[AccessD] Tech books ...

I concur with Tom on several points, I'd like to add a few.

1.  Good coding examples would be very helpful.  Simple examples are useful
only to give a rudimentary idea of what is being explained, but it doesn't
help when trying to implement a solution.

2.  I have yet to find a book that explains treeviews.  Arthur Fuller wrote
an article about it awhile back and it is the best I have seen.  The last
book I bought didn't even discuss treeviews even though it's touted as a
"comprehensive reference" for Access with 1600 pages and 2 CDs!

3.  If a CD is included make sure it works!  The book I bought was supposed
to have samples of the code and example databases to put into practice what
was discussed by each chapter.  Some of the examples didn't work or were not
included on the CD.  I contacted the author, the publisher, and visited the
web site and still didn't get the correct files.

Tom also mentioned his first born child and that "she's a teenager and
that's a punishment worse than death to inflict on anyone."  My teenage
daughter just turned 18 - she seems to be getting worse!  What makes her
think that a date on the calendar gives her wisdom?  She seems to think I
get dumber every day!

Oh well, this too shall pass.

Jim


-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Adams [mailto:tomadatn at bellsouth.net]
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 8:25 AM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: [AccessD] Tech books ...


To the whizzes that write books in this list.

A recent post that said they learned better from examples than from reading
books brought up a point I've been meaning to make.  I
know the publishers push you to include all Access user levels in your books
so more will sell.  However that means that 80% of the
book is useless for moderate to advanced readers.

There are two points I'd like to point out (neither of which has a chance of
making it).
1.  Have a few overly documented examples if you will - but include a bunch
of heavy duty
     code for examples for the advanced programmers - with little or no
comments.  The documented
     examples in books are usually too simple to be very useful.  Real code
will teach most
     developers without the comments.

2.  As there are millions of Excel and Access power users through developers
- and sometimes they
     will be doing other apps - eg. Excel to Access, Excel to VB, Access to
VB and/or VB to Access,
     Access to Sql Server and Sql Server to Jet - consider writing a From X
to Y Dictionary.  Eg.
     From Access to VB, From Jet to Sql Server, etc.

     I've moved into VB for the last 6 months and would have paid almost
anything for an Access to Vb
     book.  Eg. Combo Box.  What a pain in VB.  Can't tell you how long this
took me to figure out.
     Makes me want to find one of the Access guys at Microsoft and give them
my first born child (I
     know, I know - she's a teenager and that's a punishment worse than
death to inflict on anyone but
     the thought is grateful.)

     I find that I know exactly what I want to do in Access but the
differences are often difficult to figure
     out.





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