In their book, "Programming VB.NET: A Guide for Experienced Programmers," Gary Cornell and Jonathan Morrison carefully explain the features of what is, for all practical purposes, a new language. This careful treatment of language features, patterned on Cornell's best-selling "Core Java Volume 1" is necessary because although VB.NET looks like BASIC, it is really a language in the Java/C# family from a "semantic" point of view. This means all features of the language will need explaining to the programming coming from a previous version of VB. This book carefully explains all the new features...

Visual Basic is the most popular programming language in the world today. It can be used to quickly create a Windows application and has a short learning curve. However, there are limits to what Visual basic alone can do. By contrast, C++ is used for very complex and advanced systems programming and it has a very steep leaning curve. Because of the difference between the two languages, many programmers develop expertise in either one language or the other. The optimal situation would be for a programmer to be able to harness the power of C++ and take advantage of VB, thus allowing them to...

Kevin Keating is a trade union activist, a long-standing opponent of social partnership in the Irish Trade Union movement and advocate of rank and file organisation. Jonathan Morrison is a researcher with a wide knowledge of the political development of emerging economies. Joe Corrigan is an accountant with a background in economics and author of "Prisoners of Social Partnership," an analysis of the corrosive effects of collaboration between the Irish government and Trade Union leadership. In Ireland's Credit Crunch they discuss the roots of the current crisis in Ireland, the unprecedented...