Learn to Program with Visual Basic.NET

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
If you've read our review of Learn to Program with Java, you know we admire John Smiley's exclusive "simulated classroom/real project" approach to teaching programming to beginners. Smiley's taught more than 100,000 programmers this way: His approach works.

In Learn to Program with Visual Basic .NET, Smiley brings his simulated classroom to Microsoft's new VB.NET. VB was already one of the world's easier languages, and this book makes it even simpler. If you've always wanted to learn to program, start here. If you learned another language years ago and you want to modernize your rusty skills, start here. If you've programmed with VB before but never achieved mastery, start here.

This book's project, a kiosk that provides quotes and information to the customers of a store that sells china, offers a unifying framework for the entire course. Assuming nothing, Smiley guides you through each key programming concept: requirements gathering, basic syntax, user interfaces, managing data, loops, strings, writing to files and printers, arrays, and VB.NET's new structured error handling. It's not just effective. It's fun. And if you're a beginner or near-beginner, your feeling of accomplishment will be palpable. (Bill Camarda)

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jersey–based marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Join Professor Smiley's Visual Basic .NET class as he teaches essential skills in programming, coding, and more. Using a student-instructor conversational format, this book starts at the very beginning with crucial programming fundamentals. You'll quickly learn how to identify customer needs so you can create an application that achieves programming objectives -- just like experienced programmers. By identifying clear client goals, you'll learn important programming basics -- like how computers view input and execute output based on the information they are given -- then use those skills to develop real-world applications. Participate in this one-of-a-kind classroom experience and see why Professor Smiley is renowned for making learning fun and easy.

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