Amazon Review

This is the cream of the crop
Reviewer: Paul Bussiere from Bangor, Maine USA
Let me state that I have been through many, many books on how to learn Visual Basic 6.0. I've done the Dummies Book, the Sams 21 Day and 24 hour route, and the John Smiley 'By examples' book, and lastly the Peter Norton VB book. I've spent some serious money on books and Im still a rookie programmer (ok, so Im modest...).

Since I started with the Dummies book, it gave me the basics of how and why VB works. But, what I found it lacking was any real examples to play with. The Sams books were redundant of the dummies guides. And the Peter Norton book was just pathetic. It would bore a Vulcan to sleep. I can't tell you how many times I caught myself reading the same paragraph over and over to try to capture the meaning. The book by John Smiley was fantastic, but his follow up one, the "By Examples", had a Talk Show tone that left me confused. The book just had too much going on asides VB...and after a chapter or two, I just couldnt take it any longer (the book is now a lovely speaker holder).

Enough on those. To you that have tried a book or two and are thirsty for a book that will bring you across the finish line, this is it. No, this is not an ideal first book for the newbie. But, if you understand a wee bit about VB, this book will pick you up and carry you though. The examples (and there are lots) are the heart of each lesson. Most books are very wordy and defining the process, then an example. Not this one. This guy must have pilot blood in him. You get a heads up of what you are going to do, make an example and try it out, then after you've "landed", the author discusses with you what you just did, the dynamics, and how to go a step beyond. Ok, this is getting really wordy, so let me wrap up here....Im not a good reader...I get distracted too easy. I found myself able to get absorbed into this book and LEARN. Its concise and to the point. So, to those of you that didnt like the book, well...perhaps you like those War & peace sized ones...or like books that read like Latin 101 and put anyone that dares read over your shoulder to sleep. Good book, good examples...I tended to stay away from the Microsoft Press books since they were much more expensive then the other entry-level guides. Not any more...looking forwad to his next book on the next version of VB

Thanks for allowing me to comment

Excellent book for experienced developers new to VB
Reviewer: Mike Hageali from Phoenix
Coming from a Delphi applications developer background, I found this book easy to follow for my introduction to VB 6. I didn't realize how easy VB is to learn. This book is packed with information covering many topics including ADO and Active X controls, string handling, internet controls. Of course, the topics covered were just a taste and not indepth at all. It was just enough information to get your feet wet.

Most of the chapters had applications to practice coding. However, there were several chapters that had sample applications but didn't have any practice code to type. He just went through the pre-written code and explained the key statements. It was more of a reference than actual typing and learning. This books isn't for beginning programmers. But it is a good transition book from other languages to Visual Basic. For my first Visual Basic book, I learned a lot.