Microsoft Mastering: Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Development

Mastering Visual Basic 6.0 Development introduces readers to the bread and butter of the Visual Basic programmer: database access programs. With lots of detailed prose and many laboratory exercises, this book helps illuminate the new VB6 ways of connecting users to data; combines excellent documentation of the VB6 development environment with solid explanations of certain features of the VB language itself; and gives particularly heavy attention to the mechanics of creating ActiveX controls (including data-bound ones) and to the relatively new ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) strategy for managing connections to data repositories. In fact, the book earns its keep with its clear explanations of these topics alone.

The explanatory material combines descriptive prose with precise procedures, screen shots, and lists of options. Some code listings are included too, mostly utility subroutines that readers can borrow. The real strength of Microsoft Mastering: Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Development lies in its liberal use of hands-on exercises (based on the contents of the companion CD-ROM) as a means of helping you understand the VB6 language and development environment. Though the exercises sometimes seem contrived (which, after all, they are), they'll familiarize you with various aspects of VB6. You'll know what to look for in reference books after working through the demonstrations presented here. --David Wall

Topics covered: Data tools that ship with Visual Basic 6, Component Object Model (COM) modules, ActiveX controls, ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), and VB data-access programs on the Internet.