Author Name
Tim Patrick
May, 2008
ISBN: 978-0596518431
In his preface, Patrick boldly proclaims, "I know you're going to enjoy it!"
Visual Basic .NET 2008 and the Joy of Programming
That's a pretty optomistic statement. But he has good reason for saying it because it reads like he had a lot of fun writing it. On the second page, he tells us that the Excel Users Group set fire to the entire Microsoft corporate campus in frustration. (They didn't ... but I know I've wanted to do that.) Occasionally, you have to read a paragraph twice to decide whether Patrick is kidding or not. In discussing the new features of VB.NET 2008, he complains that Microsoft "still refuses to implement ... Procedure Autocompletion" (That is, Visual Studio writes the program for you.) Especially since Visual Studio does so much these days, I thought he was serious for a second.
If you're looking for a no-nonsense, 'just the facts' textbook, keep looking. But if you're looking for a book that was written by a human being (but one with a lot of programming skill), this is your book.
One reason to enjoy right off the bat is that the cost of the book is the only cost you'll have to pay. Patrick said he was careful to make sure that all code in the book, including the database, will run with Microsoft's free Express Editions. I make a point of doing that here at About Visual Basic, too!
Start to Finish Visual Basic
This is actually a revision of his earlier Start to Finish Visual Basic 2005. I liked that a lot when I reviewed it a few years ago. But being a revised version is a feature (not a bug)! First, it means that you're getting something that has been refined by the writing process twice. Sort of like double-distilled vodka, maybe. Second, Patrick seems to have learned even more clever stuff about Visual Basic and it's all here.
I recall seeing books in the past that the publisher claimed had been revised to the current version, but really weren't. Don't worry about that. This one really has. All that nummy Framework 3.5 goodness has been blended in, including Linq, Lambda expressions, and Lots of XML.
A Project in a Book
This book uses an idea to organize the content that you see fairly frequently: the programming project. The book follows the development of a single project to explain the concepts in VB.NET. In this case, the project is software for a library; including the database. (Patrick is following a well established trail here. One of Microsoft's earliest example databases was the "Authors" database.)
That makes the book perfect for learning the various skills that most business-oriented programmers need. If your program needs to handle invoices instead of library cards, change the names. Nearly all of the code you need will still be in Patrick's example project.
The problem that most "project based" books have is that you have a really tough time "starting in the middle". In other words, if you haven't actually coded the the seventeen earlier chapters in the book, chapter 18 looks like C#. (I used to write "looks like gibberish" but "looks like C#" expresses the idea so much better.) Patrick has one of the neatest solutions to this problem that I've seen. His example code is packaged with "templates" and "code snippets" so you can see the "library project" before or after the additions based on each chapter. And you can add the updates for the chapter using the code snippets.
Microsoft uses this technique to make it seem easy in their in-person events. Patrick makes it happen ... "in-book".
Patrick does include a condensed, but still comprehensive description of the entire VB.NET language. He includes descriptions of the most fundamental concepts ("Visual Basic includes seven basic operators ...") to the obscure ("The IIf and the If operators"). You can plan on using Patrick's book as a complete introduction even if you're just starting out in programming.
