Many readers are sending emails asking whether I was writing the 2005 edition of Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET. The answer is "yes and no". Yes, I am writing the new edition of this book, updated to Visual Basic 2005. No, I am not really writing a new edition of that book. The book I am finalizing this week is actually a brand new book, titled Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: The Language. I decided to keep the title similar enough to the original one, to emphasize that the author is the same and that the approach is similar; however, I decided to added "The Language" postfix, to ring a bell in the mind of potential buyers who might otherwise believe that this is "just" an update to VB2005 and .NET 2.0. The new book focuses only on the VB language and the .NET Base Class Library (BCL). It covers both old and new keywords as well as topics such as .NET data types, arrays and collections, streams, reflection, serialization, threading, PInvoke and COM interop. It does not cover high-level stuff such as Windows Forms, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET, though.

I thought hard about the Table of Contents of this new book, literally for months. In the previous edition I managed to squeeze in "only" 1400 pages virtually anything you need to work with .NET Framework 1.1, including advanced topics such as serviced components and remoting, Windows Forms and Web Forms custom control creation, security, and so forth. However, .NET 2.0 is much more complex that 1.1, and I estimated that I would have either needed to split the book in two volumes or be less specific on most topics. Both choices were unsatisfactory to me.

Also, I couldn't help noticing that there are too many great books around about Windows Forms or ASP.NET programming, and a single core-reference book is bound to be less complete than those books with a narrower focus. Granted, a book from a single author and that covers all these topics can offer a unified view of what is important in .NET programming, but I am sure that developers who are deeply interested in a specific area will buy a book that specializes in that area.

While I was taking note of what else could be found on bookstore shelves, I found out that all these high-level books often overlook the basics, for example out to get the best out of the language or basic data types such as DateTime, arrays, and collections. Most .NET developers know how to write great Windows Forms or ASP.NET applications, yet they don't know how to optimize string-intensive programs effectively. And I am not talking about the usual String vs. StringBuilder example, I am thinking of techniques such as this, this, or this. Another example is memory optimization: you can speed up your code by an order of magnitude using caching techniques based on the WeakReference type, or by means of a correct Dispose-Finalize pattern. Not to mention advanced techniques based on delegates and reflection, such as this, this,or this.

In the end, I realized that I could write a very good book on just the Visual Basic language and the most important facets of the BCL. Rather than (or in addition to) being a plain reference for VB keywords and .NET types, this book is more similar to a complete compendium of programming techniques that you can implement with these features. For example, there is one entire chapter devoted to custom attributes, with a few advanced examples of how they can help you in the design of your n-tier apps. In other words, instead of just listing what are your tools this book will explain how to leverage them using intermediate-to-advanced techniques, including nonobvious techniques based on generics, on-the-fly compilations, advantage use of delegates and custom events, and so forth.

Another important topic that Programming Visual Basic 2005: The Language book covers is Visual Studio and how to take advantage of its many editing and testing features. The book includes two long chapters (112 pages in total) which covers basic and advanced topics, including macro creation, unit testing (with Team System), debugging techniques, and more. I have never found a language book that focuses on productivity inside the IDE and I hope this new book fills this gap.

The book consists of 22 chapters, for more than 1000 pages. I'll publish its Table of Contents in another post very soon, hopefully tomorrow.