Re: VB.NET Book

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Dave wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been writing C++ COM controls and VB 6 Applications for years. Before
> that Windows applications in C and OS2 Presentation Manager in C. My
> question is what book do you think would be best for me to use to learn
> VB.NET? I've already done some small project conversions of my VB 6 code.
> I haven't yet converted my C++ COM objects, some of which are ATL based and
> some MFC based. This is a pretty broad request I know, so you may want to
> respond with more than one book title. I would like books that cover some
> of the more advanced topics like Threading, Synchronization Objects, and how
> and when to use API's when .NET framework is not adequate.

IMO the .NET framework is still young enough that there aren't a great
deal of 'in-depth' books, such as there are for C++ (of course) and
MFC/ATL/COM, which have all been around long enough to be thoroughly
digested by the community at large. I would say you would be best of
with whatever general .NET book you can find that sounds like it's as
'advanced' as possible, but be prepared for it to be not that
'advanced' at all and that you will have to do a lot of digging /
tweaking / googling yourself.

With a background in VB6 and C++ COM you should probably look to be
learning C# as well as VB.NET, since a lot of what docs there are will
be targeting C++ programmers moving to .NET (and by supposition, C#).
Being able to translate code examples fluently between the two is an
invaluable skill.

My favorite general VB.NET book (it starts at the beginning but in
places reaches an intermediate-advanced level) is Balena, Programming
VB.NET. There is a 2003 edition out now; the 2005 edition is due in
January. I don't know of any really advanced VB.NET-oriented books, but
part of the point is that it doesn't really matter. As for C#,
Troelsen's 'Pro C#' (2005 edition out now) seems to attract praise,
can't speak for it myself. Chris Sells' 'Windows Forms programming in
C#' will teach you about much more than just what the title suggests.
Petzold of course. Beware however that there are a *lot* of
'documentation rewrite'-type books out there :(

One thing to bear in mind is that the documentation (not the
'reference' parts, which are still horribly copy-and-paste in places,
but the 'explanation' parts) is often excellent in explaining the whys
and hows of the .NET way. The MSDN LIbrary is something you just can't
do without.

--
Larry Lard
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