I had not used Visual Basic for several years before purchasing this book. I had forgotten a lot, and lots of things have changed. As I worked my way through this book, I found the actual content to be extremely useful. There is a good overview of a wide range of topics. The example programs are excellent starting points for understanding the various topics, and most proved easy for me to expand upon.

As I progressed through the book, I would frequently have the desire to use syntax, functionality, examples, etc. that I was sure that I had already read about. Unfortunately, it was not very long before I realized that the index was very underdeveloped for a book containing this much information. The index is a very important part of any good reference book, and is a big weakness of this otherwise good text.

I was somewhat frustrated that the chapter dealing with structures and classes said that... Classes are faster when dealing with arrays... Yet there was no example of how to use classes with arrays... And for me, I don't see any other way I would want to use classes.

For example... I was trying to make a layer system for an image manipulation program.

Code such as:
DIM layers(10) as new bitmap
So in order to get layers I had to resort to 3, 3dimensional arrays.
RED(x,y,layer number) etc.

I am sure the book is only frustrating to me because I used it mostly for the graphics section and for code tailored to manipulation of graphics.

I am sure this book is all fine and dandy if you are reading it with no particular focus in mind. But, if you are reading a chapter and then immediately try to apply it to a specific situation, you may come into problems that the book does not address.

But I guess that is how programming works. Even if you know what you are doing you still run into problems when you take your idea from... idea to actual programming.

I have found, Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer) to be a very good reference source. The book offers both Visual Basic references, and .net framework references side by side. I as a newer programmer (novice - intermediate ), and have been looking for a bridge, that goes between beginner and advanced. Visual Basic 2005 Programmer's Reference, has done just that!

The gap that existed for me, was filled in quite nicely. I have been struggling with more advanced concepts and now, I have begun to make the progress that seemed to elude me.
If there is anyone out there looking for the same "bridge", I would recommend this book without hesitation.

The book is very nice and very reach, but it is writen in a brief language whitch is unsuitable for beginners.

This is must-have for all VB programmers whether you are a novice programmer like me or the serious developer.

This is the one of the two (the other book is Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 2005) that I would recommend buying. Visual Basic 2005 Programmer Reference is not the kind of books where you read it, learn something, and then throw the book to one corner. If this is the case, I would just recommend borrowing the book from a local library. But it is the kind of book where you will frequently refer to.

1000 pages of information neatly organized into 18 chapters and 18 appendices. The organization of content, especially the appendices is what makes me feel worthwhile to own this book; it provides you quick and easy lookup of information.

There is a chapter that offers a very good introduction to Windows Form Controls and a dedicated appendix that houses the related materials. This chapter-appendix buddy is easily one of highest frequency lookup because one just cannot remember so many controls with their vast amount of methods and properties.

Another worth mentioning is the Graphics Category which spans from Chapter 19 to 24, my favorite of the book. this is where you will get impressed by Mr Stephens 's expertise in coding drawing related applications. Through these chapters, I had learned lots of tips and hence, leading to the birth of my own custom graphing and painting applications.

Apart from supplying all the how-to information, Mr Stephens also packed some very useful code examples sprinkled across the book that will definitely enlighten readers. While the book provides tons of information like introducing the IDE, the Visual Basic Language, Object-Oriented Programming, Windows Forms, Drawing and Printing to File Handling..., I am a bit disappointed with the lack of contents for the more advanced topics like Regular Expressions and Threading. However, Mr Stephens do make it a point to mention these advanced topics and had provided some links for further read up. For these advanced topics , I recommend Programming Visual Basic: The Language by Francesco Balena which I used in conjunction with the reference book.

Finally, the purchase of this book also gave me an extra bonus. Whenever I encounter any problem, I just post it on Mr Stephen's site or at the Wrox forums, and Mr Stephens or other programmers will provide the help.