Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 2010 in 24 Hours Complete Starter Kit [Paperback]

Well, I first started with another book (Mastering VB 2010), but it didn't explain everthing well enough for me to understand. I took C++ 10 years ago in college, but I think it was written for someone with more experience than me.

So, I bought this book, and WOW! Much better. Foxall takes the time to explain everything. I am the kind of reader that reads slowly, and makes sure he comprehends every word and sentence. I cannot move on until I'm sure I "get it". So, if you are new to programming, this is the book to buy. I'm planning on finshing this one and the moving on to the other so that I can learn the in-depth stuff a little better.

PROs:
1) VERY IMPORTANT - Every step is clearly explained. I CAN'T UNDERESTIMATE THIS FOR THE BEGINNER. I had to reread a couple paragraphs to make sure I clearly understood (e.g. Classes/Controls/Methods/Objects and what each word meant in OOP), but that's because it's complicated, not but because he does a poor job.

[note: Before I bought this book, I tried google'ing some of the major terms and couldn't find another person who could state it clearly enough for me to get it. He is FABULOUS in this area; CLEAR EXPLANATIONS WITH EXAMPLES and CODE for you to build and practice with.]

2) There are not any true "I'll tell you later"'s in the book. If there is a "I'll tell you later", he at least explains the concepts, and just promises to explain "further" in later chapters. This is so important for a beginner to be able to follow what's going on.

3) He tells you throughout the text a few times what concepts are not covered in the book because it would be too complicated to explain in 24 hours. I am greatful for people when they set accurate expectations. (Politicians should be required to learn from the examples in this text, hehehe.)

4) He inserts just the right balance of pictures and tangential snippets of infomation to keep you busy, having fun, and clear on what your doing - and he doesn't overdo it. The book is not too WORDY or BUSY, but I feel if he left much of anything out it would leave me longing for more answers to my questions. He's either good at seeing from someone else's point of view, or he had an editor without programming experience to help him make sure we readers didn't get lost - I CAN'T UNDERESTIMATE THIS ONE EITHER! This is absolutely ESSENTIAL in a book for beginners.

5) Has all the example/practice code on the publisher's website. This is soooooo necessary for "dummies" or for people who complete the exercises and forget to save! Other books have it to, but I still felt I had to make sure you knew that it was available.

CONs:

You know, I have to be honest. I have no cons to list, but that may be because I don't know enough to complain. But, nonetheless, until I become an experienced programmer, I just don't have any regrets.

Kudos to the author and publisher, and I hope to read their C++ book next, so I can compare the two languages for myself.

Good luck to all you beginners!

I have been programming with VB since 1993 and am a MCSD in Visual Studio 6.0. When .NET came on the scene, all of the VB.NET books were, in my opinion, very poor. I purchased this book on the strength of the Amazon reviews, and I am more than satisfied. I read the book and built all of the sample projects in thirteen days -- roughly two chapters per day (less than two hours each day). The projects are very practical and cover all of the topics that any programmer needs to know in order to build a complete, polished application.

At the same time that I purchased this book, I also purchased the Murach VB 2010 book (I already had the Murach VB 2008 book). It is about 800 pages, but each opposite facing page simply restates in a slightly different way what was stated in the left page. It will be a nice reference, but VB 2010 in 24 Hours is the one that I will turn to whenever I begin a VB project.

Before I purchased this book, I had already built a VB.NET 2008 application that migrates Domino data to SharePoint. After I read this book, I saw many things that I wish I had used, but did not have the time to consider or figure out. One example of that is this book's simple, effective explanation of how to write to and read from the Registry. Another is this book's coverage of the ClickOnce feature for distributing the programs that you write with VB.NET.

Version 3.0 was the breakout version for Visual Basic. That attracted masses of programmers who could and did release professional quality software products. The next few versions of VB were forgettable. When version 6.0 came out, programmers again embraced VB and created even better software. Visual Basic .NET has had, in my opinion, rather limited appeal, but Visual Basic 2010 (and the .NET Framework 4.0) will, I believe, result in yet another wave of quality programs being written and sold. This book has the potential to lead that wave.

I'm reading this book on Kindle for PC. It's really easy to have this open on screen and work in Visual Basic at the same time. I havent tried programming since the mid 90's. Back then it was C+ and I eventually gave up because it took so long to learn and all the lessons seemed so abstract.

I am learning so much faster with this book and am excited about programming again. I have already written a useful app (Not Calculator) and I have only owned the book for 2 days.

I highly reccommend this book to any begginers like me.