The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Ready to Run Visual Basic Code Tony Stevenson

A new book that anyone interested in Visual Basic programming will want to add to their bookshelves is "Ready-to-Run Visual Basic Code Library", which is subtitled "Tips, Tricks, and Workarounds for Better Programming".

It consists of over 170 examples that cover a wide range of Visual Basic constructs and techniques. Here's just a small sampling of what's covered in the book:

• working with variables
• number manipulation
• text handling
• formatting output
• timers
• starting and stopping programs
• network programming
• dealing with controls such as text
• boxes, list boxes, and combo boxes
• graphics and fonts processing
• interacting with the contents of the
• Windows system registry

Each of the examples has been given a couple of ratings. The first rating tells you the earliest release of Visual Basic (4, 5, or 6) in which the code will work. Arid the second rating depicts the level of difficulty. A single star means that the example only uses plain vanilla Visual Basic code. Two stars are used to indicate sample programs that use more complicated logic and possibly API (Application Programming Interface) calls. And programs with three stars are complex and may require extra knowledge outside of Visual Basic. For example, to successfully incorporate subclassing into your applications you need to have an understanding of the way in which Windows processes messages.

Contents of the Companion CD-ROM

For convenience, all of the sample code used throughout the book has been made available on the companion CD-ROM. Best of all, the programs can be run directly from the CD-ROM itself to quickly see them in action. However, a better, and recommended, approach is to download the sample programs to your hard disk so that you can then experiment with the code by making your own changes.

Intended Readership

You don't need to be a Visual Basic guru to benefit from this book. The only requirement is to possess an understanding of the fundamentals of VB. And those can be picked up by reading any one of a number of introductory texts now available in computer bookstores.

But even if you're a seasoned VB campaigner, there's still a lot that can be learnt by studying this book. That's one of the great things about programming - you can never say you're bored because there's always something new that can be added to your programming repertoire, regardless of how extensive it is already.

There are different ways of tackling the book's contents.

An alternative method is to just pick out those specific Visual Basic topics that interest you, or that you have an urgent need to know about, and to just concentrate on those. For instance, there is one chapter devoted to the ListView and TreeView controls.

Yet another way is to read through the book three times. The first time through, you only read and study those samples that have been designated with a single star. The next time, you focus on ones with two stars, and then finally, the samples with three stars. Such an approach is an excellent way of gradually building up both your confidence and expertise with the Visual Basic language.

Companion Web Site

As is becoming increasingly popular with a lot more computer books now, especially those ones that deal with aspects of programming, "Ready-to-Run Visual Basic Code Library" has a companion World Wide Web site (www.vb-helper.com/).

The Web site serves a couple of useful purposes: It's where any updates or modifications made to the samples to ensure they work with future versions of Visual Basic will be available. The site also contains additional code examples to those already found in the book.

Learning by Example

As the author, Rod Stephens, says in his book's introduction, "an example is worth a thousand words". And there's no better way to learn more about Visual Basic than by studying the examples he's included in his "Ready-to-Run Visual Basic Code Library".

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