Re: Good book for an absolute beginner on VB.net or 2005 with data


Is he wanting to do this as a hobby ... or a career path...

Hobby... get MS Access ... play with it ... learn database design /
relational diagrams...build a few forms ... link the tables ... let Access
handle the data plumbing for now ... allow him to gain an understanding of
objects and relationships, primary and foriegn keys, database SQL and so on
.... Once he out grows the Access WIZARDS ... start looking in the VBA code
aspect of Access ... write your own code behind the form ... gain an
understanding of code blocks, code sequencing, procedures / functions,
variables, loops, and so on ... by the end of week 1 he will be able to
create an address book ... Once done here ... he should have a basic
understanding of database principles ... Now move on to ... VB.Net... try to
reproduce the Address Book form in VB.net ... progressive learning.

Career ... change careers ... step away from the computer ... and do not
attempt programming ... you may hurt yourself ... frustration will consume
YOU :-) there is no one automagical book in ANY bookstore that will 'make
you a <insert language here> (Vb.Net in your case) pro in Sixty seconds!'
If your friend does not want to commit the time (oops, invest the time) to
learn something properly ( from the ground up - learn concepts and
principles ) he will not go too far in this industry. Would buy a book
'Become a Pro with a Hammer and Saw in Sixty seconds' to build your own
home! Guess what, you will also need to get a book about plumbing,
electrical, drywalling, and ... as well, permitting, by-laws and so on ...
So, if your friend does not want to learn about inheritance, interfaces,
polymorphism, classes, sub classes, encapsulation... basic OO principles ...
your friend will be stuck building tree forts in his back yard ... you know
the ones, my nephew (7 yrs old) just built one. 50 nials in a 2 inch
square pattern - to hold up a 3 foot 2x4 with a flag at the top ... but dam,
it is a nice flag!

Reality check, anything worth learning, is worth learning right (not sure
who said it)! ... If your friend wants the microwave approach to programming
.... he is going to be in for a real disappoint .. and brain cramp! So,
while you are looking for an 'all in one programming book', may keep your
eye out for a good cook book; because, who knows, maybe your friend will
want to be a chef someday too ...

Jeff

PS: your friend may want to do a bit more market research, because last time
I checked ... "Hello World" programmers are not in high demand right now ...
but, maybe if he can animate the Hello World ... bring it from transparent
to solid and make it 'fade away' ... he might be able to 'one up' the other
'Hello World' programmers and be promoted to a management.

"weight gain 2000" <weight.gain.2000.no@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ukz5PlaEHHA.4312@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kerry Moorman wrote:

weight gain 2000,

In my opinion, your friend really needs to take one or two
introductory courses at a community/technical/undergraduate
college.

The courses should cover the fundamental concepts of program
design and development that are common to all programming
languages:

Algorithms
Variables
Sequence
Selection
Repetition
Code organization using procedures
Elementary data structures, such as arrays and structures
Code organization using classes and objects
Collections

I think an introductory course in database design is also very
important, even for experienced programmers who need to design
a database structure as part of their coding projects.

With this fundamental background as context, it might then be
possible to pick up specific Visual Basic skills from a book.

Kerry Moorman

You are absolutely right there. But what I gathered from him is
that he is not at all interested in learning how to implement a
b-tree but to "just get things done" (VB-style). This will
eventually mean that he will be using the ->sort() function of
some class rather than implementing his own crap like a fawlty
bubblesort. So what he needs to do is learn how to begin
creating an app in which you hit a button and says "hello".
(Just double-click on the button and type MessageBox "Hello" or
something, rather than learning whole stuff about class
inheritance, complex event handling, etc...)


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