C++ for VB Programmers [With Start Up CD-ROM]

by Jonathan Morrison and Dan Appleman

C++ is the skill most sought after by Visual Basic Programmers. According to Microsoft, there are over 3 million active Visual Basic programmers in the world today. Morrison teaches VB programmers to program in C++ by making use of their own knowledge to make the transition as easily as possible. It is the only book to take this unique approach. This book is based on the author's own experience oflearning C++ as a VB programmer. Includes the stater...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893115763
• ISBN13: 9781893115767
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

BUY the book, READ it, and KEEP it around, but be warned...

This book is must for VB programmers who want to extend the functionality of their projects. For the most part, the book is technically sound and logically organized. The formatting of code, however, left something to be desired, as it was often awkward/inconsistent in the spacing and indentation of code, and it was often difficult to see where one function/property ended and another one began. The thing is, it was fine in some places, yet horrendous in others.If you can put aside the cosmetic shortcomings, then this book has a lot to offer. The topics discussed could easily fit into two or three volumes, but this book is fairly "to-the-point" and gets the job done in one. The author's style is entertaining and informative, and it is written like he is speaking directly to you. The size of the book is not intimidating, and the material is easy to digest in a relatively short time (my company wanted to use a third-party C/C++ library which VB could not directly use, so I had to build a proprietary ActiveX COM object with methods, properties, events, etc. -- having had no prior C/C++ experience, I successfully completed this task within 2 weeks while reading the book). For that, this book was a life-saver!The author will get you started on developing VC++ components for your VB projects, but it's up to you to learn more (he references further reading materials in several of his chapters). It is also a decent reference book once you've read it over and implemented some of the techniques and worked through some projects.If you have any prior C++ experience, you can jump straight to Chapters 9-10 to learn about writing VB-accessible DLLs, and you'll quickly start learning about ATL by Chapters 11-12. Appendix B (on BSTRs) is also a very useful, and ties in tightly with Chapter 12. If you don't read anything else in this book, then at least read these!Now the bad part: There are minor technical flaws from time to time, but most seasoned VB developers will catch these and identify them as typos. As of this writing, the publisher's website...does not have any corrections listed for the book, but I have sent them a list of about 71 cosmetic updates, about 20 technical issues, and editorial comments for almost all chapters. The downloadable code has many discrepancies from the printed version, which may be an issue if you're comparing notes. Most projects can be built from scratch from listings in the book alone, but the author often neglects to mention specific settings/actions required at compile-time to make things work (e.g., the /MT or /MD flags to compile a multi-threading application). Also, the sample VB client applications lack design-time attributes, so you end up with pages of VB code, and no idea what controls/menus to add (other than trying to figure it out from the code). With one project, in Chapter 10, you *must* download the code from the website since it contains required files, and many attributes which aren't described in

Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!!

Clear explanations, fascinating examples, good humor. Thanks Jonathan.

The best book for vb programmers

This is the best book i have ever bought !. jonathan, expose for us, the world of c++ from the point of view of a vb programmers and he's doing it with lots of humor and deep understanding of how to teach and how to make his points. as a vb programmer for over 4 years, i can tell that this book is a must. finaly we can understand all the dirthy work that vb makes for us behind the scene, making things so transparent. and i know from my expirience that a good vb programmer whants to dig inside and find out all those things. again, the best thing for my opinion in this book is, jonathan's way to deliver the material. i know that i'll buy just any book that this writer publish because he is the best !!!. thank you jonathan.

Pretty decent

This book appears to be the first of its kind. Not a bad job either. If you are an advanced VB programmer looking to add a second language to your skills, this book is a good place to begin.

Excellent book for VB-><-C++ programmer

An excellent book for those high-end VB developers who sometime feel as a language VB is not 99% perfect for power user. This book doesn't teach nitty-gritty details about VB or C++ but teach how to build a bridge between the most user friendly programming language (VB) and most powerful language (C++) to date and use the both language in your advantage. Good Job!