Michael Vine
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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Development -> Visual Basic -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Introductory & Beginning -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Introductory & Beginning -> General AAS
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4
Average rating: 3.0 of 5
Visual Basic...but not for the Absolute Beginner 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
...I liked its approach of using games and "fun" lessons for teaching Visual Basic. I've already completed SAMS "Teach Yourself Visual Basic in 24 Hours" so I'm not the "Absolute Beginner" that is the target audience of this book. With that in mind:1) This book is NOT for the absolute beginner. There is little if any discussion on how to use Visual Basic/Studio at all. No handholding at all. Often, items are mentioned only in passing (like how to do comments in your code) with little explanation. It seems an effort was made to make the book less intimidating by keeping it under 350 pages. The net result is a book with far too little explanation and information.
2) Throughout the book, when it comes time to add controls to your programs, you're simply given a chart listing all the controls and *some* of the properties you have to set. So what's the problem? The chart doesn't list any of the size or placement properties for the control! So you constantly have to flip back to the screenshot of the program - usually several pages earlier - to give yourself some idea where the item is supposed to go and how big it's supposed to be. In another example, in the animation program from chapter 3, you're supposed to assign a picture to 9 image controls. Problem? You're never told the NAMES of the picture files to assign! The author simply says that the images can be found on the CD with the book. Only they're not there! They're included as one large bitmap file on the CD which won't work for the program being worked on!
3) Code errors - in chapter 3, the author twice makes mention of using a particular Boolean variable in his program, making sure to allocate it by using "Dim". The problem? It's never used! All he does is allocate it, it never gets put to use!
4) Also in chapter 3, the author mentions the "Keydown event, which you've already seen earlier". I couldn't remember seeing it earlier, so I looked in the index. Turns out that "Keydown" is discussed only once in the book - IN THE SENTENCE THAT SAYS IT WAS DISCUSSED EARLIER.
That said, there are some good things to be gained from this book, as the author uses some events and controls that other beginning books don't touch as relate to games, so that's good. But if you're a true beginner, forget it.
Editorial Review:
This book is both conceptual and made for beginners. It will not only teach Visual Basic, often the very first language that aspiring programmers want to learn, it will teach them the fundamental programming concepts they need to grasp in order to learn any computer language. Plus, it uses game creation as a teaching tool. Readers will learn how to program in VB and produce something enjoyable at the same time. Of course, the practical implications of what they're learning will be discussed as well. The goal of the series is adaptive learning -- that the reader takes skills learned in this book and then applies them to his or her own situation as well as utilizes those skills when learning the next language.
