visual basic

The Deitel & Deitel books are very colorful and very heavy to carry in your backpack.

They do have a lot of material in them, but the material basically going into excrutiating detail about each subject with tons and tons of code snippets and complete code examples. If you like details, then this book is for you.

Unfortunately, while the size of the book is big, the range of topics is limited. ADO.NET, OOP, .NET Framework concepts are glossed over. OK, you can buy other books to supplement this one and the book may make a good textbook for a first semeter college course (in a multi-semester, multi-course program). All the same, for such a high price and a heavy carrying weight, I wish more topics were covered.

This book takes beginners by the hands, from installing and configuring Visual Basic.NET to actually coding, running and debugging the sample applications, which is precisely what beginners need. There are many exercises at the end of each chapter, always relying on complete applications instead of just code samples. You also learn how to use pseudocode to visualize what your application needs to do and the steps needed to make it functional.

You won't master OOP,ASP.NET, ADO.NET, etc., but you'll acquire a solid understanding of programming and VB.NET, and after finishing the book, will know whether or not you really want to pursue programming further, before buying dozens of books on advanced / specialized topics. This book is expensive but it probably does the job of two or three books(basics, practical applications, Visual Studio IDE), so the price isn't outrageous. This book serves as both a tutorial as well as a reference guide.

If you decide to pursue .NET programming further, read the Listmania pages, as well as the customer reviews and visit sites such as programmersheaven.com for advice on buying good books.

Learn by doing!