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Apress
has developed a remarkable reputation in a very few short years
for attracting "Best of Breed" authors and a formula for
insightful, probing titles that deliver quality technical content.
Most of these books focus on intermediate - to -advanced level topics.
That's why I find it especially refreshing to see a new apress
title that has been designed, written and focused specifically for
the beginner programmer to .NET.
Karl Moore has a unique approach to
the learning process that involves a non-threatening, "Plain
English" delivery filled with tutorial, hand-holding and plenty
of humor. Apparently this grew out of a very successful online tutorial
series that he has conducted and he has been able to migrate it
to the application of a book for beginning Visual Basic .NET programmers.
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Karl presents VB.NET and the .NET Framework
in a comfortable, easygoing set of "Tutorials" (chapters) each
of which builds on the confidence and knowledge delivered in the previous
ones, such that the ".NET-o-Phobe" will find it very easy to
progress.
This book is clearly targeted at the beginner
programmer and makes no pretense about it. If you are new to programming
or have less than say, one year's experience in Visual Basic, you will
find this book to be your best friend. It will give you the confidence
to understand the .NET Framework and particularly the Visual Studio IDE
with a focus on VB.NET as the chosen programming language. This book actually
reminds me of some early VB 2.0 books I still have lying about that took
you by the hand through creating a form, sticking buttons and textboxes
on it, wiring up event - handling code, and so on.
But Karl Moore's Visual Basic .NET
does much more. At the end of each chapter he presents a "review
sheet" that wraps up everything you've learned and gives you specific
pointers and resources to more advanced topics. His coverage of controls
and what they do is easy to understand and progressive in difficulty,
making it much easier for the beginner programmer to get comfortable with
the .NET platform.
There is an entire chapter on variables,
one on Methods, Modules and Multiple Forms, error handling, and more.
Moore then goes into Databases (both Access
and SQL Server), basic SQL, and then finally, Web Applications with a
surprisingly good tutorial on ASP.NET. As if this weren't enough for the
beginning programmer, Moore goes on to cover ASP.NET controls, validation
and even WebServices.
In short, having once been a beginner myself
(as of course we all were) I can truthfully state that this is one of
the best beginning programmer books I've ever seen - and that includes
non-.NET books that have been out for a long time.
I recommend Karl Moore's Visual Basic
.NET The Tutorials for any beginning programmer who wants to get familiar
with the .NET Framwork and Visual Basic .NET in particular, and to have
fun doing so.
Peter Bromberg is an independent consultant specializing in distributed .NET solutions
Inc. in Orlando and a co-developer of the EggheadCafe.com
developer website. He can be reached at pbromberg@yahoo.com
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