Author:Evangelos Petroutsos

By:Daniel McKinnon

Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 by VB Expert Evangelos Petroutsos is a fantastic way to get up and running with one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Visual Basic has come so far since it's early days and now the reasons for using VB have gone far beyond just RAD (Rapid Application Development) as you can write world-class applications far beyond the most basic tasks you would have chosen  VB for 10 years earlier.

Everything that you would want covered is here in this book, from the basics of how to use VB to condition clauses to array and string access to database connectivity and the newest goodies .NET 3.5 has to offer. Written in a clear, concise manner that calmly takes you from one chapter to the next, I found this book to be an absolute joy to learn from Sybex has a rich history of publishing easy to use computer books that nearly anyone can learn from and this text is no exception.

Chapter Overview:

01. Getting Started with Visual Basic 2008

02. Variable and Data Types

03. Programming Fundamentals

04. GUI Design and Event-Driven Programming

05. Vista Interface

06. Basic Windows Controls

07. Forms

08. More Windows Controls

09. TreeView and ListView Controls

10. Building Custom Classes

11. Working with Objects

12. Building Custom Windows Controls

13. Handling Strings, Characters, and Dates

14. String Data in Collections

15. Accessing Folder and Files

16. Serialization and XML

17. Querying Collections and XML with LINQ

18. Drawing and Painting with Visual Basic 2008

19. Manipulating Images and Bitmaps

20. Printing with Visual Basic 2008

21. Basic Concepts of Relational Databases

22. Programming with ADO.NET

23. Building Data-Bound Applications

24. Advanced DataSet Operations

25. Building Web Applications

26. ASP.NET 3.5

27. ASP.NET Web Services

My only qualm with this magnificent book is that I wish some color could have been introduced, especially in the sections that discuss the new WPF way of creating applications. These new apps are meant to have a great look for the user and I feel the tried and true black/grey look hurts the book a little bit but this in no way lowers my rating of it.