Visual Basic Power Toolkit
By Richard Mansfield and Evangelos Petroutsos
Price: $39.95
ISBN# 1-56604-190-2
Published by:
Ventana Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 2468
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
919-942-0220
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Visual Basic Power Toolkit
reviewed by Kief Morris
Although Visual Basic often hasn't gotten much respect from serious programmers, it has been rapidly gaining acceptance for professional work. Anyone who uses VB professionally, or would like to, should take a look at Visual Basic Power Toolkit by Mansfield and Petroutsos.
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While most Visual Basic books cover the basics for novice programmers, this book delves into intermediate and advanced topics. It shouldn't be passed over by relatively new programmers, though - it's written in a very approachable manner, so anyone who has a grasp on the basics of VB will be able to pick up handy techniques.
Some of the topics the authors address can't really be called advanced, since they are the types of things programmers of all levels should be aware of. For instance, the first chapter explores how to optimize your Visual Basic programs, explaining what variables types work faster than others and how to double the redraw speed of many windows by using AutoRedraw. Another chapter is devoted to designing your applications to improve their usability and to give them a professional look.
Many self taught Visual Basic programmers may not have the familiarity with such important aspects of programming theory as searching, sorting, and recursion, but they can find them in Power Tools. The book also gets into techniques for graphics, including fractals, serious database handling, multimedia,
OLE, encryption, and developing "workgroup" applications for use on networks. VB users will learn how to use the Windows API, Windows for Workgroups' built in e-mail capabilities, and DLL's.
The 896 pages of Visual Basic Power Toolkit provide some of the most solid, useful information for Visual Basic programmers I've encountered. It also comes with a CD packed with examples, tools, and more to supplement the text. Anyone interested in using Visual Basic for more than a toy owes it to themselves to take a look at this book.
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