Written by Harold Davis
Published by IDG Books Worldwide
If you've not yet used Visual Basic 6, you're going to be disappointed if you were looking for lots of new features and interface changes. Since VB is a fairly mature and stable product, this version (as well as future versions) included just a few major features, along with the bug fixes and new bugs. For this reason, most books that were revised for VB 6 won't be all that different from their VB 5 editions and will just include coverage of the new features. Visual Basic 6 Secrets is no exception. Unfortunately, the book fails to spend much time at all on the new features of VB 6.
One of the major improvements included with Visual Basic 6 is the new support for databases, specifically in the forms of the Data View window, the Data Environment designer, and the Data Report. This book completely fails to mention the Data View window and only spends about two pages on the DataEnvironment designer. In addition, there is not a single example of how to use the DataEnvironment in your development. The Data Report designer, while extremely limited, doesn't even get a mention in the book. I'm not sure if this was due to the problems in the beta with the Data Report tool; however, it could have at least been mentioned as a new feature.
The second major omission is Active Data Objects. In this 800+ page book, only 1 page is spent explaining the components of the ADO object model. There is not a single code example showing how to use them. The closest thing the author has is his brief coverage of the ADO Data control, which is nearly identical to the DAO Data control. Even that control doesn't have a very good example; that is, a step-by-step example that a developer could use. There are just some screen shots that are not entirely legible.
The final major oversight is the coverage of the new Internet development features, such as DHTML applications and WebClass features. DHTML is given all of two pages and lacks any sort of code example as to how to use the features, the designer, or anything related to DHTML. The only example is a JavaScript example that detects which browser a user has. This example, contrary to the author's statement, has nothing to do with DHTML. WebClasses are covered in a page and a half and of course, there is no example at all on how to use them.
In closing, while the rest of the content in this book is adequate, if you already own this book, don't even think about buying the book, as you won't get anything new of value. If you don't own it, I'd suggest skipping it and finding a book with more useful information. For a $59.95 book, I expected a lot more content than what was provided.