We have updated this title and replaced it with Professional VB.NET, 2nd Edition ISBN1861007167, which will be available from April 2002. The 2nd edition is fully compatible with final release (version 1.0) of the .NET Framework.

Visual Basic.NET is the next version of Visual Basic and a major part of Microsoft's .NET initiative. Responding to pressure from the VB community, VB.NET is a significant upgrade that is far more flexible and powerful than previous versions. Microsoft has introduced a number of new features, not least a move to full object-oriented programming and greatly enhanced web design facilities.

This comprehensive book takes an in-depth look at the new and enhanced features of VB.NET and provides the professional programmer with the knowledge needed to build real-world applications and fully utilize the power of VB.NET.

This book covers:

- An introduction to the .NET Framework and Common Language Runtime (CLR)

- Deriving classes from base classes using inheritance

- Handling errors with the Try...Catch structure

- Developing multi-threaded applications

- COM and .NET component interoperability

- Accessing data with ADO.NET and XML

- Building web applications with Web Forms

- Creating custom controls for Windows Forms and Web Forms

- Creating and consuming Web Services

Amazon.com Review Aimed at the reader with some previous programming experience who wants to know VB.NET in detail, Professional VB.NET digs in deeply to the latest version of the popular tool, with plenty of coverage of advanced topics. With in-depth advice for using VB.NET as a true object-oriented language, plus coverage of the inner workings of the .NET Framework itself, this book delivers a thorough and wide-ranging tutorial.

The team authorship of this title shows up in a variety of writing styles. Some early sections contain more theoretical material with a tutorial for designing classes with VB.NET, including its full support for inheritance and "classic" object-oriented design concepts like polymorphism. As this text moves forward, it gets more momentum with somewhat less prose and more examples. Standout sections include some fine material on using Windows Forms, plus excellent coverage of properties and visual design options. Coverage of custom controls is very good here and might well justify the price of this book for experts who need to design their own controls. Much of the book zeroes in on standalone application mode, though three solid chapters on Web Forms, custom Web controls, and Web services will get you started with ASP.NET on the Internet. Short code excerpts, rather than whole programs, are the rule here.

With coverage of .NET assemblies and deployment, threading and COM interoperability, experts will find what they need to get legacy COM and ActiveX components to work with .NET, as well as to start deploying .NET applications in the field. This is a title that can be skimmed in stretches to find topics that really solve day-to-day problems, particularly with the thornier areas of object-oriented design in VB (on which it is excellent though somewhat diffuse), plus advanced object-deployment, security, and other low-level details of the new .NET platform. Clearly, the new version of Visual Basic means big changes for all VB developers, but Professional VB.NET can help experienced VB users negotiate this leap successfully and help them get the most out of this new language and platform. --Richard Dragan