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Thread: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

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    Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    I have been using VB6 for more than 8 years, but have only recently joined the forum. At the beginning, I bought the Howard Sams book 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6' but never spent much time with it. To fill in some missing technique, I now am browsing the book.
    Unfortunately, the included CD of VB projects is missing.
    Searching this forum, I found that other correspondents also
    had the problem. Since I had purchased VB6, I would not
    buy yet another copy of the book, only for the CD.
    So, would some kind soul extract the VB projects/directories and attach by email? Thanks in advance.

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    Who is the author and what is the ISBN number? I found a couple different "Teach Yourself VB 6" books published by Sams.

    For used programming books I've bought that didn't include the original media, I've had about a 75% success rate tracking down the original files via the Wayback machine at archive.org. For this book you'd probably want to try archived content for www.samspublishing.com or www.informit.com from around the year that the book was first published.

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    Generally all of the code for those projects is also printed out in the books.

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    Quote Originally Posted by DataMiser View Post
    Generally all of the code for those projects is also printed out in the books.
    So was the code when I first started to learn Basic using my Tandy TRS-80. I subscribed to a 'magazine' which included project code. After a while, tho, it got real tedious typing the same old routines time after time, so I subscribed to the 'tape' version, which I could use to display the code on that small black and green display.

    OP---Come a long way since then. And I understand your desire to have the CD's. But a word of caution, if you do find them, make sure you understand what is given to you electronically, line by line. I don't believe I have the Sams book to which you refer, but will check. Will also check on privacy/copyright laws if I do find it.

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    I would look for a second hand copy of the book with the CD.
    Should be cheap. To illustrate -
    I have a small flat, and the owner kept the garage, so Estate agent inspections are a nightmare for me.
    On one such inspection, I threw out thousands of dollars of VB books.
    I kept the CDs. I have over 20 of them, but don't appear to have the one you want.

    Rob

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    Very cheap on Amazon.com and comes with a CD
    This is a fast-track guide to Visual Basic 6, providing a solid introduction to this programming language. The CD contains a working model of VB6, enabling readers to create full-scale VB applications. However, they will not be able to create executable files.
    https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yoursel.../dp/0672315335

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    Thanks to all for the valued responses. The book was purchased, in good faith, through Amazon in 2010 and did not contain the expected CD. So any repeat
    purchase through Amazon would be a bad idea.

    Here is further detail about the 1998 book: the author is Greg Perry. The
    ISBN is 0-672-31533-5.

    One correspondent cites his learning of BASIC on a Radio Shack TRS-80.
    I also took that path with Microsoft's first efforts. And my Model II is very
    much in operation today. I use both TRSDOS and CP/M operating systems.

    Best regards, CW

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    I too started (PC computing) on the Radio Shack TRS-80.
    I had a TI (Texas Instruments) programmable calculator that I used in my (qualified) Chartered Accountant auditing days.
    I had worn out my welcome in Auditing by blowing the whistle too many times, on the sleazy stuff that was going on. Many audit firms also had their tax section working for the client, and were assisting on the profit moving, and trust shenanigans).
    So there I was, unemployed and attempting to get into computing (back in the 1970's).
    There was the 'catch 22', that you needed 2 years computing experience to get a job.
    Having no luck, I wondered if I could program the TI calculator to beat humans at Mastermind. The TI already had the game, but all it did was let you attempt to guess the TI's created code.
    Took me 6 months to get it to fit into the limited memory of the TI, and to get it to be unbeatable.
    That alone was not enough to impress the employment agencies, so I then translated it into basic on the Radio Shack TRS-80.
    That managed to impress one employment agency, and he canvassed the IT companies, and managed to get me into an IT job (with one of our biggest banks).

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    You know, I just bought an HP Scanjet 4670 scanner off of eBay (just because I've used them and really like their stand-up V profile). It was still in the box (brand new) and came with a CD. However, the CD had a noticeable curve to it, and wasn't about to go into my CD drive. Luckily, for me, I just popped over to the HP site and downloaded the latest drivers.

    However, CW, in your situation, I'm not even sure "getting" the CD would help you much, as, for a book with a 1999 copyright on it, I'm not sure you're going to get a working CD, unless someone like Sam has taken it out of the book and taken good care of it in a cool environment.

    Best Of Luck,
    Elroy

    p.s. My first "micro" computer programming was also on a Tandy: TRS-80 Model I, but I rather quickly graduated to the Model 16. I never really used a Model II. And, especially on the Model 16, I rather quickly found CP/M and never looked back. That darned Model 16 though (and we had a couple of them) had the nasty habit of corrupting its 8" floppies if you would power down without first ejecting the floppies.

    pps. And then we got an Altos with MP/M, four terminals, and twin 10MB drives (8" platters). We were the cat's meow.
    Any software I post in these forums written by me is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, and permission is hereby granted, free of charge and without restriction, to any person obtaining a copy. To all, peace and happiness.

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    Quote Originally Posted by crwood3 View Post
    Thanks to all for the valued responses. The book was purchased, in good faith, through Amazon in 2010 and did not contain the expected CD. So any repeat
    purchase through Amazon would be a bad idea.

    Here is further detail about the 1998 book: the author is Greg Perry. The
    ISBN is 0-672-31533-5.

    One correspondent cites his learning of BASIC on a Radio Shack TRS-80.
    I also took that path with Microsoft's first efforts. And my Model II is very
    much in operation today. I use both TRSDOS and CP/M operating systems.

    Best regards, CW
    My first Programming class as a Freshman in High School used Greg Perry's QBasic Programming 101 book.

    Last I checked, Greg has a public Facebook page that accepts Direct Messages from anyone. It might not hurt to shoot him a note thanking him for all the work he's done for the programming community over the decades and ask him if he can maybe help point you to where the files can be obtained.

    As far as Amazon ordering is concerned, if you look at the individual listings for the book, some sellers will say that the CD is included. Also, if the listing doesn't say either way, there is an option to contact the seller and you can ask them if the CD is included. I've done this several times, and sometimes I get responses from the big sellers saying they have no reasonable way to check this because their inventory is so huge, but most of the smaller sellers (ones with like < 10,000 feedback) have been responsive with either a yes or no, and I've been able to ensure that I get media with most of the used Programming books I've bought lately.

    I haven't received any books with damaged media, and this includes two books with 3.5" floppy disks that still worked perfectly.

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    There have been many valuable suggestions concerning the replacement of a missing CD from a
    text book. I will try to contact the author directly. Also, of great interest is discovering a site that
    my have archived the missing files. Again, many thanks.

    Several correspondents related early experience with the Radio Shack TRS-80 and Microsoft's
    BASIC interpreter. We have come a long way! But the old stuff really performed, albeit slowly.
    One program that I worked up was the Fast Fourier Transform. The process time for one
    transform was about 18 minutes, but the math was accurate (lots of sine and cosine calcs).
    Today, with public domain software, the process time is under 1 millisecond. Our RAMs today
    are in gigabytes, as compared to the 64 thousand byte limit of addressing on the TRS-80.
    I really had to shoehorn in those subroutines.

    Best regards, CW

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    I would bet my left 'future generation maker' that there are much better books out there than the one you are pursuing.
    If a few members chip in suggestions, AND you choose one that has it's CD in my collection, you could safely buy the book 2nd hand, and I will get the CD contents to you (if the CD is missing when you get the book).

    Now who could argue with that,
    Rob

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    Re: Sams 'Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6'

    Quote Originally Posted by SamOscarBrown View Post
    So was the code when I first started to learn Basic using my Tandy TRS-80...
    *That* brought back pleasant memories of coding in 4K!

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