Rod Stephens $39.99, 620 pages, 2005 Wrox ISBN 978-0-470-05341-6 Paperback Description: As the most popular programming language in the world, VB 2005 offers a rich array of programming options that even experienced VB programmers will find challenging. Well-known Visual Basic expert Rod Stephens tackles the issues that pros face when creating complex applications, covering topics that most other VB books ignore or gloss over, such as design, modeling, testing, reflection, and advanced memory management. Packed with code examples, this book shares the best methods for mastering the many advanced features of VB 2005. Discusses the design activities that are necessary before VB development can begin and covers the processes that occur after development (such as deployment, update management, and testing) that are essential to a successful VB project but are not part of the language itself.

Well-known VB expert Rod Stephens goes beyond the basics and examines topics that are given little attention in other books. Learn how to:

• Evaluate and use development methodologies such as agile methods
• Design robust object-oriented systems
• Optimize user-interfaces
• Add scripting and add-in tools to your applications
• Build custom controls and components
• Provide advanced support for custom properties
• Use attributes to control code editors
• Automatically generate documentation with XML comments
• Build a good development philosophy and coding standards to make development faster and more effective
• Use bug-proofing and testing techniques to catch bugs early
• Build eye-catching splash screens
• Print documents quickly and easily
• Improve performance by using multiple threads
• Use reflection to learn about any .NET library, executable, or other assembly
• Understand and control garbage collection

Reviewers Say

Mr. Michael Pe Griffiths "Mike Griffiths"

...So if you are in the position where you need a good review of Visual Basic and the .NET framework from the viewpoint of a lead programmer or programming manager then this book will deliver just what you need and give you a clear insight into the finer points of the technology. Yes the book includes lots of source code that will be eagerly reviewed by those with a technical bent but you can skip the details of any given implementation if you are just after the concepts. Recommended reading for any programmer or programming "shop" still sitting on the fence and cutting VB Classic code. Amazon UK reviews.