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| Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition (For the Absolute Beginner) | 
 enlarge | Author: Jr., Jerry Lee Ford
Publisher: Course Technology PTR
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $18.98
You Save: $11.01 (37%)
New (24) Used (8) from $15.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 205809
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 520
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 1592007317
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.44769
UPC: 082039507316
EAN: 9781592007318
ASIN: 1592007317
Publication Date: February 18, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Gets you up to speed quickly May 24, 2007
I spent three hours reading the first five chapters and understood enough to go back to work the next day and modify a script that I found off the web. That script saved me a lot of time. Without this book, I would have been hesitant to start running scripts where I didn't understand what each line does. I do have a CIS background so many of the object-oriented techniques that Ford introduces are a review to me. But, it was good to hear them again as a refresher and to see the objects mapped out as Ford has so clearly done.
Ford does some simple and clear writing without having a egotistical need to show off how technically skilled he is. He shows why something would be helpful and then shows you how to get it done. Ford has a clear demo of the filesystemobject which is what I will most need WSH for.
I'm looking to reading Ford's other book on Perl as well.
 Good Beginner Book July 15, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
With no experience in WSH / VBScript this book quickly brought me up to spead and allowed me to writing a number a administrative scripts to control my WinXP environment when similar AD controls were not an option. Recommended as a good building block for one with NO experience. The nature of the book would bore those with even a moderate level of VB experience.
Without a doubt the best WSH and VBScript book available today June 17, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I hate it when I see people trashing perfectly good books, especially books that I really like and have really learned a lot from. This book is well written and it is a lot of fun. It is well organized, providing necessary background information first and then building slowely from there. Don't let those that over analyze every little typo mislead you. You will not find a better book covering VBScript and the WSH.
 Good concept, but the execution is flawed. June 17, 2006
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
The core concept of teaching Windows Script Host (WSH) and VBScript through the creation of simple games is solid. But the execution is awful.
Ultimately you should know both WSH and VBScript to be an effective scripter. But author Ford takes you on a tour of the WSH object model before he actually introduces VBScript. He lays out table after table of WSH objects, methods and properties without any real explanation, just the caveat that you'll learn more later. Great technique: confuse the student first, explain later.
The early example scripts are direct lifts from the Microsoft TechNet Script Center. Worse yet, Ford makes mistakes in his description of the WSH objects - and there is no errata on the web site.
Ford spends 62 confusing to the beginner pages on WSH before he gets to VBScript basics. This makes no sense to me. What makes this section entirely laughable, however, is that at its end, Ford "challenges" the reader to make modifications to the sample programs. He has explained absolutely nothing that would assist the neophyte scripter in making these changes. In fact, Ford has said precious little about any WSH specifics.
When Ford finally reaches "VBScript basics" he immediately repeats the mistakes of his WSH chapter: 124 tables listing VBScript objects, methods, properties and other information are introduced . . . without detailed explanation. Ford essentially describes his sample scripts in the manner of "Line 1 says . . ." and then repeats, verbatim, Line 1 without necessarily explaining just what Line 1 does.
Finally Ford should have taken more care to separate his instructions each of the technologies. Literally by combining WSH and VBScript "for the absolute beginner," he is putting far too much on the plate of said beginner - and Ford is not capable of keeping things simple, much less explaining them.
This is defintitely not a book I would recommend for a beginner. And since it never attempts going significantly beyond the most basic concepts, it isn't suitable for more experienced scripters or programmers either. Frankly I wish I had gotten into the book much earlier when I could still have returned it. My copy is headed toward a rummage sale somewhere. Obviously my impression of Thomson Course Technology's "for the absolute beginner" is negative and I won't be considering any others in the series.
Jerry
If your not an *Absolute* Beginner May 22, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
If your not an Absolute Beginner... If you have at least some background with programming... This book probably is not for you.
I'm only through the first 9 chapters of this book and I'm having a hard time staying awake while reading it... Perhaps if I was a true beginner I'd appreciate his methods, but to me it seems like the author was paid by the word. Which is to say he uses three paragraphs to say one sentence of meaningful information. And he repeats himself several times (at least in the first three chapters of the book)
I wish the guys who wrote the PHP manual could do one for VBScript.
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