New To Programming & VB.NET Need Book Recommendation

[nim6us]

Hello all! I just started a job as an entry level developer. My employer is training me, however I'm just debugging code right now, and there's no reference book that they offer. We use predominantly VB.NET, I'm new to programming in general, and I'm looking for a good book that I can use in my spare time to teach myself. There is a bevy of books out there and I was hoping there were maybe a top two or three that everyone agreed where solid books that I could choose from. Can anyone recommend a book, an author, or a series?

[jmcilhinney]

Do you want a reference style or a tutorial style?

[ident]

I have always been a fan of wrox.

Beginning Microsoft Visual Basic 2008

VB search wrox.com

http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTit...470191341.html

[Niya]

Trust me when I tell you that the internet has more than enough information about VB for anyone to learn even from scratch. The MSDN library is a vast storehouse of knowledge on many many topics concerning Visual Studio components including VB.Net.

Everyone's approach to learning is different, for me buying books about programming in VB is an unnecessary expense when I have access to the internet.

[nim6us]

I agree, there is a lot of stuff out there on the internet, but nothing as structured as a book would provide. At this point I'm more looking for tutorials and how to's as opposed to reference material. There is a TON of reference material on the net, but I'm not quite to the level of taking the training wheels off. I don't understand half of the things I'm looking at so searching for them via Google has proved difficult. I'm at the littlerally 2 months of ever touching programming level. Granted I'm a techy guy, I know a lot of general knowledge about computers, but in programming that really accounts for squat. HAhAHa!

Also something I wanted to get clarification on. Is Visual Basic the same as Visual Basic .NET? I mean obviously it's not, but when asking people about VB.NET many people just reference "Visual Basic". Is that just short hand and they're assuming the .NET is implied? I know it takes valuable time to stop and impart thoughtful wisdom to another person, especially via a forum, but I would sincerely appreciate any input.

[techgnome]

here's the deal - everybody has a different way of learning... their own style... your best bet would be to hit a local big-box bookstore... rummage through their programming section, and look through the books... see which ones work for you... I mean I could easily suggest one of the several Dummy or Idiot's Guides to you... they're effective (maybe, I don't know) but they may also be below your level... and you won't get any value... on the other hand I could suggest one of the Mastering XYZ books... but they tend to be dense and very technical and waaaay over your head.
Seriously, nothing beats going into the local dead tree store and picking up a few planks of dead trees to look through. I do that all the time... see what's out there... then I'll try to find it either online, or somewhere cheaper (Half-Price Books http://ww.hpb.com is good place to get stuff that's decent).

-tg

[Seraph]

I agree with ident and Wrox. they are good tutorial/reference books

[si_the_geek]

Also something I wanted to get clarification on. Is Visual Basic the same as Visual Basic .NET? I mean obviously it's not, but when asking people about VB.NET many people just reference "Visual Basic". Is that just short hand and they're assuming the .NET is implied?

VB.Net refers to VB 2002 and later (so far, up to VB 2010).

VB refers to lots of things, including VB.Net, "Classic" VB (VB 6 and earlier), VBA (the VB editor inside MS Office apps, etc), and VBScript (used by server admins, and "Classic" ASP, etc).


Microsoft no longer use .Net as an explicit part of the name for VB.Net, which causes a bit of confusion (especially for web searches), and leads to others doing the same.

[make me rain]

obediently i state that, almost all beginner level vb.net books starts with "Hello World" & ends with files creation / print
but it is very important & wise to choose a book which throw much,much light on the OOP part of the .net
with out knowing the OOP , if we start learning the vb.net , ofcourse we will learn but at one stage definitely we have to turn back.
this is my practical experiance.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'll chime in to agree with TechGnome, and add a second reason for going to a big box store for this. Computer books have long been an area rife with something that can best be described as a scam. The idea is that the larger the book, the larger the price. Therefore, some people are taking a modest amount of text, adding BIG margins, lots of screen shots, lots of code printouts, and padding an otherwise modest book out to be a HUGE book. It is entirely possible to write such a thing, have it turn out around 800 pages or so, and not have a single bit of useful content.

What I would do would be to take a book that looks ok, riffle through it without reading anything to get a feel for the margin size and the ratio of text to graphics (including code dumps). All those padding techniques don't mean that the book is a bad one. I have seen quite a few that have HUGE margins, yet are quite useful. A high ratio of graphics to text is a very bad sign, though, as I have yet to see a book that is any good that has a ratio of graphics to text above 50:50.

After that initial scan, I'd turn to the index and find a topic in a chapter later than the first chapter, that is of some interest. The reason I would skip the first chapter is that the first chapter in those books tends to be introductory or housekeeping stuff, and those things are easier to do well. Therefore, find an interesting topic later in the book, turn to that section, and read it. Do you feel that you have learned something? It is entirely possible to write something that is technically correct, but is practically useless. If all you are getting are steps such as 1) Click this menu item, 2) Add this value, 3) Use this wizard, then the writing isn't going to be worth much. You need to understand why you are doing the steps you are doing, or else you will ONLY be able to do exactly what was written in the book, which will not be sufficient.

Buying on line doesn't allow for such testing, at least not without considerable time invested in shipping. However, there are some publishers that tend to do better than others. O'Reilley is pretty good, lots of people like Wrox (and I've seen some good things from them, too), Wiley has some good titles, and Addison-Wesley is another that doesn't seem to put out much junk.

[nim6us]

Lots of helpful information here. Not exactly the answer I was looking for, was hoping there was a couple industry standard books that could be recommended for an absolute beginner. However I guess if that were true I would have found that on my Google search and not had to make a post. HaHAHa!

It seems my quest for "the perfect introductory book to VB.NET" is a bit like the Matrix. No one can be tell you what is, you have to see it for yourself I guess I'm off to my local bookstore.. if in fact one still exists.