Finding Info You Need

A new article was just uploaded about how to create that familiar (and extremely useful) user interface feature, Menus. Writing this article impressed on me again about how it's simply not easy and straightforward to find the information you need to work with the vast array of technology bundled together under the title: .NET.

For example, MOST of the properties and methods for the main menu objects in VB .NET are simply not there in the VB .NET Help system. Most that are mentioned are simply mentioned ... that's it! Not enough useful information is provided. Programming examples are notoriously bad. It's like the authors tried to find the most obscure way to use the feature possible.

The next level of information is MSDN. A search at MSDN.Microsoft.com will turn up much more useful information. But there's still a lot of holes. And MSDN is getting more inconsistent. The number of "page not found" errors that you get from links on other pages into MSDN clearly shows how Microsoft is starting to manage MSDN as a marketing tool rather than a genuine reference for us. If Microsoft wants you to use a product, you can find technical information about it. If not ... well ... it sorta drops off their pages.

And it takes some time for information about all the new features to get created too. It seems that internal Microsoft development teams had clear ideas about some new features in VB .NET, but those ideas are still trickling out bit by bit. The new and different ways that menus can be used in VB .NET is a good example.

This is why you need the last two categories of information: Books (like the excellent Matthew MacDonald book about Forms reviewed on this site. And web pages that explore the way these new features can be used.

The biggest problem with these last two categories is that the quality is really inconsistent. There are a lot of pages ... and books ... that actually aren't worth the effort to open them. I try to keep the quality of this one up by including polls that you can respond to on the last page of each article. And feel free to drop me an email!