The CD included is really amazing and it's a b-i-i-i-g part of the value component for this book -- maybe most of it. As advertised, there five complete books. These are full PDF (Adobe Acrobat) images of the original books.

The CD is divided into three sections. The last two have both PDF documents as well as source code files (and in a very few cases, duplicate Word files [?]). The PDF documents are protected against copying text into the clipboard. (Although you can print them if you want to.) This is presumably to stop these books from being distributed using the Napster model, but it's an annoyance to read the code that you want to use and then be forced to find the same code in the file section of the CD.

• Section 1 – Book Code

This is a straightforward chapter-by-chapter source code section for the "paper" book.

• Section 2 – Case Studies

Along with the extra books, the case studies are another of the "extra value" features! The "paper" book does not have a real wealth of sample code and examples, but they make up for that, and more, in this section of the CD. These are actually "main course" chapters from different Wrox books collected into one place for your use.

They're called "case studies" because they jump right out of the real world and every one of them is code and detail rich. Unfortunately, the source isn't identified so even if you decided that you loved the chapter, you might not be able to buy the rest of the book it came from.

The Case studies are:

• A 2-tier Solution
• ASP Reporting
• COM+ Sales Order Application
• Converting Word to XML
• Creating XML Reporting
• Enhancing Apps with XML
• Introduction to UML
• Web based Airline Application
• Website Customization
• XML-Driven Newspaper

The best thing about this selection is the heavy XML orientation. The next best thing is the project orientation. These studies are just what you need for "whole project" problem solving. The "Introduction to UML" case study deserves special mention since it's a clear and uncomplicated treatment of a topic infamous for confusion.

• Section 3 – Library

This is where you can find the extra books. The five complete books on the CD are:

• Fast Track VB.NET
• Professional Visual Basic 6 MTS Programming
• Professional Visual Basic 6 Project Management
• Professional Visual Basic 6 Web Programming
• Visual Basic 6 UML Design and Development

Fast Track VB.NET

This is an excellent text on VB.NET -- not what you might expect in a book about VB 6 but there it is anyway. It's exactly what the title suggests with no sections on writing program loops or variable declarations. It gets right to the heart of the matter and presents a no-nonsense treatment of what's new, different, and improved in VB.NET from the CLR and the .NET Framework to installation and deployment. At about two-thirds of the page count of PVB6 itself, it's a substantial volume.

Professional Visual Basic 6 MTS Programming

A great example of the kind of book that has made Wrox successful, this book digs deep into the heartbeat of most business processes: transactions. With both commonsense descriptions and detailed specifications, this 600 page book covers the ground. This is the kind of book you need when you really have to build the project. There was one minor flaw, however. Somehow ... the index was missing from the PDF source on the CD.

Professional Visual Basic 6 Project Management

This one is so good, they gave you some of it twice and one chapter three times! The "case study" on UML is actually the first two appendix chapters from this book. So if you love that case study, the whole book is right here.

At slightly over five hundred pages, this is a thorough treatment of project management. Since it was first published in 1999, some of the links are out of date (the trial download of Microsoft Project, for example) but some things never go out of style. The book is solidly grounded on VB 6 and also assumes the use of Visual SourceSafe in some chapters.

Professional Visual Basic 6 Web Programming

Everything about this book is big -- well, except for the fact that on a CD it's almost weightless. It has over a thousand pages, a dozen different authors, and even a dozen appendix chapters. This is the kind of book that you might have bought to cover any and all unknown problems in building systems for the exploding phenomenon of the web when it was published back in 1999. Indeed, the Introduction has a short section on "Why Web Technology," a topic that might not be covered in a book published today.

At the same time, the very best information is often published at the height a technology boom. For example, a comparison of the sections in the "paper" chapters in PVB6 on n-tiered systems has to give the nod to this book for the best coverage. You won't find a better or more comprehensive book about the successful marriage of VB 6 and the web.

Visual Basic 6 UML Design and Development

This is the second book on the CD authored by Jake Sturm (Professional Visual Basic 6 Project Management is the other one) and the third reprinting of the appendix chapter on UML mapping to VB. Hey! The bits are on the CD anyway and they just go to waste if nothing is there.

The sections on UML have been singled out in this review as being one of the best parts of the book ("books" is more correct, I suppose). The fact that Jake Sturm has written so extensively about it helps to explain why. Some of the material is very basic. For example, in chapter 9 a flow chart (called an "activity diagram" in the book) for making coffee is developed. But when the same concepts are applied to the activity of retrieving an ADO recordset object, you appreciate the simple example a little more.

The examples developed in this book are based on the Microsoft Northwind database and completed project files are in the source file folders on the CD -- so you don't have to worry about having to actually download anything from Wrox.

Is it worth it in 2003?

Is a book about VB 6 worth buying in 2003? That depends on where your career as a programmer has taken you. But if your job description includes any VB 6 at all, I'd say, "Yes!" And the complete book on VB.NET on the CD might tip the balance even for those folks who think they've left VB 6 permanently behind them.