Effective Visual Basic Book

	Preface
	Acknowledgments
1	Shifting from Liberal Arts to Software Engineering	1
Rule 1-1	Maximize the Potential of VB's Compile-Time Type Checking	2
Rule 1-2	Make Assumptions Explicit via Debug .Assert	8
Rule 1-3	Consider #If When Compile-Time Conditions Differ	14
Rule 1-4	Raise Errors to Signal Exceptional Conditions	20
Rule 1-5	Trap Locally, Act Globally: Effective Error Handling	26
Rule 1-6	Know the Difference Between Type and Class	35
Rule 1-7	Embrace Good Object-Oriented Design, Not Just VB	41
Rule 1-8	Prefer UDTs over Classes for Value Types	49
Rule 1-9	Automate Mundane Tasks	53
2	Designing, Building, and Working with COM-Based Components	61
Rule 2-1	Think in Terms of Interfaces	62
Rule 2-2	Use Custom Interfaces	64
Rule 2-3	Define Custom Interfaces Separately, Preferably Using IDL	73
Rule 2-4	Avoid the Limitations of Class-Based Events with Custom Callbacks	83
Rule 2-5	Be Deliberate About Maintaining Compatibility	90
Rule 2-6	Choose the Right COM Activation Technique	99
Rule 2-7	Beware of ClassöTerminate	111
Rule 2-8	Model in Terms of Sessions Instead of Entities	114
Rule 2-9	Avoid ActiveX EXEs Except for Simple, Small-Scale Needs	118
3	MTS, COM+, and VB - The Middle Tier	123
Rule 3-1	Understand the Design of MTS and COM+	124
Rule 3-2	Don't Use Singletons in MTS or COM+	127
Rule 3-3	Know When to Use New versus CreateObject versus GetObjectContext.CreateInstance	129
Rule 3-4	Understand the Real Motivation for SetComplete	140
Rule 3-5	Consider Auto-Abort Style with Transactions	146
Rule 3-6	Don't Reinvent the DBMS	150
Rule 3-7	Don't Feel Obligated to Configure All Your Components	157
Rule 3-8	Avoid Compiling Things into DLLs That You'll Later Regret	159
Rule 3-9	Best Practices for Porting MTS Code into COM+	164
Rule 3-10	Best Practices for Writing Code That Runs on MTS and COM+	169
4	The Web and VB	173
Rule 4-1	Understand the IIS Architecture	174
Rule 4-2	Manage Application State to Maximize Efficiency	184
Rule 4-3	Manage Session State to Maximize Scalability	194
Rule 4-4	Understand the Differences Between DCOM and HTTP	203
Rule 4-5	Write COM Components for Scripting Environments (Like ASP)	209
Rule 4-6	Understand How Your COM Objects Interact with ASP	218
Rule 4-7	Use XML Instead of Proprietary Data Transfer Formats	227
Rule 4-8	Be Deliberate About Presentation versus Business Logic	236
Rule 4-9	Use XSLT to Move from Data to Presentation	243
5	Effective Data Access from VB	257
Rule 5-1	Efficiency Basics: Round-Trips, SQL Statements, and Providers	257
Rule 5-2	Don't Overencapsulate Data Access	265
Rule 5-3	Never Hold Database Connections as Data Members	277
Rule 5-4	Deadlock Is Common; Develop Defensively	280
Rule 5-5	Use Firehose Cursors Whenever Possible	287
Rule 5-6	Make the Right Data Searching Decision (Avoid SelectSingleNode Abuse)	293
	Index	299