Rebecca M. Riordan - Fluent Visual Basic

FLUENT VISUAL BASIC
Copyright 2011 by Rebecca Riordan

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 9780672335808

ISBN-10: 0672335808

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Greg Wiegand

SIGNING EDITOR
Neil Rowe

MANAGING EDITOR
Kristy Hart

PROJECT EDITOR
Andy Beaster

INDEXER
Cheryl Lenser

PROOFREADER
Karen Gill

TECHNICAL EDITOR
John Hardesty

PUBLISHING COORDINATOR
Cindy Teeters

COVER DESIGNER
Gary Adair

COMPOSITION
Rebecca Riordan

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing November 2011

Trademarks

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Warning and Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an as is basis. The author and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book.

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Yes, I know it says Rebecca M. Riordan on the cover, but thats not really true. Without the assistance of some amazing people, this book would never have made it out of my head, much less into your hands. So, in order of appearance, I would like to thank:

Neil Rowe, my editor, who took a chance on a very different way of writing computer tutorials. Without Neils leap of faith, Fluent Learning would never have happened. My technical reviewers, David Sceppa, Eric Weinburger and John Hardesty, who collectively caught an embarassing number of code typos and I-knew-what-I-meant obscurities. Finally, my copy editor, Karen Gill, who not only made sure the language in the book resembles English, but also expressed an unexpected and greatly appreciated enjoyment in the project. (Any remaining errors and infelicities are, of course, my responsibility.)

Jake von Slatt of The Steampunk Workshop (steampunkworkshop.com), Samantha Wright (samantha-wright.deviantart.com) and Mindbloom (mindbloom.com) were all gracious enough to allow me to use their images. These are all seriously cool people, folks. I cant urge you strongly enough to go explore their sites.

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and want to know what were doing right, what we could do better, what areas youd like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom youre willing to pass our way.

As a Executive Editor for Sams, I welcome your comments. You can fax, email, or write me directly to let me know what you did or didnt like about this bookas well as what we can do to make our books stronger.

Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this book, and that due to the high volume of email I receive, I might not be able to reply to every message.

When you write, please be sure to include this books title and author as well as your name and email address, phone, or fax number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on this book.

Email:

Fax: 317-428-3310

Mail: Neil Rowe, Executive Editor
Sams Publishing
800 East 96th Street

Indianapolis, IN 46240 USA

Welcome! Im so glad you stopped by.

This book doesnt look much like other technical tutorials, does it? Well, for once, looks arent deceiving, because Fluent Learning books arent much like other technical tutorials. We dont want to teach you things. We want to help you learn things. Weve done a lot of research into how people learn, and it turns out that talk, talk, talking at you (like most books do) isnt wrong, exactly, but it makes learning harder than it needs to be.

Did you learn to speak your native language by reading a book? Of course not; thats not how people learn. You heard people speaking, tried it for yourself, and then corrected yourself when other people pointed out your mistakes. Sure, you studied grammar and learned new words in school, but the basics (More milk, Mommy) you learned by yourself. Now, barring accident and illness (or one-too-many mojitos), youre not likely to forget it, are you? And you dont have to think about the mechanics of speech, just what you want to say.

Thats really how we learn everything. We gather some initial information, practice, correct our mistakes, and then add to our basic knowledge. Thats not what happens in most tutorials, but thats how Fluent Learning works. Ill give you enough information to get started, give you some exercises to figure out how to do something, and then elaborate on what youve learned. Simple, natural, and if you do the work, you will learn. Soon youll be able to concentrate on what you want to do, not how to do it, just like when you learned to speak. (But it wont take as long as learning to speak well.)

Our minds like to learn anything the way we learned our native language: by trial & error. Instead of reading a lot of words, youll do a lot of exercises. Real exercises, that make you think, not walk-throughs that tell you what to type. (But well have a few of those, too.)

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Put on Your Thinking Hat...

You have a messy stack of papers and a spool of wire. What can you do?

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