Customer Reviews
Fast way to learn by example! 
2007-12-02
This is a very good book. If you like to learn by example, this book has very good useful examples to get your project "up in the air" very quickly.
This book is an ideal supplement to a reference manual and really accelerates the learning process. I got a very good price on Amazon, but this book is worth full-bang retail price in terms of pure value. I would highly recommend this book, even if someone only found 5 examples out of the 101 examples, but depending on your project, nearly every example could be applied in some way to your project(s).
Good content...wish it was available in C# 
2007-10-10
Good, simple components that can be used as a part of larger applications.
Good explanations.
The only negative thing that I can see is that I wish it was available in C#. But then again, it provides a new challenge to translate it without having the C# code right there in front of me.
Good book but for old version of .NET 2007-06-13
101 Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Applications
It is a good book with a lot examples to learn from.
But examples require some extra work if you use .NET 2005
Amazing reference! 2005-10-12
I bought this book just a few weeks ago, and WOW. Thre is such a range of information here! This book is especially targeted at programmers that aren't particularly familiar with what all VB.NET can offer.
Granted, this product does not cover any of the topic very extensivly, but that's not what it was written for. 90% of the topics covered in the book are explained in more detail in the MSDN library.
All in all, this book is one of the best ways to find great ideas to improve functionality in all your VB.NET projects.
A book is more than just the code 2004-10-02
Jerry Bucknoff wrote a review where he says skip the book because you can just download the code. I don't get this. I buy a book for more than just the CD stuffed in the back. This book has 500+ pages that taught me how to do in VB.NET, the things I knew how to do in VB6. Maybe if you're a rocket scientist, you can just stare at the code and learn everything, but those 500 pages really got me up to speed on .NET.
Getting down to brass tacks 2004-07-27
101 MS VISUAL BASIC DOT NET APP
Not a book for beginners 
2004-07-20
Being new to VB I expected this book to help me through the rough spots. I am a embedded programmer who uses mostly assembly language, but wrote a fair amount of C programs on the PC using the old Borland 4. I find that seeing some examples is my best way to learn.
You would have thought with 25 years of experience I could figure out how to code in VB.
Well, this book looks like some C++ I have seen, not like any basic I am familiar with. Most examples look like cryptic C++. Perhaps this is the way VB6.net is, and, if so, I should have bought visual C++ because I know C, just not C++.
I suppose the book is fine for experienced VB programmers, but I cannot recommend it as a highly experienced programmer 'trying' VB for the first time.
Available for free download at msdn.microsoft.com 2004-06-05
These are 101 code examples, provided by Microsoft, offering various "how-to"'s in the form of code samples. Some of the topics are:
* creating menus
* validating listboxes
* how to use reflection
* receiving and processing data using a SQLDataReader
* comparing data binding in winforms and webforms
* creating a Windows Service
* how to use role-based security
* the try / catch / finally block for exception handling
* understanding the garbage collector
as well as dozens others (101 in all, right?) including several examples of using GDI+ in Winforms.
Code, documentation and, where needed, support files (e.g., .txt or .xml files) are provided.
This is good stuff but the fact is, you can down the entire set of code and documentation for free at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/default.aspx
In fact, Microsoft has updated these 101 Code examples (originally designed for VS.NET 2002 and originally released in early 2003) for release 1.1 of the .NET Framework and VS.NET 2003. Both the original and updated 101 Samples are available for download along with 101 Samples for C#.
I recommend these code examples, but I suggest you just download them rather than buy the physical book.
The code, itself, get 4 stars for usuability. If the book was free (or the material was not already free), then the book would get 4 stars, too. I won't take stars away just because you can get the material for free.
Why not 5 stars? Some of the explanations could be clearer. Some of the code examples are more like snippets than fully usuable components, programs or apps, so you will need to study the code, but customize it for your own use.
best intro vb.net i have come across 2004-03-14
few words for a book organised withs tons of examples
which work. this is one of the only books which
have tons of information and no need to look elsewhere
the author has outdone himself this time
If only this book came out two years ago... 2003-11-16
I've been developing .NET apps for just about two years since beta 1 and really wish this book was around when I first started. The only thing I can say bad about it is that I would have liked it before I spent a lot of time trial-and-erroring my way through things. I can't blame the authors though, books this cool take a while to write!
It's really a cool layout and and you feel yourself caught in the momentum. Example after example and very concise and to the point. Few books make their point(s) so quickly and succinctly. Not a lot of fluff or general comments (which certainly belong in many books), but it really gets to the point on each and every example. I found it very easy to read, it made me want to read on, it was very well written and all of the code worked flawlessly.
If you are starting out in .NET, this book will save you HOURS, and in many instances, DAYS and perhaps weeks. If you are an experienced developer, there is still a lot that you may have not come across yet and this book will certainly have some great information for you.
I've never purchased anything by Sean or Campbell, but if this is any indication of their work, I'll definitely be buying whatever else they write.
