• A fast-paced introduction to VBScript that covers the basic features of the language and their syntax. Although these tutorial chapters are written primarily for web content providers, they also explore the difference between VBScript and Visual Basic for Applications, the programming language used both in Visual Basic and in the individual components of Microsoft Office, making them of interest to the millions of VBA programmers who are fairly new to the Web and to developing web pages.
• An introduction to the Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) object model. By accessing the events, properties, and methods exposed by the browser's object model, VBScript is transformed from a fairly powerless programming language into a powerful development tool that can be used to control the browser, allowing the creation of complex interactive web pages.
• A series of chapters, each of which examines a set of techniques that use client-side scripting to enhance the interactivity and attractiveness of a web site.

Overall, it is better to buy a book that is more updated. This is a dinosaur in today's lightning-speed techno market, and it needs to be put in the museum (c'mon, 1997? )


Great for "intermediates"   January 25, 2000
 27 out of 30 found this review helpful

This book is NOT for complete novices like me! Terms like "OCX", "32-bit", and "server-side includes" are used but not explained at all. With some help from other books, some of the material made sense. That said, there is a lot of good content in this book. I'd recommend a more introductory book (is there one?) for true rookies.


The author could not make up his mind about the readership   August 17, 1999
 23 out of 25 found this review helpful

I was given this book to read for a course I am taking in an educational institution. I found the book a big pain to read. The author wants to write for beginners and at the same time appeal to those with programming experience. If you are a virtual beginner like me, this book will confuse you. Chapters 1 and 2 are enlightening to the beginner, but beyond that, the author's attempts to pander to those who are experienced in VB programming leaves a beginner confused. Without any prior warning, the author suddenly introduces new programming techniques, with the assumption that the reader was familiar with the subject. Then the author, with the same suddenness, remembers the beginner reader and then attempts to please him/her too. Sometimes, it is the reverse: the authors starts out by addressing the beginner, and suddenly off he goes addressing the experienced programmer. This makes the book disorganized and verbose and difficult to read. I have read books on introduction to other programming languages and I found Chapter 3 of this book the worst I have read so far on variables, declaration of variables, constants, etc. This book is certainly not the best for a beginner or those who, in addition to learning a programming language, would want the aesthetic pleasure of a well organized and succint book. Sometimes I wished I could 'cut and re-paste' the paragraphs or simply 'cut!'


Still the best   November 6, 1998
 10 out of 10 found this review helpful

This was the first book I bought on VBScript and since then I have read and seen many books on VBScript, this is by far the very best there is, O'Reilly style quality comes out of every page, this isn't an idiots guide or a teach you in 10 minutes tutorial, it's serious stuff - but at a fast enough pace. So if I've already got a copy why am I here? well I just bought ten copies for my developers, I saw the comment below and I felt compelled to write here... perhaps our friend from Silicon Valley has a downer on VB/VBS/AnythingMicrosoft? OK the MSIE object model is showing its age but you'll not find a better introduction to the language anywhere.


Great bridge to VBScript for ASP   August 4, 2000
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

I had been developing strictly with perl for Unix, when I needed to do some work on an NT platform I ordered this book. I used it coupled with O'Reilly's ASP in a nutshell and finished the job quickly. It is a great reference for migrating from other scripting languages.