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Review
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Reviewed: December, 2005 |
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Reviewer:
Ian Jaffe |
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I have been developing software applications utilizing Microsoft programming
languages for ten years. I began developing simple Windows applications
using Visual Basic (VB) 5 and have slowly progressed my way upwards. In 2002
I decided that it was time to move to the next level and I entered the world
of .NET. During the first six months after release lots of books became
available but I found that there was not one book that single-handedly
served the purpose of introducing me to the new environment. So instead I
read through a varied collection of books, some from O’Reilly while others
from Microsoft.
As Visual Studio 2005 approached its release date, I
began searching the internet for upcoming books, trying to find the one that
would be the most beneficial for me. The first book that I have settled on
is Visual Basic 2005: A Developer’s Notebook. This book is one of the dozen
books that is a part of the Developer’s Notebook series. In my opinion, this
is one of O’Reilly’s best book series to date because they are written
specifically for developers. Even though they’re relatively short in length,
this one coming to 228 pages before the index, they are filled with
information that one needs to know, nothing more, and nothing less. These
books are also written around a variety of code examples. In addition, the
Developer’s series has added humor that makes reading them more enjoyable.
The humor usually appears as scribbled notes on the side of the page and I
find that the humor helped me better understand the topics.
This book covers a range of VB topics from Windows
Forms to ASP.NET web applications. The book also does a good job of
introducing new Visual Basic 2005 functionality including partial classes,
productivity tools, master pages, and logon controls. This is done through
the inclusion of over fifty hands-on projects each exploring a different
feature with a special focus on how a developer can increase productivity
and simplify the development process. So, for developers that prefer to stay
hands-on and want to gain a real understanding into the benefits of the new
programming language, then this is a wonderful book to do just that. If more
assistance is needed then look no further then the book’s recommendations
for further experimentation as well as the extensive listing of internet
resources.
With the real emphasis on time-saving development
methods, this book will certainly increase any developer’s productivity.
This book is broken into the following sections: Visual Studio, The Visual
Basic Language, Windows Applications, Web Applications, Files, Database, and
XML, and .NET 2.0 Platform Services. Throughout these chapters the author
uses multiple phrases to provide the reader with additional information on
any of the many topics covered. The “What about…” topic represents questions
that one may have come up with while reading a particular section. An
example of this is when the book is discussing the exception assistance
tool, new to Visual Basic 2005. In bold text “What about…” is clearly
displayed and in the paragraph underneath the author continued with
“…solving complex problems?” This turned out to be a useful method of
getting the reader to think more deeply about the topics in the book.
Another phrase that is used is “Where can I learn more?” This topic appears
after every major section and is where one can find useful web links and
book recommendations. A third common phrase is “How do I do that?” This is
where after reading about a topic one will learn how to test it and find out
just how to make it work for them.
Although there are many positive aspects to this book,
there are a few negatives. Occasionally the author will state that a
particular feature is new too Visual Basic 2005 when in truth it was readily
available since Visual Studio .NET 2003. Examples of this include the
AndAlso function, Intellisense when using Try… Catch… End Try blocks and
Intellisense when using System.Exception. Another negative factor is that
there are a couple of errors that can be found in the book’s source code.
Fortunately, this only happens in a few places throughout the text.
If one desires additional information on the
improvements with ASP.NET web services and applications then look no further
then ASP.NET 2.0: A Developers Notebook. This book is written in the same
style, and is an easy read that focuses on the features of the new language
as well as methods of increasing productivity. Also in the same O’Reilly
series is Visual C# 2005: A Developer’s Notebook. This book is helpful for
all developers even those that have never developed in C# before.
Overall, this is a great book and I highly recommend
it. The book is easy to read and at times even enjoyable to read. The
examples throughout the text are very helpful and cover a wide variety of
features. If it was not for the inclusion of flawed code examples and
misrepresenting Visual Studio features as being new, when they are not, I
would give this book five stars. Instead I give this book four out of five
stars. |
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