Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers...

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 740 pages
• Published by: O'Reilly Media, Inc. September 21, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0596101775
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0596101770
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.4 inches
• Weighs: 2.2 pounds

Product Description


This book will help you solve more than 300 of the most common and not-so-common tasks that working Visual Basic 2005 programmers face every day. If you're a seasoned .NET developer, beginning Visual Basic programmer, or a developer seeking a simple and clear migration path from VB6 to Visual Basic 2005, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook delivers a practical collection of problem-solving recipes for a broad range of Visual Basic programming tasks.

The concise solutions and examples in the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook range from simple tasks to the more complex, organized by the types of problems you need to solve. Nearly every recipe contains a complete, documented code sample showing you how to solve the specific problem, as well as a discussion of how the underlying technology works and that outlines alternatives, limitations, and other considerations. As with all O'Reilly Cookbooks, each recipe helps you quickly understand a problem, learn how to solve it, and anticipate potential tradeoffs or ramifications.

Useful features of the book include:

• Over 300 recipes written in the familiar O'Reilly Problem-Solution-Discussion format
• Hundreds of code snippets, examples, and complete solutions available for download
• VB6 updates to alert VB6 programmers to code-breaking changes in Visual Basic 2005
• Recipes that target Visual Basic 2005 features not included in previous releases
• Code examples covering everyday data manipulation techniques and language fundamentals
• Advanced projects focusing on multimedia and mathematical transformations using linear algebraic methods
• Specialized topics covering files and file systems, printing, and databases

In addition, you'll find chapters on cryptography and compression, graphics, and special programming techniques. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook is sure to save you time, serving up the code you need, when you need it.

About The Author
John Clark Craig's programming experiences and interests go back quite a ways. In 1974 he was programming a DEC PDP8E attached to a teletype and running a paper tape loaded version of FOCAL, a simple programming language similar to BASIC. Over the years, John programmed in just about every version of the BASIC language available, and authored several books on the subject along the way. During John's career as a full-time software Engineer, he has worked on several fascinating energy and environmental projects. Currently, he's enjoying his software guru position working with a small team of bright R&D engineers as they create the next generation of high-tech self-erecting towers for the world's largest wind turbines.

Tim Patrick is a software architect and developer of custom software solutions targeting Microsoft Windows and Web-based users. Tim has over twenty years of experience in software development and software architecture, and is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). He wrote The Visual Basic DEFANGED_STYLEGuide and its successor, The Visual Basic .NET Style Guide, and recently co-authored O'Reilly's Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell.

Reader Reviews
There are a many, many reference books out there. Some are good, and some are not. Most are arranged in the "standard" way. They contain one or more chapters about each of their chosen topics. Readers are expected to read these chapters in order to learn what they need. This book, however, is a bit different. It presents hundreds of "recipes", each solving a real-world problem. Some "recipes" are less than a page long, while others span many pages. The cool part is this: most of these recipes stand on their own. You don't have to read them in order. You can choose the recipe that corresponds to your particular need, read it, and apply it to your own program. Sweet. The real worth of such a book lies in the quality of the recipes. Having hundreds of recipes available does one no good unless those recipes are actually used. I have to admit that at first I was skeptical. The first recipes were well beneath my skill level. The topics were explained well, but they were still very basic. The recipes became more interesting as I progressed through the book. Things got really interesting when I reached the chapter on graphics. From then on, I was sold. Of course, those first chapters weren't interesting to me because I already knew the material. My son, who is very much a beginning programmer, was a different story. I asked him to read the first recipe and to write the example program. He found it quite interesting and helpful. In fact, this is the first book that I've found that he will actually read. That, of course, makes this book much more useful than all of the others. I gave this book four stars instead of five for one reason; object disposal. All throughout the book, the authors show how to use objects that should be disposed. They don't, however, show you how to do this until halfway through chapter 14. Because the independent nature of these recipes, it's possible that someone might never read chapter 14. Those people might think that they are writing good code, but they would be wrong. So, go buy this book, and don't forget to read chapter 14.