I'm looking for advice here, and I would really appreciate it if you
could help.



Is there a VB 2005 book that you like and would recommend (and why)?

Would you consider it good for beginners to programming, intermediate,
or advanced level?

thanks.

Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: The Language by Francesco Balena

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735621837/ref=pd_cp_b_title/105-2966888-9022846


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Kelly,

You did not answer the question

I have the opinion that about books the starting level is very important.
The OP did not write that, therefore is in my opinion no answer possible
otherwise than that everybody tells his own level, which is in my opinion to
much asked because the OP can tell it himself.

This message as well more in general for those who ask advices about books
and things like that.

As forever, just my opinion of course..

Cor


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My apologies of course. I started with Balena's books but I had a background
in vba. So I would say you should have some coding background.


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It depends on how you define "beginner". Beginner to VB completely?
Or knows VB6 or another language and is trying to learn the 2005
version?

I read that book by Mr. Balena. I really, really liked it. I wouldn't
say it was for people who are completely new to VB. I knew VB6 and
read it, and understood it pretty well. I think it would be good
for intermediate/advanced people, too.

I also read "Standard Practices and Procedures" by Balena (which has
examples in both VB and C#) and really liked that one as well.
That's more an intermediate/advanced book, discussing performance
and best practices and explaining why. It's also VB/C#2003, not 2005,
but most of the info still applies. I didn't agree with everything
in the book though (he's sticking with Hungarian notation, or at
least, was when he wrote the book).

For beginners to both VB and to VB2005, I recommend Tim Patrick's
"Start-to-Finish VB2005". It's also good for intermediate; it
covers a lot of topics, and you end up building an entire application,
so you can see how all of the components work together.

Another of my favorite books is Brian Noyes's Data Binding book. It
has a lot of great information in it. It's definitely an intermediate/
advanced book. It's in C#, but the download code is both VB and C#.

For data, I like "ADO.Net The Core Reference" by David Sceppa.
I think it's for any level. It's mostly data access stuff.
There's *some* stuff about data binding, but winforms is not the
focus of the book. It also focuses on SQLServer data access,
not so much Access or Oracle.

I didn't like the Microsoft Step-By-Step beginner's book. It has
some stuff in it that I know isn't the recommended way of doing
things, and it bugged me. I got the feeling it was written before
VB2005 was finalized. It was for the true beginner.

I read the Thearon Willis & Bryan Newsome book, "Beginning VB.Net".
I think it was also written before VB2005 was finalized. It had a
number of bugs. It was a good basic book, though, for any kind of
beginner.

My very favorite was "Doing Objects in VB2005" by Deborah Kurata.
It explained the n-layer model and OOP, along with a bunch of
Visual Studio tricks and tips, but it won't be published until
March 2007. You could use it if you were new to VB2005, but not
if you were new to VB -- it's not *that* kind of book.

That's my 10 cents' worth. (Inflation.)

Robin S.
-------------------------------------------

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RobinS wrote:
beginner to VB completely.

For a complete beginner to VB, I found John Smiley's "Learn to Program
VB.Net" useful. The book has a lot of fluff, but if you have absolutely no
idea of what to do at all, it brings you along and gets you up to speed
quickly.

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I bought this book a couple of weeks ago.

I like the way he uses humour to break the tedium - it's a good book...

I know Balena's book and I agree.

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