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The ACCU passes on review copies of computer books to its members for them to review. The result is a large, high quality collection of book reviews by programmers, for programmers. Currently there are 1949 reviews in the database and more every month.
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Title:
Bug Proofing Visual Basic
Author:
Rod Stephens
ISBN:
0 471 32351 9
Publisher:
Wiley
Pages:
397pp
Price:
£25-95
Reviewer:
Edward Crosby
Subject:
basic
Appeared in:
11-4
There are many books dedicated to 'bug proofing' in one form or another. Earlier examples includeCode CompleteandWriting Solid Code. Programmers from all areas of the industry are faced with similar problems and apply the same rules and guidance irrespective of programming language. This book is dedicated to VB. It covers the same fundamentals about programming philosophy, good design, coding style, error-trapping, etc. and intersperses these with some interesting examples. It includes VB error handlers and has a chapter dedicated to the Visual Basic code profiler.

A lot of what is said is common sense and yet many programmers sacrifice the obvious. This book is targeted at the less experienced individuals with the intention of encouraging good practice. However, the book lacks in coding style. It is not sufficient just for a coder to be able to read their own code, but for other programmers to read the same code at the same level. With programmers frequently moving around the industry this need is even greater and consequently a convergence of coding styles becomes more and more important. Many developers will be aware of Microsoft's coding style (see MSDN) now adopted by some major corporations.

The book is comprehensive but as good coding style is fundamental to bug proofing, I have reservations about this book. For an example of error handling in VB read chapter 1 inAdvanced Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 2nd Edition(ISBN 1572318937) and at the same time look at the coding convention.