Editorial Review

Imagine, for a moment, a guy. This guy, about 40 years old, has workedall of his life in a job that doesn't require much knowledge of computers,certainly not of how to write software. Now, imagine that our guy decides tochange career paths and learn computer programming. He goes and buys a bookabout a programming language, perhaps one that promotes itself as elementary.The book presents our hapless guy with recipes that he can follow, it's true,but mostly it confuses him with talk of APIs, linked lists, hashes, and a messof other stuff that he doesn't understand, really. "I can make it all work byfollowing directions," our guy implores into the Void. "But I don't understandwhat I'm doing." This guy needs Read more

Reviews (6)

Simplistic
The other reviewers here that reference their 13 year olds enjoying this book are absolutely right. This book is for 13 year olds. As a 25 year old trying to wrap his mind around programming, it leaves much to be desired.
"An illustration is worth a thousand words"
Not when the illustrations are as poorly drawn and pointless as these. eg people staring at computers, sweeping arrows with colored blends, or pointing hands (proving, yes they are hard to draw!). I can however follow the reasoning.
fundamental concepts on a silver tray
A good book does not need to be complex. This one does a great job. You could read this book during one hour and learn more than in one semester of COS111. It is so simple. Comcepts are the most important thing to learn. They give meaning to programing. Without concepts, programing becomes meaningless. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Programming    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming - General   

Reviews (44)

Must have for Professional VB/VBA Programmer
This was just what I needed to develop a special VBA program with Access. The Win32 API's let you get a little closer to the Window operating system than most standard languages.

A must have book
After buying many useless books on the VB API programming I bought this one after I read the reviews, and it is the ultimate reference ever.
DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK
This book is useless for any work or learning.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Internet General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Internet - General    5. Microsoft Visual BASIC    6. Microsoft Win32    7. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    8. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    9. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    10. Internet    11. Microsoft Windows   

Reviews (58)

Outstanding
So many .NET books are a rehash of the documentation, or say the same things as a million other books, at best in a slightly different way. This one isn't like that at all. It's full of real-world practical perspective and reality checks such as (to paraphrase) "it will be years before .NET is really being used in production", and "dont use inheritance or threading unless you really know what you're doing". Besides that, its outstandingly well written and oozes attention to detail on every page.One criticism I might level is that its really not all that VB specific - a chunk in the middle is, but much of it applies equally to the other .NET languages.Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I am honestly baffled that so many folks gave this book a negative review. Dan, please keep it up!

Nothing Special
Appleman's Developing ActiveX Components with Visual Basic 5.0 was so good that I bought Developing COM/ActiveX Components with Visual Basic 6.0 when it came out. Both of these were among the very best VB books of all time. Unfortunately, Moving to VB.NET is not in the same camp. The book tries to introduce VB6ers into VB.NET, but does a very bad job of getting from A to B. Most developers can understand most of .NET after discovering that it's 80% Java with keywords changed. Instead of starting with this foundation, the book wastes a lot of space explaining prinicples that are new to only the most hardcore Microsoft zealots. In Appleman's defense, this book was first published when .NET was still in beta and was likely rushed to press. Don't get me wrong, there is some great technical content here as Appleman is still a great technician and good at explaining the "internals" of things. The COM Interop and Accessing the Win32 API chapter is particularly good and helped me get through a VB6/VB.NET integration project. If you're totally new to VB.NET and find this book on sale, buy it; otherwise, don't bother.

Dan Appleman has done it again
As I have come to expect from any text by Dan Appleman, Moving to VB .NET gives a thorough discussion of the topic, including tips for evaluating how/when/whether to deploy .NET for your organization based on your particular business needs.Mr. Appleman combines impressive technical knowledge with a sharp sense of humor to make this book as readable as it is informative.I recommend it to any experienced VB programmer looking to make the transition to .NET. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. BASIC (Computer program language)    2. Basic (Programming Language)    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Microsoft .NET    7. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    8. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Editorial Review

Read more

Reviews (12)

Excellent book!
If you use API's, or want to use API's, then I suggest getting this book.There are so many API calls out there, that no book contains them all. An Excellent Companion
As a VB programmer you should have at least 2 books on yourshelf: Dan Appleman's Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Win32 APIand this one.The former teaches by showing - serving as a reference book when you are trying enhance the functionality of your VB application.The latter teaches by doing - allowing your mind to actively grasp the concepts behind API calls, structures, and pointers, instead of mindlessly hacking through APIs, tossing in variables, hoping for success.The puzzles in this book allow you to learn from your mistakes. Mr. Appleman explains his own logic as he works through the problem. For me, this is more valuable than just being told the answer as many books in this genre do. It is a useful book in programming
You cann't programming a good VB without it ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Basic (Programming Language)    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Microsoft Visual BASIC    6. Microsoft Win32    7. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    8. Computer Programming    9. Visual Basic Programming   

Reviews (10)

Aimed At Teens But Good For All Novices
One of the problems with securing the Internet and reducing the impact of threats from malware, vulnerability exploits, phishing scams, spyware and other risks is that there are constantly new users joining the Internet community who need to be taught what the risks are and how to protect themselves. Children and teens represent a good portion of this new breed of Internet users. Not only are they new to the Internet and the concepts of security, but they tend to use the computer and the Internet in riskier ways than adults- participating in chat rooms and online gaming or transferring files on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
Good, but could be better
A basic guide for teenagers "Always Use Protection: A Teen's Guide to Safe Computing" provides a solid basic education on the problems of viruses, slammers, trojans, identity theft, and other items that could wreck their system.Besides these common problems he also discusses other ways that people can place their self in danger or be taken advantage of on the Internet.For example, he examines the problems of chat rooms and some of the various scams currently on the Internet.
Windows only!
GET A DIFFERENT BOOK IF YOU USE MAC OR LINUX. This book is not entirely useless if you own a computer that's not Windows-based -- only about 2/3 of it, and no attempt is made to generalize the remainder. We bought this book because our daughter was leaving for NYC armed with a WiFi-equipped Apple Ibook, and we thought this book would be the perfect backup, having read several glowing reviews. I fully expected the book to be *mostly* about Windows-based machines. I did NOT expect it to absolutely and totally ignore MacOS and Linux. It is written as if the words "computer" and "Windows box" are synonymous. You can see the table of contents before you buy; the appendix title "Registry Tricks" should have tipped me off. It's especially irritating (and not the author's fault, of course) that none of several fairly extensive professional reviews mentioned the book's total lack of information about Macs or Linux boxes. I'm not disagreeing with other reviews praising this book; I can see that it would be very useful to a Windows user; in fact I have another daughter who IS a windows user, and I'm going to give her the book. What I am saying is that it's of only the thinnest marginal use to Mac and Linux users like me. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    2. Computer Science (Young Adult)    3. Computer security    4. Computers - Computer Security    5. Computers - General    6. Juvenile Nonfiction    7. Security - General    8. Computers / Personal Computers & Microcomputers / General    9. Computing & information technology   

Reviews (4)

A excellent guide to writing windows applications.
I've been programming in Visual C++ and Visual Basic since 1993, and I found "Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Windows Api/Book" to be a valuable reference manual.Here's what I liked:easy to understand narrative, lots of examples, and a complete structural understanding of windows programming.Using API calls in VB has helped me acheive functionality I was familar with in Visual C++.

This is the best book I have seen for Visual Basic.
I have been programing with Basic since 1975 and I have read and studdied many books on the subject.I work almost strictly in graphics and without this book you can do very little graphics using the standard Visual Basic commands. This book covers every aspect of the API's and has left out very few. The ones that were left out you would probubly never need anyway. I now have Widows 95 and I am going to order his new Programer's guide to the Win32's as I now know that Daniel Appleman is the only one that I can find that really knows the Windows System and how to make Visual Basic do all that stuff that you always wanted to do but never thought you could learn. Jim Alexander

Great book for those curious about Windows' internal process
Visual Basic progammers have often been limited by VB's "keep it safe" policy. This book shows you how to go above and beyond Visual Basic's internal functions, without overstepping its bounds. This book is a must have for anyone who is beginning to feel limited by Visual Basic. Break out of VB's cage ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Basic (Programming Language)    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. Operating Systems - General    5. Programming Languages - General    6. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    7. Windows (Computer programs)    8. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    9. Databases & data structures   

Features

• Download: PDF

Reviews (15)

Best $15 I ever spent
I've read through it once, and I'll definitely have to read through it again.And probably at least once more after that.It's the perfect size for a download - small enough that I could handle printing it out, and I still have the .pdf file for when I need to search it.It's pretty dense, and there's a lot of "You need to understand 3 things about xxWhatever, and I'll explain the 3rd thing later on", but let's face it, RegEx is a VERY complicated, meaty topic.He's got an appendix to handle getting all the escape codes etc in one place for reference.The best thing is that he includes a link to free software, a RegEx tester that you can download so you can test his examples to see how they work, and then, of course, test your own expressions.If you are really new to Regular Expressions, Jeffrey E.F. Friedl has written a 430 page book, Mastering Regular Expressions, which you might also want to consider.

I was looking for something better.
If all I had wanted was an introduction to Regular Expressions in .NET, this book would have been fine, I guess. However, I had already learned quite a bit from Microsoft's documentation, and was hoping for a clear elucidation of a few points that MS had glossed over, to wit, how to use balancing expressions and alternating constructs, and also how to do some tricky things such as finding everything that doesn't match a given pattern, etc. Appleman indeed addresses the balancing expressions and alternating constructs in greater depth than the MS documentation, but his treatise is somewhat inadequate. He gives one elaborate example which uses both constructions, but fails to explain how to generalize from his example; and the regex pattern in his example itself, which is supposed to return the contents of successively nested parentheses, is not a general solution at all, but only works on a fairly narrow set of test cases. I think this stems from him having a less-than-profound understanding of regular expressions himself: he all but admits that he simply banged his head against the wall of Microsoft's documentation until he figured stuff out. Can't blame him for trying; this stuff is some of the most abstruse and dreadful stuff I've ever seen, in thirty years of professional programming. I just wish I could find something a bit more comprehensive (and comprehensible) from somebody who REALLY knows what the underlying interpreter/compiler does. All the better stuff that I've seen out there is unaware of the particulars of the .Net environment. Bottom line: since you can't get a refund on the e-book, save your money and re-read the Microsoft Stuff a few more times.

Somewhat disappointing
I'm a bit disappointed in this book. I find regular expressions to be a challenging subject, and I was looking for a clear tutorial that would start with the basics and work its way up to more complex expressions. On that basis, I bought this book.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / General    3. Programming Languages - General   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Features

• Download: PDF

Reviews (9)

I like the book, but I do not believe VB.NET is an option
All,
Much better than I expected...
I got my money's worth.He really packs a lot of information into 45+ pages.He pretty much goes blow-by-blow each feature and then gives his impression as to who the winner is.At the end, he addresses his recommendations for Java, C++, and Visual Basic programmers.Although programmers familiar with other languages aren't specifically addressed, this is still a good read and you'll know more about .NET than a lot of people who use C# (and think VB.NET is missing a lot of features, like I did). save your [money]
Dan's obviously a prolific writer, but his musings here simply were not up to his usual standard.Everything boils down to 'it's a matter of personal preference' and 'if you're a vb6 programmer, don't be intimidated into learning c#.'Read more

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Features

• Download: PDF

Reviews (4)

Contra Appleman Polishers
It's hard to see how other readers of this eBook Great writing and code in the Appleman tradition
The lessons of this PDF are twofold: Great writing and code in the Appleman tradition
The lessons of this PDF are twofold: Read more

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Subjects:  1. Basic (Programming Language)    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming Languages - BASIC    6. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    7. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    8. Microsoft Windows    9. Reference works   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computers - Languages / Programming    3. Programming - General   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Subjects:  1. Computers - Languages / Programming    2. Programming - General   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC   

Features

• Download: PDF

Subjects:  1. Computers    2. Computers / Programming Languages / Visual BASIC    3. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC