Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Step by Step

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Customer Reviews:

Step by Step says it all [Posted on 2008-05-17]
I am almost finished with this book. I am working my way through this and one of the "dummies" guides at the same time. I am getting much more out of this book. The examples are clear. Everything has worked (so far!) and I like the general pace. A side note: make sure to check out all the (free) help on the web if you are learing a new language! Before I beat my head against the wall too long, normally a quick google will help point me the right direction.

Great Book [Posted on 2008-07-03]
This book is great for starters and pro alike. But you need to keep your mind open as you do the exercises. For instance i encountered this problem while i was doing MyCheckBox exercise. The author gave the code in the book as

If CheckBox1.Checkstate = 1 Then
PictureBox1.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\calcultr")
PictureBox1.Visible =True
Else
PictureBox1.Visible = False
End IF

and

If CheckBox2.Checkstate = 1 Then
PictureBox2.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\copymach")
PictureBox2.Visible =True
Else
PictureBox2.Visible = False
End IF

I got this kind of message while trying to debug the program
"A first chance exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in System.Drawing.dll"

the code should have been given as


If CheckBox1.Checkstate = 1 Then
PictureBox1.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\calcultr.bmp")
PictureBox1.Visible =True
Else
PictureBox1.Visible = False
End IF
and

If CheckBox2.Checkstate = 1 Then
PictureBox2.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile _
("c:\vb08sbs\chap03\copymach.bmp")
PictureBox2.Visible =True
Else
PictureBox2.Visible = False
End IF

instead.I could not figure out the problem at first until i compared the code i wrote with that of the completed exercise the author gave.
Another minor problem i encountered was in chapter 4 pg 116. The author assumes that we all are using a Microsoft Office suite that has Microsoft publishers file,but it was not the case for me as I am using Microsoft Office student and home edition which does not have Microsoft publishers files, so i was not able to complete this exercise as i was supposed to.
Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Step by Step

Good for beginners [Posted on 2008-08-24]
Good book for who do not have some experience with VB programming but not for those who wanted some in-depth knowledge.

I found some free documentation of vb.net 2005 and, to me, was very helpful.

Well done Michael! [Posted on 2008-08-27]
I'm almost to the very end of the book now and I must say Halvorson did a great job with this book. Someone here complained that he kept making references back to other things in the book. Well, yes. However, you gotta keep in mind if you pick this book up just to refresh yourself on a particular task, say learning Printing, you might need to also refer to an earlier part of the book for a particular aspect of programming that is used in Printing. Michael does an excellent job of making references to other stuff in the book just for this very reason. If you need only a particular part of programming, then you'll get it AND the references to other areas of coding in case you've forgotten how they work.

As far as I'm concerned this book is set up wonderfully for those who are new to the language as I was. I've dabbled in programming for years now but this was the first time I have tried my hand at developing Windows programs. Michael does quite well at not only explaining different points of the language, but he also gives excellent examples of how you can relate the coding to different Windows functions. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone who is wanting to learn the Visual Basic language.

Bravo Michael! Bravo!

Excellent tutorial and reference. [Posted on 2008-08-29]
Started from scratch with a VB 2008 Experss Edition project. Even though this book was not written for Express, it was an excellent guide. I purchased a book written for VB 2008 Express and did not even use it becaues this book was so much better.

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