About the Author

Philip Conrod has authored, co-authored and edited over two dozen computer programming books and tutorials over the past 30 years. Philip holds a Certificate in Computer Programming for Business from Warren-Tech, a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Information Systems and a Master's certificate in the Essentials of Business Development from Regis University. Philip has held Information Technology leadership roles in companies like Sundstrand Aerospace, Safeco Insurance, FamilyLife, Kenworth Truck Company, and PACCAR Inc. Today, Philip serves as the Chief Information Officer for large manufacturing company based in Seattle, Washington. In his spare time, Philip still enjoys writing and publishing computer programming books for students and he serves as the President of Kidware Software. Kidware Software LLC publishes computer programming books and tutorials under the trade names of KIDware, Kidware Software, BibleByte Books and ComputerScienceForKids.com. Lou Tylee holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Lou has been programming computers since 1969 when he took his first Fortran course in college. He has written software to control suspensions for high speed ground vehicles, monitor nuclear power plants, lower noise levels in commercial jetliners, compute takeoff speeds for jetliners, locate and identify air and ground traffic and to let kids count bunnies, learn how to spell and do math problems. He has written several on-line texts teaching Visual Basic, Visual C# and Java to thousands of people. He taught a beginning Visual Basic course for over 15 years at a major university. Currently, Lou works as an engineer at a major Seattle aerospace firm. Lou and his family live in Seattle, Washington.

Reviews

"As a programmer, a long time college programming instructor, and as the head of the department, I have reviewed countless programming books for almost all of the most popular programming languages. "Learn Visual Basic" by Conrod and Tylee is my favorite. The order in which the topics are presented is very easy for students to follow. The transitions from one topic to the next are so smooth it doesn't feel like steps but just a continuously smooth flow from start to finish. Object-oriented programming (OOP) is often difficult to explain to new programmers and most books give it no consideration until the second half of the book. The authors have made OOP clear, logical, and astonishingly easy to understand and they have successfully presented it in the third chapter...it is absolute genius. Consequently, every topic after that is much clearer and relevant to students. All of the examples in the book are interesting and easy to follow. I have worked through all of them line by line and found them easy to follow and duplicate. Students quickly become frustrated with examples that contain errors so the fact that these work so well is critically important to me. Topics included in "Learn Visual Basic" are date, time, and financial calculations which are lacking in most first year programming books. I really appreciate the chapters that include business graphics for pie and bar charts and general graphics applied to multimedia. The authors also use code to access databases instead of the Visual Studio wizards which seems to give the students a much better understanding of how databases work and how to program their interactions." - David Taylor, VB Professor & Retired Instructor, Seminole State College in Sanford, Florida"I liked the Learn Visual Basic Tutorial because of the pacing. The tutorial is light and succinct and just enough to get one going with just the right amount of information to start off with." - Mike Martin, Teacher, Queensland, AustraliaI really enjoyed the Learn Visual Basic tutorial, especially the examples it provided." - Bruce Chin, Amateur Developer, Toronto, Ontario"This course [LEARN VISUAL BASIC] is a blessing. I have learned more in these lessons than I did taking VB two years ago in college for my information science degree." - CC, New York, New York.Thank you for a truly great book [LEARN VISUAL BASIC] for someone who had no prior knowledge of programming." - JJ, Inverness, Florida. "This tutorial is amazing. I have spent a lot of money on books and software but for some reason found them difficult to 'get into.' Not so with your tutorial!" - BW, London, England"I just want to tell you that your product is excellent. I have had more fun applying your examples and building on to them through exploration than any book could ever provide - your chapters and examples help drive the information home and make programming fun." - BC, Houston, TexasIt is obvious you have a teaching background. Your approach to explaining material is excellent. Your tutorial has been met with great enthusiasm at my company." - BG, Cincinnati, Ohio"I have published several 'textbooks' teaching various computer skills, spent 10 years as a computer instructor at the college level, and I want to commend you on the quality of these materials ." - SM, Reno, Nevada