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I am writing a new book on Visual Basic 2005, targeted at VB6 programmers,

and to some degree VB.NET 1.x programmers. I'd like to sign up a (limited)

number of volunteers to read the book and provide feedback.



To participate you would...

1. Sign a non-disclosure agreement

2. Read each chapter in Word format and mark it up and return it within a

week of receipt

3. Be open honest and direct, providing feedback about the content and

approach.



Those who participate and provide feedback will receive an acknowledgement

in the book and will also receive a copy of the book upon publication. There

is no financial or other compensation, I'm afraid.



If you are interested, please write to me at jliberty@libertyassociates.com

(do not post a response here as it will clutter up the news group) and

please be sure to tell me your programming experience and level of interest

in VB 2005.



To learn more about me and my books, you may want to take a look at my web

site: www.LibertyAssociates.com



Thank you.



-j


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"Jesse Liberty" <jliberty@libertyassociates.com>wrote i

Several books target that audience, few target non-programmers.



Hint hint!

LFS

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My hope is that my book will be accessible to non-programmers, but the truth

is that there are about 2 million VB6 programmers who have not yet made the

swtich to VB.NET.



Also (and I know everyone says this) I think I'll be taking a radically

different approach. My theory is this: if I were going to teach you VB 2005

in person, I would not start with teaching you looping and conditionals. I'd

fire up Visual Studio and build an applicaiton, explaining what you need to

know about the language and about object oriented programming as we go. That

is how this book will work.



-j





"Larry Serflaten" <serflaten@usinternet.com>wrote in message



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"Jesse Liberty" <jliberty@libertyassociates.com>wrote

And there are 1001 books that will try to get them to convert! ;-)





My idea of a needed book on programming would begin with a short

history on the evolution of computers, a introduction to generic system

architecture (common motherboard components) and logic circuits

(AND/OR gates, etc.) and give the reader a feel for the evolution of

programming languages. That evolution would help to indicate why

hexidecimal is a common notation, and part of a chapter should

cover conversions from decimal to hex and binary, Hex arithmetic,

and include logic operations on Hex values.



Then go ahead with the basic loops and conditional constructs and

so forth, on into VB language syntax, the event processing model,

OOA/OOP (Object properties/methods), and framework classes,

et.al.



I am thinking anyone interested enough to pick up a book on programming

would be interested in the history of the technology (to some degree).

10 or so pages at the start may be all that is needed to capture the

interest of 'wannabe' programmers, without totally distracting the more

advanced users. (Having your facts correct would solidify what they

already know)



I mentioned it only because I've read several books already, and have been

in a couple courses where non-programmers bring up discussions on

dealing with the "things you did like that in VB6, you do like this in VB.NET"

syndrom that is inevitable in books of the type you indicated.



I'd suggest you avoid that pitfall. If your reader is a VB6 programmer,

chances are they can recognise what you are talking about was handled

differently in previous versions. If your reader is a non-programmer,

adding what some other language did is of no value, or use, and only

confuses the issue.



If you have also perpetrated that syndrom, I'd suggest you delete most

references of that nature, especially in cases where it would be fairly

obvious to the VB6 programmer what is going on.



How many pages was it? I have other things coming up, but, it can't

hurt to learn a thing or two... <g>



( I also have some text on the history of computing I wrote (several)

years ago for my own web site, if you'd be interested in how that might

look)



LFS











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"Larry Serflaten" <serflaten@usinternet.com>wrote in message



I agree. In my current library to get an idea of this history

you'd have to read through my 600+ page computer architecture

book, my 500+ page programming languages book and my 400+ page

theory of computation book. To have all this information neatly

summarized and presented in a manner that is accessible to

beginners would be invaluable.



Andrew Faust





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On 2004-09-25, Larry Serflaten <serflaten@usinternet.com>wrote:

Which ones are good?



That's a serious question, I don't really know what's out there for VB6

to VB.Net conversion, and I'm finding myself in a situation where I'm

dealing with a lot of people making that transition. There's a lot of

books that deal with the new syntax and the framework, but what I'm

really looking for is a higher level of abstraction.



It seems that books that deal with OOP in .Net start from scratch, while

good VB6 programmers have a starting point of object-based programming

of in COM and VB. Are there any good books out there that deal with

moving from object-based to object-oriented?



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"David" <dfoster@woofix.local.dom>wrote

That may be a matter of taste.... :-(





I haven't read this book, but I have others by this author and have listened to

him in person a couple times. This one, however, sounds more like what you're

after....



Visual Basic .NET Business Objects - by Rockford Lhotka

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590591453/102-7071497-1963321?v" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590591453/102-7071497-1963321=glance



Read the reviews, see if it may have what you want....



LFS

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I think you'll find that the book I'm writing is almost the exact opposite

of what you want <smile>



I do not intend to provide any of the background you are talking about; mine

will be a book in which you are creating a meaningful Visual Basic

application within the first 10 pages, and I will maintain a laser-focus on

the needs of the working professional (or very serious amateur) programmer.



In short, this is not a texbook nor an introductory book, but an

intermediate, hands-on, get working, be productive book. As for the pitfall

you mention, I think there is a happy middle ground of calling out in notes

the specific pitfalls and traps that mgiht await the unwary VB6 programmer.



As I said, serious novices may well be able to read the book, but they are

not the target.



Thanks!



-j







"Larry Serflaten" <serflaten@usinternet.com>wrote in message



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Of those 2 million non-movers Jesse, a significant number will be people who

already have experience of multiple languages, and of long-standing

experience. You only have to browse these newsgroups to see the depth of

experience and knowledge for some VB'ers. Unfortunately, they wouldn't

benefit from your book -- most of these would be "up and running" given one

day with a 'Language Reference' and an extra strong cup of coffee/tea.



I would suggest that these people are non-movers because of the weight of

legacy code that MS has left them. This code probably belongs to commercial

organisations, not hobbyists, and there's generally not enough time, or

money, or team resources, or reliable tools, to achieve the move. In effect,

VB6 has become a "block end". When *we* move, it will be to something with a

more certain future.



Please read this the right way -- I'm not trying to criticise or belittle

your work, only to paint a different perspective. I've no idea how many of

those 2 million would fall into this class, and how many are simply waiting

for a good book. I just had to say these things though as the issues are

valid, but they're blatantly ignored by people in any position to help. A

typical reaction is to consider those voices and whining, whinging, and

luddite.



Tony Proctor



"Jesse Liberty" <jliberty@libertyassociates.com>wrote in message



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Dan Appleman's Moving to VB.NET 3rd edition is awesome...



I looked at 4 books when making the conversion. Read em, then read

applemans, then read them again, made a lot more sense.



Again, VB6 creates a lot of bad habits, Appleman really tries to help you

through that.

"David" <dfoster@woofix.local.dom>wrote in message



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No, I think your points are excellent, and I' not in marketing. I'd be happy

to do a book like "An introduction to Programming using Visual Basic .NET"

though I'm not sure how big the audience would relaly be. Neat idea though.



-j







"Tony Proctor" <tony_proctor@aimtechnology_NoMoreSPAM_.com>wrote in message



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