(4/8/2008)  It's just the best. Period. As I always do before I'll write a review, I've taken the time to go through the book from front to back and that's my short version.

If you need a book to help you learn Visual Basic 2008 for Windows programming, or a teaching book to use in the classroom, Murach's Visual Basic 2008 by Ann Boehm is the one you want. And, of course, such a book is also one I'll be hanging on to for those times when I need a quick reference.

From the start and all though the more advanced subjects including"Interfaces and Generics," LINQ, and others; this book covers almost everything you're likely to need in normal VB endeavors. There's a section on using ADO.NET to connect and use your SQL data bases, too. (That's important because about 80% of all Windows programming projects tie to such a database.) There's even a section on ways to deploy your new VB application after you've written it.

Mike Murach is to be lauded for putting in a usable index that actually lets you find things in the book's 800 some-odd pages--something some other publishers I could name should learn to do because it always adds tremendous value to the book.

You do need to be aware of what this book is--it deals with WinForms (Windows desktop) programming, not ASP.NET programming. Murach has a similarly great book on ASP.net if that's what you need and one of the beauties of VB.Net is that it allows you to leverage your knowledge in either direction. (I've used it to teach classes on ASP.net and you can't beat it either.)

I'm definitely happy to recommend this book to you as the best you'll find anywhere.

Details:Murach's Murach's Visual Basic 2008 by Ann Boehm
ISBN: 978-1-890774-45-5
Retail price: $52.50
Shelving: Programming / Visual Basic Programming

Murach's New ADO Book

(9/14/2007)  Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. has a new book out--Murach's ADO.NET 2.0 Database Programming With VB2005 by Anne Boehm. This new ADO book is great--lots of code samples, great structure, good writing style--I could go on and on. But I have to say something else. If you're a VB programmer--web or Win Forms--this book plus Murach's SQL Server 2005 For Developers, will carry you farther, faster than any other combination I know of. My shelf has a number of ADO and SQL-related books, but these 2 are the ones I'll say are by far the best--put the two together and you're be in business. They live up to Murach's claim that "no other book teaches you so much, so fast, so thoroughly."

If you're teaching programming classes, Murach's series of books lend themselves to teaching better than any decent IT books I know--especially taken as a series of books. Someone else may have a good one on a given subject, but Murach has a series of good ones. They're structured well for assignments and you won't have to jump around all through the book to teach a subject. The same can be said if you're just trying to learn how to do it on your own--their structure and presentation is uniformly good for that purpose.

Then there's that programming technique you just can't remember details on because you haven't used it lately. We keep a grouping of reference materials for that--Murach's books are the ones we check first. Alongside their thorough topic presentation, they put in a good index--better than most--and that's important for a reference work. If you're looking for a quick answer to a question on a subject, you want a quick answer to that question. You don't want to have to hunt and read for 15 minutes just to see if it's in the book or not. You can never have too much index for this purpose, but check it out--lots of others have an index in name only. Murach's books always at try to give you that quick answer--just check the index.

And let's face it. We're all creatures of habit. I'm no exception. We find a way to do something that works and we stick with it. That's good in ways...and bad in others. I've done tons of VB programs using ADO and, most often, SQL data bases. I've taught many programming classes. So, as I went through this book, I found lots of stuff that's old hat to me. But guess what: I found three great things here. First, I was reminded of some things I haven't even worried about using even though I knew about them and that I should take the time to study them more...I've got to work on that (when I get the time). Second, I found a few new wrinkles I didn't even know about...some good stuff I'll use for sure, some esoterica I may need for one of those strange things that come up at times and challenge you to find a way, any way, to get the job done. Finally, I found really good discussions of how to use some things I just haven't had the time--always a problem--to pursue even though I felt they would be better than what I was actually doing. (Habit is often reinforced by the need for speed.)

As in all of Murach's books, the ADO book doesn't just tell you you can do something, it actually shows you example VB code that will do it. That's important, believe me. I don't care if you're teaching a class of newbies or trying to meet a deadline, this is a huge thing that you really want badly.

The Murach series of books set a high standard for others to follow and the new ADO book--all 764 pages of it--continues to hold the bar high. As long as they keep it this good, I'm sold on their books.

Murach’s ADO.NET 2.0 Database Programming with VB 2005
by Anne Boehm
ISBN-13: 978-1-890774-43-1

Murach's SQL Server 2005

(2/24/2007)  Speaking of Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 product, do you:

• Need a textbook to teach a class
• Need a quick-start guide to get you up to speed
• Need a good reference book for most everyday operations

If you answered yes to any of these questions, here's a book you definitely need on your shelf.

Understand that trying to cover the entire SQL Server 2005 product is a little like trying to cover the world--you can't do it all in one book. There's lots of esoteric "stuff", trouble-shooting, and miscellaneous "stuff" still to be covered elsewhere, but if what you're looking for is a good solid foundation, this book lives up to Murach's tradition of excellence. From the management console to interacting with the CLR, Murach's SQL Server 2005 will tell give you the foundation you need to work with SQL Server 2005. We heartily recommend it.

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Murach's Visual Basic 2005

(9/18/2006)  

Having worked with Murach's ASP.NET 2.0, we were anxious to get our hands on this, his latest offering. The first thing you need to know here is that this book is about VB.NET 2.0 WinForms programming--not ASP.NET 2.0. As the titles might indicate, you need the other book for that--read on. But the next thing you need to know, especially if you're a beginner with VB.NET 2.0, or you're going to be teaching beginning classes in VB.NET 2.0, is that this book is as good as any you'll find. It will also be a welcome reference work to have on your shelf if you're a more experienced programmer because it is clearly organized, i.e., you can find what you need, use it, and move on. Even the index (a key to using the volume as a reference work) looks to have had an attention to detail that, sadly, many tech books lack. Our recommendation is that if you really want a full spectrum of VB instruction, you get this one and the ASP.NET 2.0 tome. The 2 together will get you a long way toward learning how to really use Visual Studio 2005 to do whatever you need, or just want, to do. And if you're teaching a class in VB.NET 2.0, be sure to compare this book to whatever you're considering...I think you'll like it better. Suggested retail is $52.50, but you can easily beat that--it's only $33 (about) at Amazon.com.

ASP.NET 2.0

(9/18/2006)  

The Birmingham Software Developers Association decided to use this book for a boot camp on ASP.Net 2.0 after looking at all the books we could find on the subject. There are better books for some purposes, but as a learning experience, this one is really far better than anything else we could find. The ISBN number is 0735614237 and its suggested retail price is $52.50. The book is ASP.NET 2.0: Web Programming with VB 2005" by Anne Boehm and Doug Lowe. It is published by Murach's and the ISBN is 1890774324.

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Windows Server 2003

(9/18/2006)  

Don't let the title fool you--it's not all limited to Server 2003: this book has lots of meat about DNS, routing, firewall-setup and more. Written by Stan Reimer and Mike Mulcare, the book is a great reference work if you're setting up a Windows Server 2003 system, and that includes the SBS product as well. We have all found this one to be an essential reference work. It is published by Microsoft Press and carries a $50.00 price tag--ISBN 0735615772.

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Flash Hacks

(9/18/2006)  

Mr. C. Lee, one of our students at Virginia College, told us about this book and if you're working with Macromedia's Flash product, we heartily recommend this book to you as something beyond the usual beginner's volume. It shows you lots of little code tricks to make using the product more powerful. The ISBN for this O'Reilly book is 0596006454 and the author is Sham Bhangal.

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Introduction To ASP.NET

(9/18/2006)  

This is just a great book to have on hand if you're working with ASP.NET. Period.

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