I got about 100 pages into this book and could not stand it anymore. While I appreciate a little humor in technical writing this book never lets up with his very silly writing style. Also, while its technical content was good I didn’t really feel that I learned that much in the 100 pages I did read.
I thought this was a very good introductory text to Visual Basic .NET. It introduced the language in a very detailed and instructive way. I saw few problems in its technical content and in general I liked Michael’s writing and samples.
This was a quick read for me since I am an experienced developer. Even so I learned many little details on the language that I had not seen previously. While on occasion I refer to this book for details or sample code I suspect as I gain more experience I won’t need it anymore.
Introducing Microsoft .NET 2nd Edition
by David S. Platt
I took David's .NET class at the Harvard Extension last fall and this was the main text we used.
As is indicated by the title this book is meant only to be an introductory text to .NET, it does not get into great depth in the subjects it covers. Also, the book assumes you know a bit about VB.NET or C# or are able to pick it up along the way. In it David explains in a clear and concise way (and with some humor) many of the new and interesting features of .NET.
This book will whet the appetite of more experienced developers. For those who don’t have time to start digging into the more authoritative books I would recommend they read this book. I also consider this a keeper as I have found myself going back to it when I need a refresher on some of the more complex subjects contained in it.
Practical Standards for
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET by James Foxall
There are so many ways to design a solution and write code (some good, many bad). This book explains best practices for designing and writing VB.NET code to improve maintainability. Also, it does an excellent job explaining the basics of: debugging in VB.NET; using the installation tools; user interface design; and version and source control.
This book is my bible for general VB.NET programming standards - I think every VB.NET coder should have a copy of this book. The ideas presented, writing, and samples are all excellent. While this book is not meant to be an introductory text to VB.NET more experienced programmers could probably use it as such. Less experienced programmers should make it the second book they read (after reading a VB.NET introductory book like Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Step by Step by Michael Halvorson).
OOP with Microsoft Visual Basic
.NET and Microsoft Visual C# .NET Step by Step
by Robin A. Reynolds-Haertle
Understanding OOP is critical for the .NET developer, and this book is meant to help in that respect. Though I liked Robin’s presentation of the subject the samples could be much better. Even with the OOP experience I gained from programming in C++ for a few years it still took me a while to get through this book. I suspect that most VB programmers will have a very difficult time getting through this book. I hope to find a better OOP book in the future, until then this book will probably come in handy.
Coding Techniques for Microsoft Visual
Basic .NET by John Connell
I am currently in the middle of this book and I am very disappointed. Like several people noted on Amazon the technical editing is terrible. The more reading I do the more problems I find. I am also disappointed with what I consider incorrect explanations of basic concepts. On p149 John says that “The System.Windows.Forms namespace we used in Chapter 2 is inherited from the System namespace”. Namespaces are the way to hierarchically organize the thousands of classes in the Framework, there is no inheritance involved with them. I find myself making an awful lot of corrective notes. I am not sure exactly what went wrong, my guess is that this book might have been rushed out the door prior to the RTM of Visual Studio .NET. If the content does not improve soon I will probably just stop reading it (how will I be able to trust anything it says?)