An organized approach to gaining a foundation upon which to learn VB.net
I'm 53 years old and have been programming for 40 years. I picked up Robin's book about 2 years ago. Prior to that my most recent experience was with VBA and Access Basic. 15 years before that I had done some mainframe work in PL/I, SAS and older Basics. I had never done any OOP and my UI was limited to VBA.
This book is an excellent tutorial. You can go through it, chapter by chapter. Don't use the CD -- type in the examples and then alter them little by little and you will learn how this stuff works. I think that if had started with a larger book I would have spent too much time wandering about, and would not have gained a solid foundation.
I hope Robin decides to write a 2005 version.
Great but ...
Hmm, a bit thin for a book that lists code for two languages. And often, the author forgets her own advice to "put the reader ahead of being clever". Also, the naming convention she uses will confuse people at times. But then again, if you know what you're doing - and you should be at that level when you start this book - you will find the content outstanding and very useful. Overall, I'd say that this one's great to get into OOP.
Good text but the
Well the book isn't bad at all, the code samples aren't explained enought, some OOP basics are there but I would recommend other readings. For sure this isn't a book for beginners, you must have some background in OOP programming to get it. Mainly the Interface chapters, very confusing.
Great for starters
This book is great for beginners. But this is certainly not for newbie and would be great plus for programmer who knew VB and fundamental of .Net and willing to learn vb.net oops concepts. Examples are chosen well and explain in detail and elaborate. Once you complete the tutorials, you will also get some proficiency in C# too.
Overall a good book to kick start your OOP using VB.net and C#.
Good discussion but horrible examples
The author has perfect understanding of the subject and able to present each topic in a masterly fashion. But there is a terrible flaw in the book. It is the examples chosen for the step-by-step implementation. Most of the chapters have their unique samples getting implemented, and there is no continuity between chapter to chapter examples. Secondly, the examples are not mainstream. For example, Chapter 7 handles Events and Delegates. She has chosen a train running on a track and the track catching fire as the example. To implement this the reader has to draw the tracks on the form and has to learn the Graphics class. Events and Delegates by themselves are very complicated. Why should one complicate the topic further by introducing another difficult topic such as Graphics. Because of this "Events and Delegates" discussion is lost and burried under the Graphics discussion. If the author used a Banking or College registration example, every one understands the business process and could concentrate just on the topic at hand, namely Events and Delegates. Unless you want to get distracted by such examples in each chapter, don't buy this book
(27 reviews)
