Product Description

Microsoft's Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript), a subset of Visual Basic for Applications, is a powerful language for Internet application development, where it can serve as a scripting language for server-side Internet applications (i.e., Active Server Pages), and client-side web pages. It can also be used for system scripting (i.e., Windows Script Host scripts) and programming Outlook forms.

The greater part of this book is an alphabetical VBScript language reference to all VBScript statements, keywords and objects, emphasizing the following details:

• The syntax, using standard code conventions
• A list of arguments accepted by the function or procedure, if any exist
• A description of the data returned by a function
• A discussion of how and where the keyword should be used within the scripting environment
• A section of notes and solutions to real-world gotchas, and various undocumented behaviors and aspects of the language that help the reader avoid potential problems
• A section that focuses on the differences between the language element in VBA and in VBScript
• A brief example to illustrate the use of the keyword

Supplementing this focus on VBScript language essentials is a wealth of additional information about VBScript, including:

• Basic language information on VBScript data types, constants, variables, and arrays
• The difference between VBScript and VBA or JavaScript
• The use of the MSIE, Active Server, Outlook, and Windows Script Host object models to interface a script with the application it's controlling
• Tables listing VBScript functions and statements by category
• The version-specific features of VBScript

Regardless of the types of scripts you're using VBScript to create,VBScript in a Nutshell is the only book you'll need by your side--a complete and easy-to-use language reference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #233554 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 508 pages

Amazon.com
Because it applies the concise and popular Nutshell format to Microsoft's preferred scripting language, VBScript in a Nutshell is a valuable learning resource and reference. Focusing on the core language rather than on any specific application, this book teaches how to write clear, efficient VBScript code. Whether developing for the Web, automating Windows, or customizing Microsoft Outlook, this book will help the reader do a better job.

Though it caters to new users, VBScript is mainly a reference book. Each piece of the core VBScript specification (plus the Dictionary and FileSystemObject objects that make up the Microsoft Scripting Runtime) is described in an alphabetized entry. For each statement, function, operator, and object, the book gives a quick description of the element's syntax, concise rules of its proper use, information on returned values (if any), and some examples of the language element used correctly in practice. Two additional sections on each language element will be valuable to novices and anyone stumped by errors: a "Rules at a Glance" section that documents correct usage, and a section called "Programming Tips & Gotchas" that highlights common mistakes. --David Wall

Topics covered: Core VBScript and the most important object models on which it operates, including Microsoft Internet Explorer and the Windows Scripting Host. Tutorial material and reference entries explain structure, syntax, and program design.

About the Author
Paul Lomax is the author of Learning VBScript and VB & VBA in a Nutshell (published by O'Reilly & Associates), and technical director of Mentorweb, a leading web design and hosting company. Over the past two years Paul has created and maintained over 60 commercial web sites for Mentorweb's clients. He is also the driving force behind Shop@ssistant, a new NT/ASP based high-end shopping cart/web commerce server. He has been a programmer for over 12 years and has been a dedicated fan of Visual Basic since Version 1. Paul has written systems for financial derivatives forecasting, satellite TV broadcasting, and the life insurance industry; and he's written a major materials tracking system for the oil and gas industry. He is also responsible for the concept, design, and programming of the successful "Contact" series of national business databases. When not in front of a keyboard, Paul can usually be found behind the wheel of a racing car competing in events around the UK.

Matt Childs is currently a vice president with Integrity Solutions Inc., one of Alaska's leading custom software development companies. Matt is responsible for overseeing all in-house development, and over the past year has done work with the State of Alaska and Alaska's two largest telecommunications companies. Matt has worked in the information technology field for the past nine years. He has been a Visual Basic programmer since Visual Basic 3. Matt spent most of his initial career working for a large transportation company as an information technology manager, where he developed custom software solutions and systems integration for the company's largest clients. Matt has industry experience with utilities; express transportation; and chemical, petroleum, and retail companies. In the winter, Matt spends his free time with his telescope, and during the long Alaska summer days, he enjoys playing softball and spending time with his family. Matt is also a fiction writer and a freelance journalist.

Ron Petrusha began working with computers in the mid '70s, programming in SPSS (a programmable statistical package) and FORTRAN on the IBM 370 family. Since then, he has been a computer book buyer, editor of a number of books on Windows and Unix, and a consultant on projects written in dBASE, Clipper, and Visual Basic. Ron also has a background in quantitative labor history, specializing in Russian labor history, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Columbia University.

Customer Reviews

2nd edition didn't document all the changes in 5.6
I've been a big fan of the 1st edition for years and found it very helpful. I use Regular Expressions a lot in Perl and found VBScript's support for RE's a bit lacking (could not extract the submatches). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this capability was added in VBScript 5.5. I bought the 2nd edition of this book because it claimed to cover VBScript 5.6. Imagine my surprise when the SubMatches collection isn't documented at all.

Overall I'm quite disappointed in the 2nd edition.

A great book for VB Scripters
This text is excellent for folks working on VBs projects. It contains good examples, great information about syntax and also warnings for "gotcha's" -- it's great!

Very useful VBScript reference
This is not intended for beginners in scripting or VBScript in particular. But for anyone with even moderate programming or scripting, this may be all you'll need to become familiar with VBScript.

Written in the spare, terse style of all Nutshell books, the book is very dense in terms of information. The major aspects of VBScript's versatility are explored (though there are no references to HTML Applications (HTAs)). The major functions are explained and there is a complete reference.

An essential volume for anyone using VBScript.

Jerry