In this lively, eye-opening, and hands-on book, all you need is a computer and the desire to learn how to program with Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition. Featuring a full working edition of the software, this fun and highly visual guide walks you through a complete programming project—a desktop weather-reporting application—from start to finish. You’ll get an introduction to the Microsoft Visual Studio® development environment and learn how to put the lightweight, easy-to-use tools in Visual Basic Express to work right away—creating, compiling, testing, and delivering your first ready-to-use program. You’ll get expert tips, coaching, and visual examples at each step of the way, along with pointers to additional learning resources.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 13 Ratings

Tough book for beginners - 2007-02-10
Reviewer Rating:
I have taught computer applications such as Word, Excel, and Project for many years, but I rarely touch programming languages. This book appeared to be a solid fit: Build a Program Now! However, I simply couldn't connect with the author's style. The author seems to spend an entire page writing about a concept that could have been explained in a paragraph, but topics and code snippets that needed explanation were skipped completely. I have a hunch that Pelland had the perspective of, "Don't kill the newbie reader with crazy terminology; just tell them what to type." The end result, however, is code that works, but how & why it actually works is a Masonic secret. I would have REALLY benefited from an approach such as, "OK morons, here's a six line program that will add two numbers, and show the answer in a Message Box. Notice Line 1 does this. Line 2 creates a variable that does that. Line 3 uses the 'Show' command to blah blah." There was one section that had over 60 lines of code with virtually none of it described or defined. In short, I learned a few things, but the time was not spent well. I gave up about half way through the book after my ego required hospitalization.

Ok VB book for beginning programmers that have some familiarity with VB programming. - 2007-05-29
Reviewer Rating:
This book focuses on building applications quickly using minimal coding. The projects are completed fairly quickly, leaving the reader scratching their head and wondering what they could possible do to enhance the project. The browser project simply allows you to build a copy of internet explorer, with slight variations on functionality. Not much creativity, it almost seems like they could have created a wizard for building a browser, and have the user change the name and version. This book only seems useful as a precursor to coding. I found this book useful for learning the VB GUI, but not as a beginning coding book. I purchased this book because I don't particularly like to read my computer screen. Book is in full color and includes a CD.

Good Cookbook - 2006-11-06
Reviewer Rating:
This book actually helped me quite a bit. It is strictly a cookbook with step by step instructions for building several programs. I found the detailed instructions for binding controls on a form to an underlying database very helpful. Once that program is working, it is easy to modify it to get a better understanding of how to code SQL statements in VB and get them to properly interact with the database. The book assumes that you are reasonably familiar with using VS to build forms. It does highlight several useful tricks that I had not seen in the other half-dozen or so books I have on VB. You will need other books to cover the details of VB, but this one is a useful introduction.

Can be downloaded for free - 2007-08-09
Reviewer Rating:
The "Build a Program Now" series, for VB, C# etc can be downloaded for free, when you register the copy of your language, which you can also download free at the microsoft web site.

Why to spend money for this book if you can download it for free?

Not For Me! - 2007-07-28
Reviewer Rating:
I am a person who has no prior programming.

I bought this book with the expectation that I could teach myself the basic material in Visual Basic 2005--I was wrong. I'm going to try another approach with another book or a course.

I got to the first project, which I think was too extensive as a starting point. I feel they needed to start out with a less extensive project--a confidence builder.

That's my take and maybe I need a Dummy book.

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