Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition Programming for the Absolute Beginner

I am a technical instructor that teaches programming to students who have had no previous experience. I utilize many of the "absolute beginners" books to get them familiar with the landscape before dragging them into deeper "technical" books. One thing that I have noticed from "all" publishers is a series of typos that people in these reviews complain about. One thing that THEY (the reviewers) need to keep in mind, or learn, is that there is a point where the manuscript is out of the hands of the author and the technical advisors and in to the hands of people who have NO IDEA of what the material means. These people are those who transfer the manuscript from the word processor format to the publishing format. While formatting the manuscript into what would become the "final draft" before publishing. They (the typesetters) become "helpful" in correcting what they believe are mistakes. Things like (a == b) or (a != b). Also, while formatting the text, they accidentally hit keys like "space" or "del" without realizing that they just took out a portion of text during the formatting procedure. Why do I bring this up? Because I have found many books with these problems and having worked with publishers for years regarding materials have gained an education on their internal process. This book has some glitches in it from the typesetter. They all do. Putting all of that aside. The material in this book is very informative and helpful to get you up and running toward becoming a VB 2005 programmer. There is a lot of insight which this particular author brings to the table for a new student. If you are looking for the "perfect" book....you won't find it. If you do, email the title so I can teach from it. But, if you want a strong book that will get you up and running. This is a good place to start!

I have been doing computer systems and software for forty years and was looking for a training book for two new staff engineers who have engineering degrees but little programming experience. I ordered Andrew Parsons "Starter Kit" for this purpose and then ordered this book by Jerry Lee Ford as well. For reasons described below, I have selected this book, the Jerry Lee Ford book, to use for newbie training while reserving the Parsons book for those with prior programming experience. My first reaction was disappointment. There is no CD with an installable VB Express. Such a CD is handy for newbies even though the free download is there on the Microsoft site. Thumbing through the book with its large text, I thought perhaps it was written for ninth graders. (It is subtitled "for Absolute Beginners.") And the sample code applications were all simple games. I, like others, found lots of typos, like referring to Appendix A and Apendix B but forgetting to print them. If someone sees me reading this, they are going to think I am only a dummy or at best a hobbyist. BUT THEN IT GOT BETTER. I raced through the book and concluded that Mr. Ford, an exceptionally experienced VB teacher and writer, has distilled VB to its essential elements. The origins of the VB language, the .NET Framework, and Object Oriented Programing concepts were explained sufficiently and clearly along the way; but the heart of the book is the creation of several simple projects. Each start with a GUI (one or more user forms with one or more buttons or other controls), modifications of form and control properties (appearance and other), and code to do things when events happen (button clicks for example). The wonderfully easy features of drag and drop GUI design grab the reader's attention in the first third of the book as simple projects illustrate design of forms with controls, menus, and toolbars. A nice chapter on application interfaces has the reader create and publish an application and reminds the reader of the need to make the user comfortable and well informed during program execution. The middle third continues with simple applications but addresses coding procedure fundamentals. Not much has changed in the forty years since I had my first programming course, and the outline of the middle portion of the book could be from a 1960s Fortran course. Variable types, conditional logic, loops, and functions are still important topics and part of every common computer language and must be mastered for almost all real projects. The final third of the book begins with a nice explanation of the key object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts of abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism and adds chapters on graphics/audio, and debugging. The OOP's concepts fit nicely here now that the reader (not normally an experienced programmer) has used objects and has a good feel for the whole of project development. Only an experienced teacher, like the author, appreciates fully

This book is the best tutorial format book I've seen on programming VB. It starts with just a handfull of simple steps and behold, there's a real, live, working application. To be sure, it doesn't do much, but at least you have something working. I really like this approach. Within the first handfull of pages you've done something that makes sure the software is installed and working properly, you've been exposed to the IDE, you've seen (some of) the syntax of the language. From here you have the basic foundation to move on to learning what the language really does. You can go learn more about the IDE, but you already know what its for. You can learn more about thelanguage, but you already know at least a few things that it can do. Later on, if you're serious about being a programmer, you'll want a reference book, or perhaps books on the particular type of VB that you'll be using for your real application. But here is an excellent way to get started. His approach makes sense, and his writing style is both entertaining and informative.

This book is as good as anything I've seen when it comes to teaching a new programming language. I plan to use it to teach my students. The book is also fun. The author's approach of teaching your how to program by developing computer games is great. Plus, Ford provides a solid review of .NET and Object Oriented programming (OOP) that will give any new Windows programmer a real head start.

This book hits the mark. It provides a solid overview of VB Express and .Net. Its review of OOP was suprisingly easy to understand and the sample applications that you learn how to build provide a very practical learning experience. The only negative that I can point to are a few minor typos but nothing out of line with most books these days. The bottom line is that this is most understandable programming book I have every read. You won't find an easier read or a better presentation for beginner users.