Review

This book provides exhaustive coverage of everything you need to know in order to master the latest version of Visual Basic. The book is designed for readers of all levels from experienced programmers to those with little or no programming experience. It does so by providing beginners with basic underlying good programming skills, while at the same time offering experinced developers detailed and exhaustive coverage of the Visual Basic 2008 language.

By simply flipping through the pages of this book, it becomes evident that an enormous amount of time and effort went into it. It offers the same high quality and detailed coverage that you would find in most college level academic books. The book's 1400 plus pages include 32 tutorials and 100+ exercises on real-world applications. It contains thousands of lines of carefully commented code, hundreds of programs with screens shots, and hundreds of programming tips. All of the code is presented in full color as it would appear on a computer monitor. Each chapter provides extensive self-review exercises which are designed to build confidence with the new material.

Key topics include Language Integrated Query (LINQ), Visual Programming, Framework Class Library (FCL), Controls (Buttons, TextBoxes, ListBoxes, Timers, ComboBoxes, RadioButtons, Menus, Dialogs), Event Handling, Debugger, Algorithms, Control Structures, Methods, Random-Number Generation, Arrays, Classes, Objects, Collections, Mouse & Keyboard Event Handling, Strings, Files, Database, Graphics, Multimedia, GUI Design and Web applications.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to master this latest version of Visual Basic. You may read other reviews for this book at Amazon.com. They are all excellent.

Table of Contents

1 Drawing Application
Introducing Computers, the Internet and Visual Basic

2 Welcome Application
Introducing the Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition IDE

3 Welcome Application
Introduction to Visual Programming

4 Designing the Inventory Application
Introducing TextBoxes and Buttons

5 Completing the Inventory Application
Introducing Programming

6 Enhancing the Inventory Application
Introducing Variables, Memory Concepts and Arithmetic

7 Wage Calculator Application
Introducing Algorithms, Pseudocode and Program Control

8 Dental Payment Application
Introducing CheckBoxes and Message Dialogs

9 Car Payment Calculator Application
Introducing the Do While…Loop and Do Until…Loop
Repetition Statements

10 Class Average Application
Introducing the Do…Loop While and Do…Loop Until
Repetition Statements

11 Interest Calculator Application
Introducing the For…Next Repetition Statement

12 Security Panel Application
Introducing the Select Case Multiple-Selection Statement

13 Enhancing the Wage Calculator Application
Introducing Function Procedures and Sub Procedures

14 Shipping Time Application
Using Dates and Timers

15 Fund Raiser Application
Introducing Scope, Pass-by-Reference and Option Strict

16 Craps Game Application
Introducing Random-Number Generation

17 Flag Quiz Application
Introducing One-Dimensional Arrays and ComboBoxes

18 Student Grades Application
Introducing Two-Dimensional Arrays and RadioButtons

19 Microwave Oven Application
Building Your Own Classes and Objects

20 Shipping Hub Application
Introducing Collections, the For Each…Next Statement,
Access Keys and Language Integrated Query (LINQ) to Objects

21 “Cat and Mouse” Painter Application
Introducing the Graphics Object and Mouse Events

22 Typing Application
Introducing Keyboard Events, Menus and Dialogs

23 Screen Scraping Application
Introducing String Processing

24 Ticket Information Application
Introducing Sequential-Access Files

25 Address Book Application
Introducing Database Programming and
Language Integrated Query (LINQ) to SQL

26 CheckWriter Application
Introducing Graphics and Printing with
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

27 Phone Book Application
Introducing Multimedia with
Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

28 Bookstore Application: Web Applications
Introducing Visual Web Developer 2008 Express and the
ASP.NET Development Server

29 Bookstore Application: Client Tier
Introducing Web Controls

30 Bookstore Application: Information Tier
Examining the Database, Creating Database Components
and Using LINQ to SQL

31 Bookstore Application: Middle Tier
Introducing Code-Behind Files and Databound Web controls

32 Enhanced Car Payment Calculator Application
Introducing Exception Handling

A Operator Precedence Chart
B ASCII Character Set
C GUI Design Guidelines
D Visual Basic 2008 Express Windows Form Designer Tools
D.1 Internet and Web Resources
E Keyword Chart

Glossary
Index

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