Microsoft released VB6 at the start of 1999, which is almost 8 years ago. It's hard to imagine that there are developers who are still actively using VB6, but from the blogs and letters to the editors of many .NET magazines that I have read, it seems that this is truly the case.

Microsoft has stopped creating service packs for VB6 and has announced that support for VB6 will come to an end sometime in 2008. As a result, companies will have to make hard choices to either maintain their VB6 applications on their own or move them to VB 2005. If they plan to move them to VB2005, they will need training materials to get their VB6 developers up to speed. This book is designed as a starting point for those VB6 developers.

The book consists of six chapters, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of the VB 2005 language. In each chapter, the author points out what has changed between VB6 and VB2005. The reader should understand that many of the features that Mr. Lee points out that are now available in VB2005 actually existed in VB2002/2003 as well.

Chapter 2 provides a nice overview of the language as it now appears in VB2005 and Chapter 3 gives a refresher on object-oriented programming, which is essential if the VB6 developer wishes to successfully make the jump to VB2005. Chapter 5 gets into the real nitty-gritty and actually shows how to create a small Web application. As part of the demonstration, Mr. Lee touches upon different aspects of security and how they are handled in ASP.NET 2.0. Chapter 6 has a valuable discussion on whether or not to move an application from VB6 to VB2005. There are valuable insights that will serve as guideposts to managers who may be tasked with making this tough decision.

The chapter that I most enjoyed, however, was Chapter 4. In this chapter, Mr. Lee takes you step-by-step through creating a Windows application. What is neat about the application that he has created is that it uses Amazon's Web services to procure information from Amazon's vast database and make it available to you on your desktop. Not only that but he also shows you how to create a database and tables inside of Visual Studio 2005 and how to store the information provided by Amazon's Web service into this database, if you so desire.

Remember this truly is only a first step for the VB6 developer wishing to upgrade his or her skills but the book is well written and well worth the price.(See Book Image)

Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart
Author: Wei Meng Lee
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: September 2005
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Inc
ISBN: 059610071X
List Price: $14.95
Development Tool: Visual Studio.NET 2005
Level: Beginner
Language: VisualBasic.NET 2005
Reviewer: Steven Mandel