How the book is designed
Although you could use this book as a desk reference, the design fits the metaphor of a training camp too. Each chapters builds on the previous chapters so you don't get the best from the book unless you approach it like a training camp. Unlike some other books, Jennings doesn't create his own end-to-end system to illustrate his topics; he uses the standard Northwind, AdventureWorks, and Pubs databases downloadable from Microsoft.
Jennings does create quite a lot of code, however. One of the best ways that programmers can learn from books like this is to take advantage of the huge library of programs that are woven into and through the text of the book. No web page, MSDN article, or on-line tutorial can match the extended coverage of 100 MB of code integrated together with 550 pages of text. On the ball as always, the code was online at Wrox before the official first date of publication in neatly organized zipped files, one for each chapter, all combined into a zipped 14 MB master file.
Why this book gets my first five star rating
At a list price of $40 (less than $27 at most discount stores), the book is priced to sell since comparable titles often list for more than $50. Some books have a page count much higher than this, but this one probably has just as much text since the typeface is smaller than most and each page is packed with more information. The "illustration versus text" ratio seems just right to me. There's a picture whereever you need one, but they're not thrown in for no reason.
Visual Basic 2005 Database Programming is getting my very first five star rating in the About Visual Basic "VB 2005 Books" review series because ... well ... it's perfect.
- The author is as good as you get and he does as good a job as he ever has on this book.
- The price is right, especially considering the what you get for the money.
- The topic is perfectly on target and it's being released exactly when you need it.
One caution ...
The only caution I would add is that it's not for everyone. It is targeted at a pretty specific audience of professional programmers. If you're not in the target group, it won't be perfect for you.
