Roger Jennings
December, 2005
ISBN: 076457678X
I can remember being in a vast conference hall more than once with about a thousand other programmers listening to this very interesting guy tell me about programming Visual Basic. I've been around for a while, (My version 1.0 VB install diskettes are among my proudest possesions.) and for as long as I can remember, Roger Jennings has been a VB guru.
Looking for a real expert ... Roger Jennings qualifies!
The "About the Author" page right at the front of his latest book, Visual Basic 2005 Database Programming is worth at least a quick read just because it's so amazing. It's time to start the planning for the Roger Jennings exhibit in the "Programmers Hall of Fame". (Oh! We only have those honors for people like hockey players and rock stars, don't we? Maybe our values could stand a little adjusting.)
If you check Jennings' previous books, you discover that although he's written books about software topics from XML to C++ to Windows server administration, his true love is that software sweet spot where Visual Basic meets databases. So you can't get much closer than this book, Visual Basic 2005 Database Programming, to the very heart of the technology Roger is totally, thoroughly, and unquestionably an expert about.
The book's title says it all
The first thing to notice about this latest, and perhaps even 'best', book from Jennings is that the title is not "SQL Server" or "Access" or even "ADO.NET" programming. It's "Database" programming. Jennings has written plenty of product specific books in the past. This book takes explicit notice of the fact that the .NET Framework is erasing boundaries that used to separate specific technologies. To quote the Introduction, the book "concentrates on programming the .NET Framework 2.0's System.Data namespace". Jennings' position (and mine too) is that Visual Basic .NET is simply the most productive programming environment for getting the best out of the .NET Framework. This book is about how to make that happen for any database you happen to be using.
Visual Basic - Still the best programming environment
As a personal observation, I think it's great that world class gurus like Roger Jennings and Dan Appleman continue to emphasize Visual Basic for any programming job from "Hello World" to Jennings' prize winning "Code of Federal Regulations" web service. (This VB system won Microsoft's award for best horizontal application when .NET was new in 2001.) The role of a programming language is to help the programmer translate ideas into bug free code. Since .NET makes the end result of any programming language equal to any other and since Visual Basic has always been the leader in programmer productivity, I can't see why anyone would use anything else.
Heavy-Duty!
If I had to pick one description for this book, it would be "heavy-duty". If your average "Dummies" book is a bite of cotton candy, this one is a spinach and carrot juice cocktail with a raw egg in it. We're talking serious weight training for your head here. A tightly worded description of just the minimum requirements your computer needs to get started covers five pages. (Don't even think about it unless your rig runs at least 800 MHz, has at least half a meg of RAM, and a spacious hard drive.)
The idea of a great training coach who is determined to get you in shape to take on the world is a pretty good metaphor for the book. Jennings starts at the beginning and assumes that you already know a fair amount about programming databases, but you're relatively new to .NET and completely unfamiliar with version 2.0. He then pumps you up with the basics of ADO.NET 2.0, Windows forms and controls, ASP.NET 2.0, and finally focuses on Microsoft's premier database solution, SQL Server 2005. Visualize yourself bulging with mental muscles when you finish the "Jennings Training Camp".
