When you first pick this one up from the shelf in the bookstore, you know you're into something serious. At almost two inches, over a thousand pages, and over two thousand files in the source code download -- this one is for real.

From the Upgrade Wizard to the new GDI+, ADO.NET and ASP.NET, there is scarcely a part of VB.NET that isn't covered. VB 6 programmers who are totally bamboozled by the automatic classes created using the defaults in the VS.NET IDE (the "Windows Application" Project Type) will benefit a lot from simply going through Troelsen's RawWindow example in Chapter 9. (Troelsen uses eight chapters and over 400 pages before even starting to discuss Windows!)

Be warned, however. Troelsen doesn't walk you by the hand through the multiple complexities of VB.NET. He expects you to be able to figure out quite a bit on your own. For those willing to put in the effort, however, the rewards are well worth it!

Applications: ADO.NET, ASP.NET, Web Services

About the Author

You can tell a lot about people by looking at their early history sometimes. Andrew Troelsen studied Greek, Sanskrit, and Akkadian in college. Fortunately (fortunately for us, otherwise he wouldn't have written this book), he came to his senses and decided to study something with an associated growth curve. These days, he is not only writing for APress, he's also running something called the APress Intertech Instructor Series - a partnership between the his company and APress. And he's a principal in the parent company too and handles a lot of their heavy duty conference and workshop engagements. It's a long way from Sanskrit.