 "Real Basic: The Definitive Guide" | 2009-11-07 |
| - Reviewed By Paul G. Abell Jr. from Cookeville, TN USA |
| Although a good book, I found it to be way out of date. So far in fact that some of the basic code statements and controls are no longer referenced by the same name. It is specifically written for the MAC, but as you know Real Basic is the same for MAC, Windows and Linux. But this book has a specific MAC flavor. It wasn't much use to me. |
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| "A Potentially Outstanding Computer Book That Is Flawed By It's Style" | 2008-01-06 |
| - Reviewed By eplatt@adnc.com |
Matt Neuburg is a genius. This is both a blessing and a curse for those who want to learn REALbasic. In his love for REALbasic, and his desire to teach it all and be exhaustive, as well as write a book that he himself would like to read, he takes a certain course: he covers terrain that is both flat, smooth and quick to run over, and terrain that is deep, craggy, convoluted and only for the determined traveler. There is no warning when you might suddenly encounter the unforgiving steep canyon or sheer wall.
At one time I decided to try and learn REALbasic, and it sounded from the introduction to the book and his biography that he could give me the deep grounding in theory that I wanted, and that his style and personality would be a good match for mine (I was a philosophy major; he taught classics). Well, I got bogged down in Chapter Three in both of my attempts to get through the book. Among the thickets of Classes and Instances, I lost interest.
I found myself reading sentences over and over again, trying to grasp what he was saying. Perhaps he is someone that gets a thrill from the extreme cleverness of the design of REALbasic, but it is not always clear what the utility of these mental convolutions is. He reminds me of some of my philosophy professors, getting off on their own brilliance and love of the subject but forgetting what it's like to be someone else listening, and so they lose their audience. It's like a mild form of autism. In the long run I suppose we are lucky to have a teacher like Neuburg, despite his flaws, for it is rare to find such a combination of raw enthusiasm, old-fashioned scholarly depth, and knowledge in a writer of computer books.
Unfortunately he doesn't always explain in common sense terms what something is and why we should be interested in it. Sometimes he does, and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes the explanation comes later: he is too strict about what is relevant to the current technical topic. I'm not sure this achieves anything except make it harder than it has to be. Is he trying to be "pure" to his subject matter? I don't think there is anything wrong with catering to an audience in a computer book.
In summary, this book has more in common with a reference bible than a beginners tutorial, though it isn't really a reference book per se. I'm only half-joking when I say it's more like a philosophy book for super-nerds. He is telling you not only the basics, but also abruptly dives into the story behind the scenes, the "ultimate truths" as it were, of REALbasic. These explanations can go on for quite some time - whether you want to hear it or not. This is an generalization of course, but it may help you get a feel for the flavor of his approach and style.
I would recommend this book in combination with a faster-paced book that is more of a tutorial. |
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| "Sadly, The Best Book On REALbasic Programming" | 2005-12-21 |
| - Reviewed By LVWolfman from Las Vegas, NV |
Computer books tend to be outdated rather quickly, sometimes before hitting the shelves. Programming books tend to have a longer shelf life.
When REALbasic: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition was released over four years ago in 2001, it was current and truly the definitive book on REALbasic. It still is, though that isn't the praise you might think.
The folks at REALsoftware are constantly improving the language and the Definitive Guide was outdated by 2003. Today it is about as relevant as a definitive guide to home theater telling you to use a 21" TV, Quadraphonic stereo with 8 Track tape and turntable and a Sony Betamax.
Today's REALbasic generates programs that work on Windows, Linux and Mac OS9, OS X and soon OS X/86. The technologies incorporate XML, XST, DOM, SOAP and more. The only reference to ANY of these in this book is that you can save your source code as XML and edit it with a standard text editor.
All this said, Mr. Neuburg's REALbasic: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is still the best and most recommended book for REALbasic which shows you how much of a market there is for new, good books for this great language. |
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 "RealBasic -- but dated" | 2005-09-07 |
| - Reviewed By AllanL5 from Silver Spring, Maryland USA |
This is the best reference for REALBasic version 3, as of September 2005. However, you should be aware that REALBasic was at version 5.5.5 as of June, 2005, and REALBasic 2005 was released August of 2005.
Also, REALBasic started out on Macintosh platforms. It has now been ported to Windows -- but that's fairly recent, too. Thus, this book covers mostly Macintosh or generic applications.
O'Reilly seems to have dropped support for this book, too. This means there won't be another revision. However, if you can find it used, and you still want to use REALBasic on Windows, buy it. It's that good, and still useful. |
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 "Not the definitive guide" | 2004-04-21 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I've been using Realbasic for many years. If you are expecting to actually use Realbasic to build practical applications, this book will not be of use to you. As others have stated, if you are beginner, this book will not be very helpful to you. I've seen some really helpful books for learning and using Java and VB, but unfortunately Realbasic doesn't have the same quality of books out there (nor will it ever, likely). The omissions in this book are glaring, the writing style unnecessarily obtuse. The Realbasic through Applications book and the Realbasic for Dummies books are better, although still not great. You'll do no better than to simply look through Realbasic code samples freely available on the web, and ask questions on the mailing lists instead of needing to purchase any Realbasic book. |
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 "The title of this book says it all" | 2003-10-24 |
| - Reviewed By Adam Smith from Watertown, MA United States |
| If you're already a programmer, particularly if you're coming from a "visual" environment such as VB, Cafe, Flash, etc, this is the only REALbasic book you will need to buy. Matt's book is exactly the solid programming reference you would expect from O'Reilly. This plus Real's own Language Reference and mailing list archives are all the literature an experienced programmer will need. If you want to start with more basics, consider the Dummies book as a first read. It's just as worthy a book, but the patience Erick takes in the examples will be appreciated by a more novice programmer. |
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