Doing Objects in Visual Basic 2005

Author: Deborah Kurata
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
ISBN-10: 0321320492
ISBN-13: 978-0321320490
Retail Price: $44.99 US, $61.99 CDN
Publication Date: February 2007
Softcover: 519 pages
Online information: Table of contents, sample chapter, source code
URL: http://www.awprofessional.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321320492&rl=1

Deborah Kurata’s name must be familiar for any VB4-5-6 developer on the planet. Her “Doing Objects” series of books were bestsellers but “Doing Objects in Visual Basic 2005” marks the first version for the .NET platform. This book is targeted at Visual Basic 6 developers and novice developers who are jumping in .NET development, have learned a little bit about VB 2005 but want to go further developing applications the right way so a little knowledge of VB 2005 is required before reading this book.

Since this is an object book, you’ll learn about Object-Oriented design in the first chapter. The second chapter covers how to design software from how to gather the requirements to the design of a dataset structure. Kurata explains how to build an application in layers so you’ll read about how to create you project and how to build the user interface layer, the business logic layer and the data access layer using the tools available in Visual Studio like the class designer.

This is a fantastic, well written book that is spot on for the targeted audience. I especially love the fact that each chapter ends with a summary and a list of additional readings. This is great if you want to further explore a topic. The “Doing Objects” title might be a little misleading. Sure you’ll learn about objects but you’ll learn more than that. The force behind this book is the fact that Kurata has gathered a set of best practices for novice developers that novice developers can understand and apply right away and that’s what make this book outstanding.  High praises for “Doing Objects in Visual Basic 2005”.