Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 [With CDROM]

Francesco Balena has written the definitive book for existing and new VB programmers! The author has distilled his very great technical knowledge of VB, very pleasing writing style, and tremendous feel for organization and presentation to create a gem of a programming text. A VB book with no equal and no substitute, it is a true classic. I wish there were a category higher than 5 stars!FOR C/C++, Java (or even Cobol) programmers wanting an intelligent introduction to VB: DON'T LOOK ELSEWHERE! This single book will quickly teach you VB without insulting your intelligence.FOR Programming Novices: Hey guys, don't start your journey on the trash-laden "made easy" paths; don't be misled by the tons of rubbish promising to get you there in 24 hours, a week, or whatever. Pick up this serious programming guide, slog a bit, and you will surely get there.Thank you Mr Balena. Yours was the BEST computer book that I read in three years.

When my boss told me that he needed an application developed using Visual Basic, I went hunting for a book that would tell me what I needed to know. Am I ever glad that I found this one! I've had plenty of experience with languages such as C, C++, Java, Perl etc ... so for me, most books are usually too basic or very general. This book is an amazing blend of basic concepts and advanced techniques. Never before have I seen an author give so many useful and insightful tips and guidelines. There is so much contained in this book that you may never figure out on your own, even with years of experience. One of the VB developers in my office continually asks to borrow my copy of this book, and he's been using VB since version 1.0!! The greatest thing about it would have to be that it is not simply another book that tells you everything you could find in the help files. It also makes a wonderful refercence. Don't expect to get rid of this book once you finish it. You will find that you are referring to it again and again, I know I do. Seriously, I'm not one to tell people to waste money on a book that teaches them what they could very well learn somewhere else for free ... but if you plan an doing any Visual Basic development at all, you absolutely must own this book. My only advice to you is to hang on to the CD in the back cover. The actual book may not last as long as your need for the information in its pages.

I am a moderate VB programmer- I spend more time working with technologies like ASP and DHTML. I was fortunate enough to attend VBITS and even more fortunate to hear Francesco give a couple of talks. After those sessions I decided I must have his book. The book is clear and concise while it still ventures into the detail that is absolutely necessary for those of us who use VB. The book is thorough; each page contains information that is pertinent and usefull. Not only that but it covers almost every dimension of the core product, Visual Basic. The book is for people who want to master their craft. If you are trying to learn a programming language in 21 days, this book is not for you because it is written with the technical detail that is absolutely necessary for mastering all the dimensions of a programming tool. Other books that promise the 21 day approach disguise the seriousness and power of Visual Basic. In short, if you are interested in mastering Visual Basic and you want a guide that will be as good in 2 days as in 1 year, buy this book!

Balena has done a great service by writing this book. His explanation is clear, concise and very few authors can write the way he does---complicating things brought to down-to-earth level. This book is both great for programmers trying to learn VB for the first time and also for experienced programmers. He explains how and why things should be done in certain ways... and I greatly appreciate that... which enables me to understand VB better. Experienced programmers can also learn as there are simple things that they may have overlooked; easier ways to perform certain tasks than one would imagine. Well-written. To me, this book is a good investment.

I anticipated this book being an excellent resource for advanced study of Visual Basic programming techniques because of Mr. Balena's frequent high-quality articles in Visual Basic Programmer's Journal. He seems to me one of the very few writers who can really communicate the theory, structure, and problem-solving techniques required to use VB's object-oriented, ActiveX, and Web related functionality ... with enthusiasm and great source code examples that are immediately useful.Studying this book and using and learning from the source code examples, libraries, and classes included on the cd-rom is, for me, like a one-on-one with an ideal mentor. I like his tone, his frequent use of sidebar notes and special explanations. He is, I think, by nature an envelope-pushing kind of a programmer and his solutions to many of the ... odd ... lacunae in VB are immediately useful in real-world problem solving. And they are delivered without diatribes against Microsoft or agenda-ranting.For example, his coverage of the TreeView control, gave me some valuable ideas that I could use right away to solve a problem I was working with in implementing drag and drop.I've found, to my delight, that this is really about six books in one. As an introduction and overview of Visual Basic as a programming language it's excellent and I'd recommend it for any programmer who wishes to evaluate Visual Basic's facilities and structure.As a tutorial on the Object/Class aspects of VB, etc. I found it to be the most lucid writing I've encountered ... and he addresses, with source code examples, polymorphism and inheritance ... areas in VB that have been problematic because VB does not offer true inheritance.I have only begun to skim and study the detailed section on ADO, but I noticed that his explanation of hierarchical recordsets seemed immediately understandable to me in a way that various articles and white papers I've read have not.Book number 4 ... I found Balena's approach to explaining ActiveX and COM, dll's, etc. lucid and clear and very helpful. I personally am not at the level where I can grok Dan Appleman's books, and I felt that Balena's focus ... and the gradated source code examples ... are exactly what I need to increase my competence in this area.And, Book 5 ... I really like Francesco's approach to the new Web features of VB6; there's just enought html content to warm me up to the content on DHTML and he includes his own tools (with source !) for exploring DHTML.Book 6 ... Distributed applications, ASP, IIS Applications. I hope I can get there, eventually.What you have in this book is a kind of a "core dump" by an enthusiastic and innovative programmer who wants you to learn what he knows.Of course, no book is perfect. There are some things on the cd-rom that are mysterious and do not execute as they are obviously designed to do. There is some deficiency in the indexing of the book.The "heroic" scope of the book does leave yo