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Reviews (13)

A perfect book for ADO
this is a very good book, comparing to MSDN ADO note on the web, which covers only access to .mdb database, this book covers a variety of methods and databases. Thank for the great contribution.

Visual Basic ADO Book
This is a well written book for existing programmers who want to learn ADO. While the examples are in Visual Basic, the core concepts of ADO are very detailed and anyone with an understanding of a similar language, such as ASP or C++ should have no trouble applying the examples to the other language. It will not help you if you don't already know how to program. Its all here.
You can't get a more complete ADO book.. ever gritty detail is in this book.. It's almost too much information.:- ) if you code ADO.This is a good book to have. Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Data Structures    5. Database Management - General    6. Database design    7. Databases    8. Design    9. Distributed Computer Systems    10. Management Information Systems    11. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    12. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    13. Programming Languages - General    14. ADO, ActiveX Data Objects, Microsoft, data access    15. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    16. Computers / Languages / Programming    17. Computers / Programming / Object Oriented    18. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    19. Computers/Programming Languages - General    20. Internet programming    21. Object-oriented programming (OOP)    22. Web sites   

Reviews (4)

Must Have Book!!!
Tom Armstrong's development of a simple class that grows upto be an automation control isvery straight forward. The clear logical progression is well supported by the accompanying source code that I compiled andworked with asI traversed through the book.I was able to apply thetechniques directly in creating my own activeX control for use with ourproduct.There are a few improvements that should be incorporated into thenext edition: 1. A proof- reader needs to be hired...too manytypeos...Figure 6.5 on p.256 is not even readable. 2. A small "snippet" of detailed usage intructions for certain utilitieslike the ActiveX Control Pad presented in Chap12.Otherwise a keeper!!!

ActiveX and MFC? Buy this book...
For a great resource of how to develop activex controls with MFC...this isthe book. Talk about Hitting the Nail on The Head...
This book is a must have for all newbies to ActiveX Control Development. Tom Armstrong shows you how to develop a robust ActiveX Control using themost efficient routes..He leads you past all of the troublespots andguides you with the best methods.I developed my first ActiveX Controlwithin 4 days after walking through all of the great samples he had in hisbook..If asked, I would recommend this book to anyone. It's a must have. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Application software    3. Computer Bks - Internet    4. Computer Books And Software    5. Computer Networks    6. Computers    7. Development    8. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    9. Internet - General    10. Microcomputer Application Software    11. Programming - General    12. World Wide Web    13. Computer Programming    14. Electronic mail (email)    15. Wide area networks (WANs)   

Reviews (5)

COM Programming by Example
Caveat Emptor;
Yeah Swank does it again
This is the worst example of a programming book I have ever purchased.The worst insult was the fact that even though on the cover it says using ActiveX. A whopping four pages are dedicated to ActiveX which is justscreen shots of what the MS IDE looks like and an explanation blatantlyproclaiming that if the reader wants to learn ActiveX then he or she needsto buy another book.Used car salesman and con artist selling an inferiorproduct use this type of tactic (the Bait and switch). Please heed mywarning save your money. Yeah John Swank does it again hopefully he willnot do it to you.

Swanke does it Again!
I purchased his other two books and this one fill sout my library. I love his examples--whenever I have something to do I try hisbooks first ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Application software    2. COM (Computer architecture)    3. Computer Books And Software    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Development    7. Networking - General    8. Operating Systems - Windows    9. Programming - General    10. Programming - Object Oriented Programming   

Reviews (11)

One of my 2 favorite books
I got the 1st edition of this book when it came out, and will get the next edition when it comes out. The book is exactly what it claims to be; I see some negative remarks in previous reviews saying that this book is aworkbook and that other books have more detail. They may have more details(debateble), but don't cut right to the bone with critical info like thisbook does. The info per page ratio is very high. This book is not for thewindows or c/c++ beginner, but is for the COM beginner. (FYI to a previousreview, COM/ActiveX are essentially the same thing, OLE is based uponthese, and the book doesn't cover any "OLE" technology likelinking, embedding etc... and clearly states so at the beginning) May get you started... But
This book is simple, well organized, and easy to read.HOWEVER, that is the book's downside.If you need to write a COM application your going to need more detailed books.Those detailed books will cover what this coversin the first few chapters."Learning DCOM", "InsideCOM+" are places to start

Uncluttered and spare, very fundamental
My favorite COM book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. OLE (Computer file)    5. Object-Oriented Programming    6. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    7. Operating Systems - General    8. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    9. Programming Languages - General    10. High level programming languages    11. Internet   

Reviews (24)

The King of all introductory Books about COM technologies
This book is a deep survey of COM within 300 clearly written pages, and many many pictures and schemes. If you are looking for code examples etc. it is NOT FOR YOU. But if you want to understand what is COM, what are COM related technologies; if you are looking for best introduction, it has no rival.

A technical accurate, brilliant and clear no code intro
If you are interested in COM this is a must read. Clear, easy to follow, accurate explanation of the concepts. If you are interested in code look at Don Box "Essential COM" book, but read this one first.

great book for a high level understanding of COM
This is one of my favorite books. This book gave me an excellent understanding of COM architecture. It's concise and has just the right amount of info. If you are looking for a ready made set of code sample to cut & paste in your project or if you are more interested about 'how' than 'why' of COM then this book is not for you. I have recommended this book and also lent my copy to many. I couldn't keep the book down. An excellent read. David Chappell has done a great job! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Networks    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. OLE (Computer file)    6. Object-Oriented Programming    7. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    8. Operating Systems - General    9. Programming - General    10. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    11. Programming Languages - General    12. Object-oriented programming (OOP)    13. Wide area networks (WANs)   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (29)

Disappointing book
The book covers ActiveX/COM but in a very wordy fashion. Pages and pages of irrelevant text make finding the core issues difficult. Some of the topic examples are reasonably useful, others are extremely trite. Surely Appleman can come up with better scenarios than rabbits in hutches. Second review and this is still a bad book
About a year ago, I wrote a review about this book.Everyone was saying that this was a great book, so when I gave this book only 1 star, I took alot of heat from people who think that "Dan's the Man!!".I decided to review this book again.This is my second review and my result is still the same.Dan may be the guru of Visual Basic but he cannot communicate those thoughts into written words.Don't get me wrong, Dan knows how to talk and this book is full of talk, but talk is not teaching nor will talk help you master the advanced subjects such as COM.In this book, Dan starts to tell you about subject, then he goes off on a tangent.Sooner or later, he might return to the subject.The cartoons in the book have a striking resemblance to "Bevis and Butthead".That is a scary thought!Bevis and Butthead becoming software developers and then writing a book about it.The cheap sales pitches for software that his company sells should have been put into an appendix.This book is a very large book (800+ pages) but if you cut out the cartoons and all of the talk, this book would be 1/2 of it's size. I recommend Peter Vogel's book "Visual Basic Object and Component Handbook" instead. Dan is a very smart man but that does not mean he is a great author.

Good book for someone who only likes to read
I buy most programming books with the expectation that there will be some step by step modules geared toward developing some type of application.I found nothing of the sort in this book.I found a lot of code to demonstrate what the author was saying.I felt the whole book - was geared toward the history and explanation of what various programming components were all about.I am an accomplished ASP Web/Database Developer and was interested in learning how to write activex components.I thank the author for wasting my money! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. BASIC (Computer program language)    3. Basic (Programming Language)    4. Computer Books And Software    5. Computer Networks    6. Computers    7. Computers - Languages / Programming    8. Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows    9. Programming - General    10. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    11. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic   

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Computer Bks - Internet    3. Computer Books And Software    4. Computer software    5. Development    6. Internet - General    7. Internet programming    8. Networking - General    9. Programming - General    10. Internet    11. Software engineering   

Reviews (1)

Good book for introducing web programming
This book is a good book to introducong web programming. This book learn you about HTML and javascript and VBScript. Also server side web programming is learned in easy and brief. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Computer Bks - Internet    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Networks    5. Computers    6. Internet - General    7. Internet programming    8. Microcomputer Application Software    9. Programming - General    10. Programming Languages - General    11. Internet    12. Networking packages    13. Programming languages   

Editorial Review

Two of the most powerful, albeit complex, technologies available to the Visual C++ programmer are ActiveX and COM. This book is a tool for the professional developer and gets down and dirty on topics such as interoperability, remote execution, and ActiveX control development.Read more

Reviews (15)

From Easy To Impossible In One Page!
I am an entry level developer and I am trying to grasp this COM/DCOM stuff. This book was recommended but it just doesn't help. The book starts off with what looks like a nice easy intro to COM and DCOM then jumps to ahole lotta hoopla, what is going on? The code examples are difficult tofollow and do not make sense unless you know what you are doing. They jumpfrom topic to topic and mainly confuse the reader. I do not recommend thisbook unless you have a good understanding of ActiveX and COM already. Andif you are not experienced with Visual C++, don't even bother.

Create engineering solutions - or snow your friends?
If you seek a book that provides real solutions to programming challenges, skip this one.If you're looking for ways to impress your friends by baffling them with useless detail and confusing presentation, by all meansbuy it!Basically, you get the generic plagiarization of COM overview, andthen a rambling, incoherant dissertation on the benefits of micro-analyzingbinary code dumps while investigating everything of irrelevance.Theseguys are the type that want to rewrite the world's entire software base inassembler. Nice book with real examples
After reading Inside Com, I read this book and found it easy to understand and full of useful programs and tips of how to generate files from IDL. One of the best books in market. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Networking - Intranets & Extranets    6. Programming Languages - C    7. Programming Languages - Visual C++    8. C & Visual C    9. Intranet    10. Local area networks (LANs)   

Reviews (11)

Chapter 9
Chapter 9 .. That's where they ask the question "What is an Active Server Page?", a question you presumably asked BEFORE reading chapters 1-8. A great -- and apparently misunderstood -- book
A fine book if you want the practical side of writing an Active web page. Lots of practical examples. True it isn't just about ASP, but it is about using ASP to develop a whole Web site. Best of 3 books I have on thesubject.

This book gives catalog/online shopping a bad name.
The title and jacket suggest this book is some ASP "real-world problem" solver. At more than 500 pages this book appears to really get deep in ASP applications.Read more

Subjects:  1. Active server pages    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books And Software    4. Computer Networks    5. Computers    6. Design    7. Desktop Publishing    8. Desktop Publishing - General    9. Internet - Web Site Design    10. Operating Systems - General    11. Programming Languages - General    12. Web sites    13. Internet languages   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (1)

The book jumps levels
I think the book is very good, but obviously it jumps around levels depending on who you are.The higher levels are not covered enough at all. I personally would not wanted the book to have included all the detail on how to do conditional vbscript statements and other simple tasks. I'd have liked to have seen much more in depth coverage of how to use ActiveX inside and outside the internet explorer.I'd especially like to see more example code regarding doing useful things when writing a visual basic application 'running' the webbrowser interface inside of a form. But the book is very well written I will not deny that, I'm just stating that for my own interest I'd like it to be a little more in depth.It's hard to judge a book by going to a book shop for a short while.I'd not have gotten it if I knew there was a lot of lessons that are very redundant to my own personalpast learnings. Thanks for writing the book, VERY many things were great, but I like a little more challenge reading. Tom Bonne ... Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Computer - Internet    3. Computer Bks - Internet    4. Computer Books: Languages    5. Computer Networks    6. Computer programs    7. Computers    8. Internet - General    9. Microcomputer Application Software    10. Networking - General    11. Programming - General    12. World Wide Web    13. Utilities & tools    14. Wide area networks (WANs)   

Editorial Review

Surely, our society must have passed some technological milestone in order for component software to merit a comic novella. Read more

Reviews (26)

Indespensible
It is an indespensible book for anyone in IT. I don't know how I survived without Mr. Bunny's Guide. It is that informative. Whether you're a programmer, database administrator, web developer systems administrator or project manager. This is the book to get.

Very funny parody of ActiveX and computer geeks
First off, if you want to learn about ActiveX, then this is not the book for you. However, if you want to be entertained by a parody of ActiveX, where wordplay, innuendo and absurdity about ActiveX are used to create some very funny jokes, then it is right for you. Mr. Bunny, the smart one with the glasses and pocket protector, and Farmer Jake, the guy in the overalls with the rake, are the main characters in a story about a "quest" for knowledge. One of the funniest things ever in any medium on any subject
I'm not exaggerating. This is one of the best examples of whimsical humour ever, and I speak as a life-long fan of Monty Python, The Goons, Steve Martin, Beachcomber, John Lennon's poems, etc. etc. The contents page alone is God-like. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Form - Parodies    5. Internet - General    6. Programming - General    7. Programming - Software Development    8. High level programming languages    9. Internet   

Reviews (2)

Is This Book For You?
Keep in mind that this book is a reference book, and so I will get straight to the juicy stuff as to how this book is for you. Multiply the power of your applications with ActiveX
This is the comprehensive and official reference documentation on Automation! Use it to discover how ActiveX and OLE can multiply the power, the usefulness, and the value of all your applications for Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows NT. It tells you how to use and enhanceyour applications using the ActiveX Techonology. It explains topics such as: Building applications and programming tools that expose objects,which canthen be acted on by other executable ActiveX components. Using oneapplication to create and manipulate ActiveX objects that are exposed inanother application. Developing ActiveX components that act as clients andmore, I think any one serious in ActiveX should read this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books And Software    4. Computers    5. OLE (Computer file)    6. Object-Oriented Programming    7. Object-oriented programming (Computer science)    8. Programming - General    9. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    10. Programming Languages - General    11. Reference    12. Computer Programming    13. Computer graphics software   

Reviews (3)

Delphi Programming with COM and ActiveX
This book is a waste of paper. It just recycles
If you are serious about COM, DON't BOTHER WITH THIS BOOK
***A V O I D ***T H I S *** B O O K !!! Good, clear coverage - but in 2002?
I had to double-check the date on this book, and it is indeed a 2002 title (it even has a translation copyright of 2003).Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. COM (Computer architecture)    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computer software    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Delphi (Computer file)    8. Design    9. Development    10. Programming - General    11. Programming - Software Development    12. Programming Languages - Delphi    13. Programming Languages - General    14. Programming languages   

Reviews (11)

80% fluff for Visual C++ programmers
Book deals with one single ActiveX control, with no UI, and a simplisticpurpose.Yet the author spends 80% of the book explaining the *businesslogic* (not the ActiveX-specific issues) of this silly example. (and thecode listings of every iteration)Good beginning, good chapter on VBX toOCX (if you need that), but overall dissapointing.Hardly"inside-out" coverage to a proficient VC++ developer.

Complete reference for in-process ActiveX controls w/ MFC
If you are looking to develop in-process ActiveX controls, this book will make a very good reference.Although the examples could be more mainstream, the technology detailed makes it a read worth your while. After all, it is as close to the source as you can get & you get thiswithout worrying about marshalling, local or remote.The focus is on freemarshaling, a.k.a. non-existant, as it should be.

Actually, it's two and half
the stars are given to the style that explains things from the ground. However, it's out of date somehow for COM programming using MFC. I'd like to recommend Beginning MFC COM. (4 stars, unless you have a goodunderstanding on COM, otherwise, go to Inside COM =>Essential COMfirst). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computers    4. Object-Oriented Programming    5. Programming - General    6. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    7. Programming Languages - General    8. VBScript (Computer program language)    9. Computer Communications & Networking    10. High level programming languages    11. Operating systems & graphical user interfaces (GUIs)   

Reviews (2)

Trash and money waste
I would agree with the other review of this title, but a 2-star rating a too high for this book. It lacks anything that is not covered in documentation, and it is a very rare case when documentation is really better than this trash. I had to write a short program doing specific and simple speech recognition task and ordered this book. To say that I was disappointed is to say nothing. I still had to address documentation and found it much better. Moreover, the book is out of date. SAPI 5.1 was flourishing when this title was issued, and the title discusses SAPI 4.0 Besides, it is impossible to get ant actual skills and learn how to develop speech apps from this book.
Disappointing . . .
I bought this book expecting to learn how to incorporate Microsoft Speech functionality into Visual Basic applications. This book fell considerably short of the mark, in my opinion.Several criticisms: (1) Although copyrighted 2004, essentially everything in the book is VB 6 and SAPI 4, even though VB.Net and SAPI 5 came out in 2003.The differences are significant enough to make the examples in the book quite difficult to apply in a current VB.Net environment. (2) The book is very long on description and short on example code. The examples given are short code snippets -- there are no annotated complete program examples, which would have been very helpful.(3) The book has no index, which seems to me inexcusable in an age where a word processor can generate one almost automatically.(4) 150 of the 358 pages are appendices containing things like a 90+ page list of SAPI properties, methods, and events -- all readily available and much more current in the SAPI documentation.(5) Basic instructions for installing the SDK and SAPI and getting Visual Studio to find them are so scattered and lacking in detail as to be essentially useless. (6) The book is poorly edited, with a number of sentences missing words, and material scattered throughout the book that should have been arranged in coherent topics.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming - General    5. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    6. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic   

Reviews (1)

Stupendous
Hi, I'm in Kurt's Intro to Artificial Intelligence class at the University of Chicago. Hi Fensterdude!Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Computer Bks - Internet    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Networks    5. Computers    6. Internet - General    7. Internet programming    8. VBScript (Computer language)    9. Computer Communications & Networking    10. Internet   

Editorial Review

The order in which ActiveX and VBScript appear in this title should be reversed: This book is a solid and detailed tutorial on VBScript and how to use it within an ActiveX browser environment. The authors ease you into the subject with simple projects that introduce VBScript, the ActiveX Control Pad (Microsoft's free visual tool for adding ActiveX controls to Web pages), and basic manipulation of HTML and browser objects through VBScript. With these preliminaries mastered, you move on to a hefty middle section that offers a thorough grounding in VBScript. Detailed chapters cover datatypes, variables, operators, events, string manipulation, functions, loops, and single- and multi-dimensional arrays. The author illustrates the discussion with examples covering many common uses for VBScript, including data validation and manipulation of HTML objects.Read more

Reviews (4)

One of the Best VBScript book!
I like the way Ms. Lemay wrote the book, She makes it easy for a beginner like me in VBscript easier to understand the language. It is like one of her Teach Yourself books! I highly recommend this as a good reference!

A very good Intro to ActiveX and VBScript, but ...
This book does a very good job of getting you right into ActiveX, and then slowly adds the VBScript. While the examples on the CD are well documented, I couldn't get a few of them to work (SelectedIndex) for one. However, Iwould recommend this book as both a good reference and usuable tool. Notethat you should have a pretty good understanding of HTML. If you don't,you'll have problems, but the CD has an HTML book on it that is easilyindexed. It helped me out greatly.

A must-have even in 1999!
Excellent step by step lessons on using ActiveX and VBscript.This book cleared up alot of questions I had.I just bought this book a week ago (May 1999) and I wish I had bought it a long time ago.Although this bookwas published in 1997, it is unbelievably useful today! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. ActiveX    2. Basic (Programming Language)    3. Computer Bks - Internet    4. Computer Books: Languages    5. Computer Networks    6. Computers    7. Internet - General    8. Internet programming    9. Programming - General    10. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    11. VBScript (Computer program lan    12. VBScript (Computer program language)    13. Electronic mail (email)    14. vbscript   

Reviews (2)

One-Word Review: "Useless"
Multi-word Review: The Authors dance around the issue of actually programming an ActiveX control and only present a "tutorial" on how to use ActiveX in an HTML document. In light of the functionality in FrontPage and InterDev to drag-n-drop controls into an HTML document, this book is useless!!

Everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask...
Very helpful and comprehensive tome that takes the web object neophyte all the way to ActiveX Wizard.Earns the full four @'s from this reader/programmer wannabe. Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Internet    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Networks    4. Computers    5. Internet - General    6. Internet programming    7. JavaScript (Computer program language)    8. Microcomputer Application Software    9. Programming - General    10. Programming Languages - General    11. VBScript (Computer program language)    12. High level programming languages    13. Networking packages   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Internet    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computer Networks    4. Computers    5. Internet (Computer network)    6. Internet - Browsers - Internet Explorer    7. Internet - General    8. Internet programming    9. Programming (Computers)    10. Programming - General    11. Explorer    12. Networking packages    13. Utilities & tools