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

"jeff" <jhersey at allnorth dottt com> wrote:


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

Well, a bit of both. He's in medicine and statistical math and
wants to be able to put together things he learns, for personal
use and not only...

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.

They way he (will) see it (I think) is why read two books instead
of one? Why learn access when in practice it won't be of any use
later?
He want's the real "EXE producing thing"... and one
(introductory) book! :-)

Career ... change careers ... step away from the computer ...
and do not attempt programming ... you may hurt yourself ...

I can *SO* sympathize..... :-)

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.


You are so right..... But on the other hand if he is content with
y=0
for x=1 to 100
y = y+x
next x
print y
why bother with pointers, data structures and concepts? He's not
going to go deep, from what I gathered. Just have 5 edit boxes,
input some values, and then perform some operations with them,
maybe check some results on a database and that's about it
(Well, maybe insert new values...)
.

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