Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 2005 in 24 Hours Complete Starter Kit [With CDROM]

I don't understand all the "negative reviews" I've seen so far...I am VERY PLEASED with the book and the method of learning. So far, I have not run across anything in the book that didn't work, or better still, make sense!! I have spent a lot of money on the "RED" books, and also the "BLACK books with 'tools' on the front"...to no avail. All of those books speak as if I already knew what an "object" and a "property" and a "class" was... This book put everything into perspective for me...The answers I needed were found in it. Whereas in all the other books it seems the authors only want to show how big their vocabulary is, this one brings it down to an open level that needs no "initiation in the modern programmer's vernacular"...at some points this author comes close to "crossing that line", but for the most part, he does quite well. I recommend this book to any beginner, and also to those like me with a background in "structured" programming (as opposed to OOP) who wants to LEARN Object Oriented Programming. I will soon be purchasing a book on OOP as recommended by the author of this text, to enhance my OOP skills. Again, I am QUITE pleased with this text, and will possibly build a library of similar titles, since Visual Studio 2005 supports 3 other "platforms"...I want to MAXIMIZE the product, and this book, while using Visual Basic Epress, has opened the door to permit me to do that...I use Visual Basic 2005 Express on my Laptop, and Visual Studio 2005 on my Desktop. In time, I hope to be fluent in all the languages (platforms? Terminology is EVERYTHING!!) Visual Studio supports. I hope all those negative writers have come to terms with whatever prevented them from enjoying and growing thru this book!... JecroyezJohn316 Escondido, CA.

Sam's "Teach yourself" books are always great! This book shows what it takes to get started and progress in the world of Visual Basic .Net 2005. Always recommended!

Let me start off by saying I'm not a total idiot when it comes to computers, but I've never done any programming before. I use a program called ArcGIS at work, which uses VBA to customize the software. I decided to investigate programming a bit further and purchased this book. WOW! What a great way to learn. The step by step instructions are fantastic. Mr. Foxall challenges the reader to do some activities at the end of each chapter, requiring you to use what you learned. Yes, some of the information was hard to understand, but isn't that how we learn? I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning Visual Basic 2005.

When I bought this book, I knew several other programming languages, several databases, some Visual Basic for Applications (which is Visual Basic 6.0 without the GUI part), nothing about GUI development, and nothing about Visual Studio. I found the book to be a useful introduction to Visual Basic development using Visual Studio Express. The book comes with a Visual Studio Express CD-ROM, so you can get started immediately. By the end of lesson 2, you'll have written your first GUI application. The author explains a little, you program a little, you run the program, lather, rinse, repeat. It works. The lessons are a good size. The sample programs are reasonable and the ones I've tried so far actually work. The author does a good job of explaining the basic features of the Visual Studio development environment. The author's intended audience is beginners. If you're an experienced programmer learning VB, you can skim the sections that describe the programming language. If you want to do database development, you'll need another book after you finish this one. The author says this also. There is one database lesson, but ADO .NET is too big to describe in a chapter of any book.

This book does exactly what it states in the title. It provides an excellent introduction into the art of Visual Basic. I reviewed a number of books before selecting this one and fully recommend it, especially for anyone like me who had never previously experimented with VB and finds the techno speak in a lot of other books difficult to understand. This book provides clear,readily understandable step by step guides and is an ideal introduction to VB for the complete beginner.