Learn to Program Visual Basic Objects (Paperback)

Too many beginners books try to cover the subject completely. But this broad approach leaves the beginner drowning under a multitude of diverse ideas and concepts. This is the right approach for a reference book which can be consulted to resolve any issues that might arise but it is not helpful for a beginners book which needs to impart the key fundamentals quickly before the reader becomes disheartened by lack of progress.

The approach of this series of books, is to cover a smaller core part of the subject in depth in a learning environment that we are all familiar with and which works. Although it has a lot of pages it does not take long to read, a lot of this is screenshots and lines of code.

This enables the beginner to quickly gain an understanding of the fundamental concepts that gives them the knowledge and confidence to explore further. I have many years experience working with networking products and technologies and can testify from experience that once you achieve a certain level of understanding it is relatively easy to build on that.

In short, this is an excellent series of books if you are an absolute beginner to programming and need to take those vital first few steps. If you have previous programming experience then this probably isn't the book for you

I'll give fair warning that the classroom storyline used in the book is not for everyone - indeed this European reader found it grated somewhat. However, it does allow the author to cover obvious newbie errors and misunderstandings in an easily readable fashion.

If you already have some programming experience you might want to head straight to the Wrox series which are more factual. If like me, you don't "get" it all on the first pass, the John Smiley's books are a good starter's resource.

The main part of the book covers Objects. It then looks at using objects for automation of MS Office applications and shows how to create ActiveX objects (DLLs & EXEs).

You'll work through learning exercises on each subject and then on a project which continues through from the first book in the series. Don't worry if you are starting out with this book as full sample code is supplied on the accompanying CD. The author's site carries errata (few) and hosts discussion groups to help with working through the 'course'.

Happy to recomend this to others, especially those starting out with VB.

Mark Anderson

I was so pleased with the easy style of his books, that I bought the LTP with VB6 and studied all the basics again. I can honestly say that its the first time that I have felt that I completely understand the subjects covered. I am in the market for copies of LTP Databases with VB6 and the LTP with VB6 Examples next.

I would certainly recommend them for any beginner who has a good knowledge of computers but who is wanting to branch out into programming. I can imagine that anyone who considered themselves 'intermediate to advanced' would find the text too 'easy'.

Due to having grasped the mandatory foundation skills - I now find that I can look at other more advanced texts and understand them.

Well done John, keep up the good work (please !!!!!)