News -- The O'Reilly VB Publishing Program
by Ron Petrusha10/01/1998
From the time of its initial release in 1991, each new version of Microsoft Visual Basic has become a more and more sophisticated development tool for creating Windows components and applications.
Even though the creators of Visual Basic have remained committed to their original goal of hiding much of the complexity of Windows application programming (and, more recently, of hiding the complexity of COM programming) from developers, each new version, by expanding the kinds of applications and components that can be created with Visual Basic, has demanded greater knowledge and sophistication from developers.
The O'Reilly & Associates Visual Basic publishing program aims at providing a number of different kinds of books to help developers meet the increasing demands that are being placed on them.
Core Documentation
When Visual Basic was first released, it consisted of a standard BASIC-type language supplemented by the properties, methods, and events of a few intrinsic VB controls. Since that time, the language has grown in size and complexity. The core language has become less BASIC-like and more complex, while the number of intrinsic and custom controls bundled with the Professional and Enterprise Editions of Visual Basic, and, therefore, the number of properties, methods, and events with which developers must be familiar, has increased rapidly.
In documenting the language, Microsoft has followed the 80/20 rule: the features and functionality of particular language elements that are most commonly used are documented, while the remaining 20% -- the information on such things as the specialized uses of a language element or the exceptions and anomalies that arise when using it -- is typically omitted. For developers, though, this missing 20% is often the most interesting and critical part of the documentation.
The VB-related titles in our Nutshell series directly address the inadequacies of the existing documentation. VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language, written by Paul Lomax, focuses on the core VB/VBA language as defined by the VBA runtime library. It supplements the printed and online documentation by focusing on under-documented and undocumented language features. It provides practical, real-world examples, and examines the anomalies and unexpected behaviors of individual language features.
The forthcoming VB Controls in a Nutshell --Spring 1999, by Evan S. Dictor, documents control properties, methods, events, and details the steps involved in using each control included in the Professional and Enterprise editions of Visual Basic. It also focuses on problems that arise in using controls, and, particularly, problems that arise from the sequence in which events are fired and from the unexpected interaction between individual control properties, methods, and events.
Introductions for New Programmers
The bulk of books published about Visual Basic are targeted at novice programmers. Most share a common assumption: learning programming is difficult and intimidating, and that a good deal of handholding is required. They also tend to focus on Visual Basic rather than VBA and programming for the Office suite of applications in particular.
In contrast, O'Reilly's introductory books to VBA programming share a rather different assumption: new programmers want a book that gives them the basics of what they need to know about so that they can begin programming with as little fuss (or handholding) as possible. O'Reilly books also emphasize the use of Visual Basic to control its host applications, like Word or Excel. Access Database Design & Programming, Learning Word Programming, and Learning Excel Programming --Spring 1999, all provide fast-paced introductions to using Visual Basic for Applications to automate Access, Word, and Excel, respectively. All three introductions were or are being written by Dr. Steven Roman.
Focused Books for Advanced Programmers
As the power and complexity of Visual Basic has grown, the character of information that experienced developers need about Visual Basic has changed. While advanced books on general programming techniques were very successful at one time, developers now want short books that focus on mastering a particular technology. This emphasis on short, focused books characterizes the kinds of advanced Visual Basic programming books that O'Reilly is developing.
Developing Visual Basic Add-Ins --November, explores the techniques needed to build VB add-ins and examines the VB Extensibility object model through which Visual Basic exposes its functionality in the design-time environment. Developing MTS Applications with Visual Basic --Spring 1999, by Paul Lomax, carefully examines the strengths and limitations of developing MTS-enabled applications and shows how to use Visual Basic to create MTS-enabled components.
An Emphasis on Automation
One of the most exciting VB-related technologies to emerge in recent years is automation, which allows the functionality of an application or a component to be accessed and controlled from another application. By freeing the developer from the need to reinvent the wheel and incorporate robust, tested, proven code into an application, automation is rapidly proving to be a boon to developers. But it is also a bane: the object models that are accessed to support automation are typically large and unwieldy, and their properties and methods are typically poorly documented.
Programming the Access/DAO Object Model --Spring 1999, by Helen Feddema, and Programming the Word Object Model --Spring 1999, by Julianne Sharer and Arthur Einhorn, offer solid documentation on how properties and methods actually behave and emphasize the anomalies and idiosyncrasies that you're likely to encounter when programming with a particular object model. Each book includes the Enhanced Object Browser, an object browser that graphically depicts the hierarchical relationship between objects in the model.
Over the next year, you can expect to see a growing number of Visual Basic-related titles from O'Reilly that are intended to document the way VB components really work. You can also look forward to short, focused treatments that enable you to master new technologies quickly and with the least amount of effort.
