Notes to the Second Internet Edition

Recently Karl Peterson sent me email speculating about the reason MSDN removed the text of my book from the Internet in February of 2000. There's plenty of room for conspiracy theories about this decision, and we talked about some of them. But the bottom line is it wouldn't matter what MSDN did or why they did it if the book text was posted someplace else on the Internet. When I mentioned this to Karl, his eyes got big (if such a thing can happen in email) and this web page was born.

Karl has already done a lot of work to make this online version of my book nicer than the original MSDN version. Eventually we'll correct some of the typos and minor errors in the original book, and fix the formatting errors that appeared in MSDN's online version. We won't integrate the VB6 material from my online update into this version. For the full story on Hardcore VB6, you'll still need to go to Saying Goodbye to Hardcore Visual Basic at the DevX web site. My web site, Hardcore Visual Basic on the Web, has some additional material related to the book.

I want to thank Microsoft Press for publishing the original book and giving me permission to republish it here. I've had my disagreements with certain departments at Microsoft, but I'm still a big fan of Microsoft Press and of all the fine editors who work there.

The book Hardcore Visual Basic is out of print now. It's three years old and one version behind, and there isn't going to be another version. Nevertheless, it still has a few tips and a lot of attitude you won't find anywhere else. I hope you enjoy this web version.

Bruce McKinney