Level: Beginning
Readability:	Layout:	Examples:
Language:	OOP:	Database:	Windows Forms:	ASP.NET:

This book is designed for the entry level developer.  It is well laid out and follows a logical progression that gives a quick overview of VB.NET. It covers the important concept, but avoids including so much detail that would confuse an entry level developer. In my opinion, this is one of the best VB.NET books when it comes to getting an entry level developer up and running quickly with VB.NET.

I really like the way each chapter is laid out.  At the end of each chapter, there is a summary of the important concepts, a list of terms, the objectives of the chapter, and a set of exercises for the reader to do.

The logical progression of this book was designed for an entry level developer. It gradually unveils concepts in a layered manner.  It starts with basics in ach important development area and after covering each at a basic level and tying them together it moves on to develop more advanced concepts in each area. Following is the general layout of the book

• Overview
• Language basics
• Object Oriented Programming basics
• Developing with Windows Forms
• More language concepts
• More OOP concepts
• Relational database concepts
• Web Forms (ASP.NET)
• Web Services

The book starts out by walking through setting up a project in Visual Studio.  This walkthrough includes numerous screenshots. The author then covers some VB.NET language basics over the next 110 pages where it covers the language syntax and using classes and forms.

The liberal usage of good diagrams and screenshots aids the reader in grasping the concepts being covered. The examples provided are very good. They provide 18 different simple sample applications that would be pertinent to a business environment.

The development of the language concepts, object oriented programming, and winforms development is excellent for an entry level developer. However, if you are a more advanced developer, it will not provide all of the detail that you would be able to use as a reference. Too high a level of detail would not be good for an entry level book as the important points get lost in excessive detail.

Chapter 16 briefly covers using relational databases. There is a short intro covering database theory.  This theory is just enough to allow someone to use databases from Visual Studio .NET. It is not intended to teach a user how to design and normalize relational databases. It provides just the right level of theory and practical application to be able to knock out a simple database application in a minimum amount of time and to understand how VB.Net interacts with ADO.NET.

All in all, this is an excellent introductory level book. At 724 pages, it covers a lot of material at just the right level for an entry level developer. If you are looking for an entry level book, don’t let the low evaluation scores scare you.  If each of these items was covered in great detail, which would earn a 5; the book would be twice as thick and would take you at least twice as long to get through. This is one of the best entry level books I have reviewed.