Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell

By Evan S. Dictor
January 1900
Pages: 760
ISBN 10: 1-56592-294-8 | ISBN 13: 9781565922945
starstarstarstarstar (Average of 4 Customer Reviews)

This book is OUT OF PRINT.

Description

To create professional applications, you need extensive knowledge of Visual Basic controls and their numerous properties, methods, and events. This quick reference documents the steps involved in using each major VB control, the order in which their events are fired, and the unexpected ways in which their properties, methods, and events interact.
Full Description

Visual Basic has been described as a visual interface design package to which the programmer attaches snippets of code. Although this definition has been contested by some, no one would contest that Visual Basic's interface design component--and therefore its forms and controls--are central to Visual Basic. To create a professional application, you need extensive knowledge of Visual Basic controls and their numerous properties, events, and methods. Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell is the book that documents Visual Basic controls thoroughly. Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell is divided into two sections. The first contains a detailed summary of Visual Basic Professional Edition's intrinsic and custom controls. Each chapter provides the following information about a control:
  • A general description of the control, including its usage and purpose
  • Control tasks--that is, the tasks that are typically executed when creating or managing a control
  • The most important properties that define the behavior and appearance of the control
  • The major events fired by a control and to which code can be assigned
  • In cases where their timing may be important, the order in which related multiple events are fired
  • The most important methods that are available for managing a control or accessing its functionality
  • The ways in which the control unexpectedly interacts with changes in its state or in that of the Visual Basic environment. Typically, these undocumented or little documented side effects give developers enormous difficulty.
The second section consists of separate alphabetical references to Visual Basic's properties, methods, and events. Along with providing basic documentation for each property, method, and event, the entries in this section contain a wealth of information not always available from the documentation, including:
  • Whether a property is available at design-time and/or run-time
  • The data type returned by a property or method
Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell is an ideal book for Windows programmers who are looking for detailed and organized information on Visual Basic controls. This book is written by an experienced Visual Basic programmer and is filled with precisely the kind of information that his work--and that of any experienced VB programmer--constantly requires. Its depth and quality make it an indispensable addition to your Visual Basic library. With its companion volume, VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language, it serves to thoroughly document Microsoft Visual Basic.

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Oh yeah?,  June 29 2007
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Lynn Bennett   [Respond | View]

Evan Dictor mentions his first experience writing an application in VB. He immediately ran into trouble with the behavior of text boxes, the
LostFocus event, and control validation. After asking other developers a lot of questions, he
realized there was little understanding, even among seasoned developers. This experience led
him to write the book. But when he covered these very topics, he got it wrong!

The CausesValidation property of a control has nothing to do with the validation event of that
control. You set the CausesValidation property to True on any control that can receive the
focus IF YOU WANT TO VALIDATE THE CONTROL THAT WILL LOSE THE FOCUS! This seems counter-
intuitive, but this is how Microsoft designed it.

Mr. Dictor also got "order of events" wrong. (Actually, I haven't found a single resource that
got it right.) When instantiating a form, the Form_Load event always fires before the
Form_Initialize event.

Overall, Evan Dictor has done a great job documenting little known caveats of VB controls. I couldn't have completed my first and only VB project without it. (I'm a C-soned developer :-) Thanks,
Mr. Dictor and O'reilly.



Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  February 18 2001
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by John King   [Respond | View]

I found the book much less useful than when I grabbed it off a store bookshelf.

I thought, with such a title my dream had comme true..a full description of MSCOMM was now at my fingertips. These are now worn out with flipping the pages but finding no mention of this control..am I blind or something ??


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  November 13 2000
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Dan M   [Respond | View]

Overall, this is a very helpful book. One glaring omission in MOP, is the Microsoft Tabbed Dialog Control(TABCTL32.OCX). This is a control that ships with VB 6 and should have been documented in this book. This control is much more useful than the Tab Strip Control. If the Common Dialog controls are included, then why not the Microsoft Tabbed Dialog Control? I sure hope the Microsoft Tabbed Dialog Control makes it into the next edition. I look forward to it. :)

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Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  July 27 2000
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by William Grother   [Respond | View]

As someone just getting into programming full-time and learning Visual Basic for the first time, this book has proven an indespensible guide to the finer points of the use of VB controls. If I use
it any more I'll need to buy a spare copy!


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  February 02 2000
Submitted by Qing Shan   [Respond | View]



I just bought Visual Basic Controls In A Nutshell by Evan S. Dictor. I could not find SSTAB control. If it should not be covered by the book, do you think it would be useful, in future edition, just to mention that there exist SSTAB control and how good it is in the discussion of TabStrip control?
Should any third party products be mentioned or refered to?
It is a good book. There is not doubt about this.


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  November 13 1999
Submitted by Ian David Biggs   [Respond | View]



Excellent throughout. I've come across many of the pitfalls that the author has. I'm glad that I have this reference to avoid the one's that I have yet to encounter. This book is simply indispensible for anyone serious about VisualBasic development.


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  October 30 1999
Submitted by Joseph Buschmann   [Respond | View]



Looking for a VB control? You can find it in Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell. It is a reference book with four parts. The first covers VB controls. The next covers the properties of these controls, and the remaining two cover methods and events. This is an excellent book for programmers who have a tough time remembering how to use all those controls. I highly recommend it!


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  July 28 1999
Submitted by James F. Harrison   [Respond | View]



I just bought a copy of "Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell" yesterday. Since Appendix A (Language Elements by Category), in "VB and BVA in a Nutshell" was extremely useful, I was expecting a similar section or appendix (possibly titled Controls by Category) in "Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell." I was quite disappointed when I did not find it. Even without this appendix, it looks like it will be a very useful resource.


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  July 19 1999
Submitted by fayu zhang   [Respond | View]



i just wish i had had this excellent book early this year when having to implement treeview controls for a database programming project. because of lack of proper treeview documentation i had to do a lot of trial and errors -- very time-consuming. Thanks a lot for Evan's quick response to my e-mail question and thanks to OReilly for another great book! Highly recommended!


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  May 08 1999
Submitted by Dr. Benny Carmeli   [Respond | View]



I would like to write a book review for this book, which must be as excellent as your other nutshells (therefore I've even ordered it), but allas ... the book has not been published yet.
I'll keep waiting.


Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell Review,  November 23 1998
Submitted by Dave Noderer   [Respond | View]



I've used this as more of a reference but it saved me a bunch of time today when starting cold on using the tree view control.

Thanks Evan!

Media reviews "Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell brings together exactly what you need to know about each major VB control--from Animation through Windowless in one handy reference You can't do much with VB6 unless you're comfortable with its controls, and
Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell is an outstanding field guide." --Bill Camarda, barnesandnoble.com

"This book alone will not teach you Visual Basic programming. It is not a beginner VB book. It teaches programming in respect to using controls in Visual Basic. It is geared towards Visual Basic developers of all levels who want to learn all the details with using controls. Part one of the book provides an overview of Visual Basic controls. It covers the elements that all controls share. Part two serves as a basic reference to VB controls Chapter 5 covers each control in detail with many examples. Chapter 6 gives detailed coverage of all the controls' properties, methods and events. I found the book to be extremely comprehensive and very easy to understand, as was the case with other "Nutshell" O'Reilly books I read. Central to Visual Basic is its interface design component. Therefore, if you're interested in mastering the Visual Basic controls included with the professional and enterprise editions of Visual Basic, this book is a must!" --freeservers.com

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