VB.NET Programming with the Public Beta

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VB.NET Programming with the Public Beta

Microsoft s.NET strategy represents a milestone in the company s recognition of theInternet s untapped potential. By leveraging the concept of an always-onconnection between disparate servers in disparate locations, and building thecommunication layer on top of ratified Internet standards, Microsoft s bold newworld will soon be part of our new world. In making that vision a reality,Microsoft has redesigned its popular Visual Studio development environment fromthe ground up to provide software developers with an optimal IDE for the .NETworld. They publicly unveiled the Visual Studio.NET beta in November 2000.Although not yet frozen, the beta provided eager programmers with a glimpse ofthe future, as well as a vision of what must be left behind to support the .NETframework. That s where VB.NET Programming comes in handy.

Althoughthe documentation provided with the Visual Studio .NET Public Beta wasadequate, it wasn t optimized for the upsizing VBers. Billy Hollis and Rockford Rocky Lhotka have been publiclyspeaking and writing about Visual Basic for years, and they know the productinside and out. They re also honest about the product s features and flaws. VB.NETProgramming is Rocky s third Wrox book, and his serious and sensibleapproach reads like a tour guide s description of a city that has undergonetremendous architectural change. Like wide-eyed tourists trying to take it allin, readers are patiently led over the shifting landscape and explained thepractices needed to build bridges from the old VB way to the new.

Thisbook is not intended for VB newcomers, but rather those with intermediate VBprogramming skills. In fact, VB.NET may be easier to learn for newcomers, sincethe adoption of true object orientation. This means that many of the pseudo-OOPVB tricks of the past are obsolete, along with fundamental (albeit flawed)keywords such as the dreaded Gosub. In fact, with the addition of newkeywords like Imports, Inherits, Overridable, and Structure,the new VB syntax looks more like C# and Java than its own ancestors.

The onlyproblem with the book is its brief shelf life. By focusing on the .NET publicbeta, the authors have addressed the programming audience infected with betafever. Disclaimers abound in the book about how certain features were eithernot fully implemented or are subject to change with the final release, therebylimiting the book s appeal after Visual Studio.NET ships. This is unfortunate;I hope the authors follow up this brief introduction with a comprehensive workon all the nuances of the shipping VB.NET.

Ifyou re an active VB developer, buy this book. If you are a former VB developerprogramming in a different language, peruse the contents to review how much thelanguage has changed; you might be pleasantly surprised. And if you re new toVB, wait until Visual Studio.NET ships and Wrox publishes a .NET introductorybook comparable to their well-written Beginning titles.

Mike Riley

VB.NETProgramming With the Public Beta by Billy Hollis and Rockford Lhotka, Wrox Press, http://www.wrox.com.

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ISBN: 1-861004-91-5

CoverPrice: US$34.99

(433pages)