Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Language Reference (Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Reference Library)

These are core references that are included with the current product (version 4). Informal data indicate that developers favor the print versions, but the product group is submitting to pressure to cut costs and is following the successful example of the Visual C++ group to trim print content (via MSP distribution). They are probably also under pressure to cut print materials in preparation for creation of a multi-tool developer product to evolve in the coming year or so.

Volume 1 is the Language Reference. It contains A-Z listings for the objects, functions, statements, methods, properties, and events encompassed by Visual Basic 5.0. Additional appendices supply reference information to the ANSI character set, VB data types, operators, and derived math functions.

Volume 2 is the Controls Reference, which has two parts. The first provides A-Z entries for the custom controls that ship with Visual Basic. For each control, the relevant properties, events, and methods are described alphabetically. The second part of this volume is a tutorial to custom control development.

This thick reference contains the full set of Visual Basic 5.0 documentation, including docs for Visual Basic for Applications. It's essentially a dump of the online documentation available in the Visual Basic (VB) 5.0 integrated development environment (IDE). Although most people will prefer to use the IDE's hypertext version when they're coding, this book does have real value. When you're trying to cram your head full of the thousands of properties, methods, and functions available in VB and its standard VB objects, it's so much easier to sit in a comfortable chair with this sturdy volume.