Professional Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4

This is an exceptional programming book. It covers all the current programming technologies; desktop and Internet applications, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), SQL, LINQ, Entity Framework, Model View Controller (MVC), and the list goes on for 34 chapters.I used this book in my college programming classes and the students really liked it. It’s complete, thorough, and easy to follow. The explanations and projects are very good.The 2012 edition of this book is also a great book but it doesn’t cover quite as many topics. It only has 20 chapters and 871 pages where the 2010 edition has 34 chapters, 5 appendices, and 1276 pages. I have both and both are excellent.As a professional programmer, I am very grateful for books of this caliber.

This could have been a good book -- unfortunately, with too many hands involved in it, it leaves the reader confused as you switch chapters and deal with each authors view of the subject at hand. This book was used as a textbook for a graduate advanced VB.NET class that I took. Code samples are an all or nothing ordeal -- you can either type everything in as you go along -- or use the code samples from the publisher's website. The downside to the code samples of the publisher is that they only include what the final end result should have been by the time you get to the end of the chapter. Allowing you to use some code samples as a starting point would have been helpful.The fact that it is authored by several people is maddening. Each author covers various topics, and each author utilizes a different style of presenting the material to you.. Creates a lot of confusion if you are learning as you go.

I just got this book a week ago it is as another reviewer put it a great read if you have worked with Visual Basic before extensively.Most chapters provide a nice detail on how the functionality has changed from previous versions.In general I found a nice balance between simple examples and important details, but some of the chapters feel like they were going to bury you under one seemingly pointless nuanced exception to the previous example after another.Some chapters omit information on why you would select one approach over another. (One of the reasons why we buy books like this as programmers is to get that kind of advice, so the omission is irking when you notice it.)This isn't an introduction to programming book, if you aren't already a professional programmer I recommend starting with a different book. (That is to say simple concepts aren't focused on to any great extent, and you are assumed to be a programmer in a software production environment.)On the whole I'm happy I bought this book.

I am making the transition from VB6 to Visual Studio 2010 and needed to build a library of resources to help with the learning curve. I put this text in my Category 2 classification -- important, but use it for detailed reference and backup. The information is all very correct and accurate, just not particularly readable for those entering the world of VB.net. I find Murach's books better as starters then use the WROX books as excellent resources when you need some advanced ideas and examples. They present all the options in this text, but aren't as good at explaining why a developer might choose one over the other.

Very detailed book if you're wanting to learn VB.

I am through the first 8 chapters of the book and really like how it is organized. They introduce new concepts, but save the details of how it works for its own chapter.

Great book arrived I excellent condition.

This book was chosen by my Professor just before the start of class. Due to the fact that this is authored by a TEAM of writers, the verbiage tends to read like stereo instructions. There is a lot of nonsense before they get to the point. It would be an excellent book as reading material for those already working with .NET applications since every reference to code is preceded and followed and interrupted by how the .NET framework and VB USED to do things.As a beginning programmer I found it verbose, boring and far too in "yesterday" in theory & practice. They tout the ability to download the example code from the website and yet neglect to advise that if you do not have access to SQL SERVER you will have a devil of a time inserting their procedures into your project since their code files are compilation.If I were an experienced programmer in previous versions of VB and .NET, I would probably find this a great read to update my skills and understand the current syntax and logic of these languages.

I do like this book very much, but it shouldn't be your first book on this subject. Some chapters are particularly hard to read without former, and detailed, background knowledge of the subject.The first three chapters are particularly well written. But for some of the other subjects you may need to read an alternative reference firstly, such as Wrox's "Visual Basic 2010 Programmer's Reference".

I was not really ready to plough into this, so have only used it as reference, and it was fine for that.

ok

I haven't had this book for long but felt the urge to balance another reviewer's five star rating.The blurb mentions "if you've covered the basics..", which I have. But this book makes an awful lot of assumptions about the reader's knowledge. As an example, a chapter on ADO.Net states "to get the most out of this chapter, you should be fairly familiar with earlier versions of ADO.NET and the entire .NET Framework". If you have this level of knowledge already then you probably wouldn't buy this book; you would probably just do a bit of research to update your skills.Some of the earlier chapters seem very good. They cover subjects like Objects and Classes fairly rapidly and to a good level of detail, which is what I'm looking for.It's still a very interesting, useful and certainly detailed book - but I think I'm going to struggle with a number of chapters.I still recommend it but it should be your 2nd or, more likely, 3rd VB.Net book.

I'm just a hobbyist programmer and I decided to migrate from VB6 to .Net and the difference took me by surprise. The two languages appear similar (because of legacy keywords) but to program in true .Net, it is a very different language.This book explained concepts from the most basic to the most advanced and helped with many useful snippets. It will be my "bible" for a long time to come.