Microsoft Silverlight Books

Excellent resource

As a professor of computer science I can say that this book is an excellent reference for anyone desiring to program professionally in Visual Basic.

WIJIM
12 June, 2010

A "Must Have" for my Library

This is a great resource of information. Rod has a way of presenting material that hits a home run every time. This book is referenced so much by me that my edition is all dog-eared and ragged.

A great book!

Joe Waldin
27 April, 2010

Visual Basic 2008 Programmer's Reference

Mr Stephens' writings and approaches to providing the right references to Visual Basic 2008 are second to none. I have purchased three books on the same subject, just to find out that if I have purchased the last book first, I would have same money in the process.
His writings and approaches are easy for any first, second, or third grade programmer. His references are clear, with easy to follow examples. The text is well written with code support whuch can be easily downloaded. If, needed Mr Stephen will answer any question and provide "hands-on" assistance to anyone upon request. I will recommend this book to anyone.

Wilfredo R. Rodriguez
17 April, 2010

Best Wrox book yet!

I have bought hundreds of books in the last 25 years and have been programming in VB since Nantucket Clipper in the DOS environment faded (after dBase II), but this just may be the best comprehensive book yet on Visual Basic! I buy from Wrox, Microsoft, Murach and many other fine publishers, but this is truly a great tool to have in your arsenal. I very seldom write reviews, but I felt like I needed to give back any way I could. I don't know Rod Stevens, but my hat is off to him and his team at WROX. Thank You!!! Also, thanks to Microsoft for putting out a great product in Visual Studio 2008!

Ryan L. Todd
26 June, 2009

Good reference

This is a good reference for people who, like myself, have some experience with VB and almost none with .NET. I can skim thru the book without reading ever word and still find lots of useful info. An advanced .NET programmer would probably not find much here but it works really well for me.

Catman
26 June, 2009

A veery good book

This is the fourth book I have purchased about VB 2008 and it is much the best. It is not the book if you are looking for an introduction to VB, but if you have already been introduced, it is marvelous. He gives the details that are missing in the other books. I am sure that it cannot cover everything in detail, because VB is too big for any one book, but it does a good job. I have only had it a couple days and already found a number of helpful features that I was unaware of.





Richard Weaver
18 June, 2009

Very Helpful, clear and straight forward

I'm a occasional programmer on visual basic, most of my work deals with mathematical and physical modelling. If you have some experience with previous version of visual basic, you will find this book very user friendly. It goes directly to the point in most cases, documentation is good and the web examples also helps a lot in understanding the new features of visual studio. I found specially helpful the graphics chapters and how to prepare our software to be ready for windows vista.

J. Sanguinetti
23 March, 2009

It is OK

For those beginners who want to learn how to program in VB.net or VB 2008, this book is not for you. Note that the book cover says "Programmer Reference". If you are already a programmer in VB, then this is your reference. I know how to program in VBA (Visual basic for application) yet I found it hard to follow the book beyond chapter 8. The first 7 chapters were spent explaining some very simple stuff, like how to color a button and how to rearrange the control menu, etc. and when the "Getting Started" part started, I got lost.
Don't expect simple examples that teach you how to create your first VB program. In other words: No "Hello World" program. Maybe I will find this book useful next year when I'm more knowledgeable in VB.


Weibullian
11 December, 2008

Visual Basic 2008 Programmers Reference

Your VB2008 book is terrific. I'm now using it all the time.
It's a great reference library. It has been very helpful in making my applications user friendly and accomplishing my objectives. Great Job.


Leonard Ansin
14 November, 2008

Another Excellent Stephens Book!

I have taught programming for about 20 years in a local college. I have several other Rod Stephens books so when I needed a book to help me with the new features in Visual Basic 2008, this book was my first choice. I was not disappointed. At over 1000 pages it covers just about everything you might need, whether you are a beginner or an expert. The good explanations are backed up by good examples. I highly recommend it.

Robin D. Graham
12 July, 2008

Solid examples: a great book for beginners, or seasoned vets.

For the novice user this book will take you by the hand, and guide you through VB.NET from the IDE, to basic principles and concepts of OO programing, and into concrete examples, covering a vast amount of information. There is an incredible 200+ page appendix.

Like most other books on the subject, the sections that cover parts of VB that I work with daily (and thus understand well) offered few new insights. The other 75% of the book has proved to be extremely helpful!

If you truly "know" VB.NET '08 inside and out, then you don't need this book (or any others for that matter!), for the rest of us the useful information abounds.

Robert Lee
08 July, 2008

Stephens never disappoints

A weighty tome with substance to match the heft. Mr. Stephens knows his material and knows how to make his knowledge accessible. This book has become a necessary adjunct all of my VB projects.

Joseph Masching
05 June, 2008

Nice Overview with Useful Examples

I'm experienced with VB.Net but needed a quick reference book for the new features (esp. LINQ) and that would also provide an overview for features I might not otherwise discover.

My first project with VB 2008 sent me right to the book. I was able to easily adapt code lifted right off the page on the first task. However, different code from the book for a second task was less successful (LINQing on a data set table). The syntax (in the book) for the ORDER BY clause was erroneous and raised a perplexing error. (Perhaps the Wrox web site corrects this; I haven't checked.) Googling brought me to a Microsoft web site with an example with the correct syntax.

I guess you should expect such issues when applying 15th century technology (i.e., printed paper) to a bleeding edge tool.

All in all, however, the book was worth the modest investment. Make use of Amazon's excerpts to evaluate it for your own needs (I did).

By the way, the (first) one I received was damaged (crumpled pages, torn backcover) in packaging, but Amazon redeemed themselves by promptly sending an intact replacement.

Jon Jacobs
27 May, 2008

Excellent book of a programmer for programmers

This is a great book. Starting for the simplicity and going strong describing in simple language the complicated topics for the beginner to the advanced programmer in VB 2008(VB 9).

I enjoyed the reading and I am not done yet with the book. And after reading some paragraphs again, have been able to find new details that allow me to improve my routines.

Thank you Rod for the book.

Alberto Torres
04 May, 2008

Amazing Book!

You might initially think that this is going to be one of those big books with a few examples and a lot of fluff; well, you'd be wrong. This is a big book because it's absolutely packed with really useful examples. Rod takes you through just about every feature of Visual Basic 2008 and he does it with examples. These aren't just the usual academic sort of examples either; you'll be able to use many of them as a source of code for your own applications.

Of course, there are also books on the market that do have good examples, but the explanations stink. Rod takes time to thoroughly explain the examples and the explanations are clear, so you won't have any trouble understanding them. In short, this book has the best of everything.

You probably won't need another book for common business programming needs. That said, some specialty items are missing. You won't find a lot about PInvoke in this book, but then again, most people don't need PInvoke for their business applications. The LINQ coverage is also a tad light, but this technology is only now taking off, so Rod is right in keeping the various coverages in perspective. Overall, this is the book to get if you want to know how to work with Visual Basic!

John Paul Mueller
28 April, 2008

Excellent Visual Basic Reference

Ever since Visual Basic 6 I have purchased Rod Stephens books to stay current with the latest changes in Visual Basic. Again, with "Visual Basic 2008 Programmer's Reference" he has written an excellent reference for the current state of Visual Basic.

Donald E. Rericka
28 April, 2008