Online Bookstore

Here is a list of books that no VB programmer should be without. By clicking on the order links, you can order any of these books right now through Amazon.com.

How to Program Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition
Jeffrey P. McManus
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This book gives you step-by-step instructions on how to create ActiveX controls in any edition of Visual Basic 5.0. ActiveX controls give developers the ability to create programmable, reusable code components that can be used in a variety of environments, including Visual Basic 4.0, VB 5.0, Visual C++, as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer. The book contains chapters on the object model, events, and properties of a custom-built ActiveX control, as well as some extra-tricky topics such as asynchonous download of property values over the Internet and using Visual Basic's resource compiler. And to top it all off, the book is in full color -- so it's beautiful as well as functional.

Doing Objects in Visual Basic 5.0
Deborah Kurata
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This book gives you everything you need to do object-oriented programming in Visual Basic 5.0. The first part of the book focuses on object-oriented design, while the second part demonstrates how to put your architecture into action through the use of Visual Basic class modules. Create your own collections with properties, events, and methods. This book is a perfect compliment to How to Program Visual Basic 5.0 for any programmer looking to take VB to the next level.

The Visual Basic 5.0 Guide to the Win32 API
Daniel Appleman
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The ultimate reference to doing Windows API calls in Visual Basic. Recently updated for Visual Basic 5.0, this tome is loaded with examples, function declarations, and explanatory text. Even if you never plan on using the Windows API from VB, this book gives you the gory details of what goes on behind the scenes of every Windows application from a VB perspective.

Visual Basic 5.0 Step by Step
Michael Halvorson
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This book is a basic introduction to Microsoft Visual Basic for beginners. Whether you're new to programming or new to VB, this is a good place to start.

Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Language Reference
Microsoft Corporation
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This is the official Microsoft documentation to the Visual Basic language. All the objects, all the methods, all the properties, and all the statements and functions thrown in at no extra charge. This one used to come free with VB, but now they make you pay folding American money for it. Now that's progress. And at 1,568 pages, if you decide not to use it, you can use it as an earthquake-proof doorstop or a nonlethal anti-burglar weapon for your home.

Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 ActiveX Controls Reference
Microsoft Corporation
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This is the official Microsoft documentation to all the the ActiveX controls included with the full version of Visual Basic 5.0. If you plan on building serious applications using VB5 and you can't stand the idea of reading Books Online for three hours straight, you need this manual. Killing a tree in the name of good software development is no vice, and this book is proof.

Code Complete
Steve McConnell
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This book is definitely one that no serious developer or project manager should be without. It discusses the basics of the process of software development -- topics like why design is important, how and when to comment code, and how most programmers think they're writing procedural code but really aren't. But it goes further than that, relating real-world dilemmas in the software development world to scientific studies that reveal why well-thought-out projects succeed and why dysfunctional projects fail. The book includes code examples in a variety of programming languages.

Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 3.2 in 14 Days: Premier Edition
Laura Lemay
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This is the ultimate desk reference for HTML, the language of the Web. This quintessential edition contains everything you'd ever want to know about creating Web pages and then some. And since it's a hardcover, weighing in at over 1000 pages, you can use it to smoosh things after you've committed its text to memory.

Inside VBScript with ActiveX
Eric Smith and a cast of thousands
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This book is a great way to get started creating active Web content using Visual Basic Script and ActiveX controls. And -- bonus! -- the book contains a chapter on doing database stuff with Microsoft Internet Information Server written by How to Program VB5 CCE author Jeffrey P. McManus.

The Field Guide to North American Males
Marjorie Ingall
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This book has absolutely nothing to do with Visual Basic programming. I just put it here because my pal Marjorie wrote it. She's a darling girl and you should buy the book because it's a scream. (I also slipped a screen shot of her web site in my How to Program book -- again, for no reason other than Marjorie's my pal, and also because she claims she was thinking of me ("well...sorta") when she wrote the description of the "Slacker Boy Toy.")