Review by B. Bauman for Advanced Programming Using Visual Basic 2008
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This is the worst programming text book I’ve had so far. Chapters are poorly focused, and often certain programming ideas are only partially explored with a brief mention, but no solid example of implementation. Every chapter is a long linear confusing slog through various concepts without self contained examples. A good chunk of the material is drag and drop windows form building, while the more important basic concepts/features that actually require more instruction are glossed over.

Also, for some reason, this author does not use camel casing like in every other programming book I’ve read. Everything from methods, to fields, and properties, use pascal casing making it difficult to glance at the source code and quickly find what you are looking for.

The only good thing (for some people) is that it introducing the reader to 3 tier programming. Overall, I’m pretty upset that I was required to waste money on this book.

Review by Sean Haddy for Advanced Programming Using Visual Basic 2008
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Horrid book, I had to purchase this for my Advanced VB Class, and I’m upset at the dramatically horrible organization and coverage this book presents. I do not recommend this book for anyone who wants to actually understand advanced fundamentals of programming with Visual Basic .NET (Personally, stick with C#, its industry standard). Go find a WROX or WILEY book worth your time to read, and your money to spend… Universities, please look elsewhere.

Review by Keith for Advanced Programming Using Visual Basic 2008
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I’m a current college student and into my Advanced Visual Basic class, and I must say, WOW! This book was so hard to follow that I just decided not to use this book for my class. The chapters are very unorganized, and I just can’t see anyone learning any advanced concepts with this book. If you are looking for a good VB book that covers both basic and advanced topics, get “Pro VB 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform” written by Andrew Troelsen, which does a remarkable job of explaining important concepts. Throw this book in the trash, you won’t regret it!

Review by J. Hoefler for Advanced Programming Using Visual Basic 2008
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Wow.. This is the first textbook I’ve ever had that I will gladly throw away when class is over. I have a WHOLE bookshelf of books from previous classes that I refer back to. This won’t be one of them. I will never touch this book again. Chapters 3-5 on databases are a mess. Reading it is a mess. Trying to understand it is a mess. The Database interaction is taught using one method, then gears are switched and then it is all switched again. There is no coherency to this method. My VB class (including instructor) all agree on this. The class tried to go by the book and it just pushed our class out by 2-3 weeks and we are now playing catch up. I am suspect of any further information later in this book due to the problems in those chapters.

A breakdown in the separate ideas being presented is necessary before throwing it all into an application and then left wondering why it doesn’t work.

There is just no logical progression in how this book is laid out. It is like throwing paint on a wall and trying to figure it out.. Needs more organization! I can’t turn to any particular section in each of those chapters and see a logical progression.

Something like..

Step 1.. What are the different parts to the database app.. Tableadapters.. Bindingsource.. Dataset.. What do they do.

Step 2.. Do a simple database application..

Step 3.. add some ideas on what can enhance it. Filters.. More complicated binding of fields..

Step 4.. add those ideas to the application..

and so on..

Also would be nice to have more diagrams showing what all is happening here?

Also, what is up with the brief commenting of the code in the examples? A chapter before/after the code example is so much less informative if you have to keep dissecting the code examples to see what the author is referring to.

I will make sure my review of my class includes that the class was crippled due to the textbook and I will implore the school drop it for any future classes.

Oh… Appendix B is pretty good. Well thought out and a good recap of introduction to VB. The same care should have been paid to chapters 3-5. Maybe I’ll rip out that appendix and keep it.

Review by NENGLEMAN for Advanced Programming Using Visual Basic 2008
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Needed this textbook for College class and it was delivered in the time frame I was given… Very pleased..