever had a problem with Amazon, but I still love you.

good service but need better packaging
the book was received in a good, timely manner at a cheap price
at a fraction of the cost of a new book, i am doing all my assignments and learning more about vb
the only thing that would need improvement is packaging
a cd came along with this book but since the packaging was done in an envelope it was broken in half which has prevented me from doing work at home
otherwise, this is a good seller and would deal with them again if they improve their packaging
thanks

A good investment
Concise, precise and with hands-on examples of entire projects. This book is scattered with coloured screenshots to illustrate their instructions so you never have to guess what the authors mean. Targetted at the absolute beginner (in programming) but as it is a breeze to read, the more advanced reader is sure to pick up a few VB gems on his stroll through it.

Excellent book to start VB6.0
I was lucky to stumble across this book in Amazon.com and didn't really know what I was getting. Once reading through the first chapters and trying some of the exercises I realize this is great. The book teaches you the correct way to program in simple descriptive language. I have now leant what I need to start my own small projects and have ordered the Advanced VB6 from the same authors, looking forward to getting it. The book also comes with the learning VB6.0 CD which gets you started. ... Read more

Product Description
Currently there are more than 500,000 programmers worldwide who use Visual Basic and Microsoft Office to develop applications. This is a great book for beginner and intermediate Visual Basic programmers and an excellent training guide for in-house corporate developers. The tutorial/reference focuses on automating objects--mostly Office 95 objects--from Visual Basic for Windows 95. ... Read more