Ged Mead
Ged Mead (XTab) has been around computers since the 1980's when the first affordable home computers came on the market. His journey from that very first Dragon 32 to the present has taken him through many different facets of the IT Industry. These include formal training as a Systems Analyst, employment in a mainframe software development environment, and a short time spent demonstrating rugged military IT systems in the days when it took two strong men to carry a 'mobile' system.
His most rewarding challenge was the creation of a financial management system for a large organisation.
Now based in an idyllic lochside location in the West of Scotland, he is currently involved in a range of development projects, whenever he can drag his gaze away from the stunning surrounding views, that is!
Ged is a Microsoft MVP, Senior Editor for DevCity.NET, vbCity Developer Community Leader and Admin, Helper of the Month competition winner and DevCity.NET newsletter Editor.
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This is a BIG book. I hadn’t checked before ordering and so was taken by surprise when the 1000+ page, two Kilogram package thumped through my letterbox. In terms of weight, this wasn’t going to be a light read! In terms of writing style though, lightness was clearly not going to be a problem. The author has an easy to read style, which doesn’t avoid technical terms, but doesn’t wallow in them for the sake of it either
Having read several of Rod Stephens’ articles and visited his VB-Helper site on many occasions over the years, I expected a well-written, detailed and clear book. And, right on cue, that is what he delivered.
In terms of layout, there is enough white space, although I would have preferred less width per line. The horizontal line spacing is one-and-a-half spacing, though, so this does make for easier reading. As a personal preference, I would have rather seen the book printed in a Sans Serif font but (I put my hands up!) I am being really picky here.
There are plenty of screenshots and graphics (all monochrome, which is the industry standard for cost reasons nowadays). On those occasions where color would have highlighted an effect, the author includes additional clarification. The demarcation of the different types of material – narrative, code snippets, tables, etc – is quite clear, making it easy to follow.
Almost inevitably in a technical book of this size there are the occasional typos that, if not caught, might confuse the newcomer to the topic. A trip to the Wiley web site to see if they appeared on the Errata list led to minor disappointment. Those that I spotted in the first chapter were not listed; in fact the list as it stood could only be described as minimal! However the author keeps track and a fuller list is available on VB-Helper . This list is updated by the author who welcomes feedback from readers of his book.
The book contains four main parts covering a wide range of VB2005 topics, plus a very useful set of Appendices at the back.