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VB COM by Thomas Lewis Wrox Press
VB COM is a book dedicated to familiarizing the average VB programmer with the inner workings of the Component Object Model . VB is entirely based on COM and a solid knowledge of it can only result in better VB programs , says author Thomas Lewis . I have to agree with this, but I also found this book to be a great tutorial on subjects like :
  • Office Automation (e.g. controlling Excel from within VB)
  • ActiveX component creation (ActiveX DLL's , EXE's and OCX's)
  • using the VB6 Class Builder Add In
  • using the VB6 ActiveX Interface Wizard
  • using the Package And Deployment Wizard
  • using Microsoft Transaction Server
  • the Windows registry and RegEdit.EXE
The writing style is very clear, descriptive and quite humorous at times (I especially enjoyed the implementation of the CPig class, chapter 2, "COM architecture") . The reader of VB COM will benefit in two different aspects, in my humble opinion. Firstly, he/she will learn some very useful techniques that can be applied immediately to his/her programs (e.g. creating class modules) . Last but not least, he/she will gain a solid understanding of a bunch of today's programming terms, like COM (duh), interfaces, automation, client-server, registry, just to name a few. The book's source code encourages the use of good coding techniques and helps the reader to understand several things about component programming, that VB's documentation fails to mention.

To sum it up, I found VB COM to be an extemely intersting book, equally useful in teaching VB-specific COM programming and familiarizing the VB programmer with COM's general philosophy and architecture.
Beginning VB6 Database Programming by John Connell Wrox Press
This book is a complete beginner's guide to database programming with VB6. Chapter 1 is a very nice introduction to the concept of databases. Chapter 2 is about the ADO Data form wizard and how a beginner can use it to create a data entry form without writing any code. Chapters 3,4,5 and 6 are concentrated on DAO and the DAO data control. The quality of the source code is very high and these three chapters alone constitute an excellent course in programming a bulletproof database application. The author is very descriptive, and likes giving tips for making all-around cool programs, not just functional database programs. He also has a great sense of humour, and I'm not just saying that! Chapter 7 uses a class module that encapsulates the work done in 4,5,6. Chapter 8 is about selecting and updating data using SQL. The next chapter is a great lesson on database normalization and how to do it with Access,VisData or plain DAO code. Chapter 10 'Programming The Address Book' is a fantastic demonstration of all the stuff already covered. It's a complete,production level application with all the trimmings that one might hope for. It's also a great tutorial on general vb6 programming and using some of the Pro,Enterprise edition controls. The next 5 chapters introduce the reader to ADO, the new technology pushed by Microsoft. Chapter 13,'ADO and ASP' was a big surprise, it even includes instructions on how to download Personal Web Server.

This book is definately worth the read and should be enough for anyone to start programming solid database applications.



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