Regardless of your current level of experience with Visual Basic, there are now a couple of books available that can help you master different aspects of Visual Basic from the comfort of your own home or office.

SAMS Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days and SAMS Teach Yourself More Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days have been designed and written in a tutorial-style format. Both books not only explain the theory behind VB, but most importantly, provide plenty of hands on practical exercises as well. And as anyone who has previously studied programming knows, the only effective way of becoming a proficient programmer (no matter what the language) is to get your hands dirty by "cutting code".

Layout of these books

Both books have been laid out using the same format. The inside front covers provide a brief description of the topics covered on each of the 21 days.

For example, Day 1 of the introductory book focuses on becoming familiar with Visual Basic. The topics covered here include a brief history and background of VB, undoubtedly one of the most popular programming languages of all time; an initial look at what's involved in writing a VB program; and an explanation of event-driven programming, which is one of the cornerstones of Windows programming.

In the more advanced book, Day 1 focuses on what's involved in writing a professional VB application, with an emphasis on understanding the steps of the project life cycle.

In both books, the discussion of the contents for each day is followed by:

• A "Summary", which briefly highlights the main points that have been covered in that particular section of the book
• A "Q & A" section, usually consisting of several questions which help to clarify different aspects of the VB language. And for convenience, the answers are printed directly below the questions
• A "Workshop", which is divided into two subsections: a "Quiz" to test your comprehension of what's been covered, and "Exercise(s)" where you write or alter VB code yourself to put into practice what you've learnt so far. Answers to the "Quiz", along with additional help and suggestions for the "Exercise(s)" are provided in the back of the books.

The seven days making up each "week of work" are also preceded and followed respectively by "At a Glance" and "In Review" sections, which provide quick ways of determining what's going to be covered in the coming week, and a refresher of what's been discussed. The layout and contents of these books make them an ideal choice for anyone who wants to progressively work their way through the theoretical concepts of VB, but who are also keen to develop and write programs at the same time.

A VB book for those just starting out Let's take a quick look at some of the topics discussed in SAMS  Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days:

• Adding controls to an application and setting their properties
• Incorporating Windows based menus into programs
• Understanding data types and operators
• The use of input, message, and common dialogue boxes
• Adding code to mouse clicks and movements
• File input and output
• Printing
• Adding multimedia features to programs including graphics, sounds and video
• Easier programming via the use of VB form templates
• OLE (Object Linking and Embedding)
• The steps involved in creating ActiveX controls
• Database programming
• Developing a program that provides Web access
• The provision of online help to users of your programs
• Testing, debugging, and distributing your programs.

As a bonus, the book also contains an additional chapter on each of multidimensional arrays and the Windows API (Application Programming Interface).

Greg Perry SAMS Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days ISBN: 0 672 31310 3 851 pages Published by SAMS (a division of Macmillan Computer Publishing) Distributed in Australia by Prentice Hall RRP: $69.95

 

A VB book for those with some experience Once you've read SAMS Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days,  or if you've already been programming in Visual Basic for awhile, the  next logical step is to read the companion volume, SAMS Teach  Yourself More Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days.

Just some examples of the topics covered include:

• A discussion of the three different types of application interface: SDI (Single Document Interface), MDI (Multiple Document Interface) and the Explorer-style interface
• Templates and the Template Wizard
• Array processing with object collections
• The effective use of subroutines and functions
• Complex forms processing
• SQL (Structured or Standard Query language)
• How to make the most of the Visual Data Manager The different ways of accessing data from within VB applications
• How to use the Data Environment Designer, the Data Reporter Designer, and the Data Repeater control
• ActiveX control creation
• Reporting facilities with Crystal Reports
• Comprehensive error handling
• HTML-structured online help
• Performance issues
• Packaging, distributing and selling completed applications
• Understanding ActiveX documents.

Lowell Mauer SAMS Teach Yourself More Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days ISBN: 0 672 31307 3 677 pages Published by SAMS (a division of Macmillan Computer Publishing) Distributed in Australia by Prentice Hall RRP: $69.95

Something for everyone

Both novice and seasoned VB programmers are catered for by these two books. Even if you've never programmed before, the first book, SAMS Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days, can get you started. There's nothing quite like the excitement and satisfaction gained from getting a computer to respond in the way you've programmed it.

Likewise, the second book contains plenty of information and advice that is of practical use to anyone developing VB programs professionally.