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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If you already own a Murach book then you won't have needed to read this review. You'll know if the distinctive Murach style works for you or not.
But if you haven't tried one of their range yet and particularly if you are a VB.NET newbie then I would recommend that you take a look at this book. Check out the sample chapters, see if the list of chapters and the breakdown of topics appears to you to be an understandable, logical sequence of explanations of what is - let's face it - a dauntingly large and complex language.
After my brief canter through this book I came away with the impression that it was well written, and that topic coverage was comprehensive and clear throughout. Non-technical layman's language is used in many places to cut through the difficult-to-grasp concepts. The code samples in the book were kept as short as possible for clarity and the downloaded solutions that I tried out all worked straight out of the box.
I've always had a soft spot for Murach books and although I'm not now a target reader for this latest offering, I still think that this will be an excellent starter book for many newcomers to VB.NET in general and to VB 2005 in particular.