A Textbook Case: New Book Takes A Novel Approach To Developing Business Applications

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Students designing software for business uses acquired a powerful new tool in the recently released Visual Basic.NET. Now they also have a new resource for learning how to use this tool in a textbook written by University of Arkansas faculty members Reed Doke and David Douglas, professors of information systems in the Walton College of Business.

Doke and Douglas wrote Object-Oriented Application Development Using Microsoft ^" Visual Basic" .NET with John Satzinger of Southwest Missouri State University and Susan Williams at Georgia Southern University. It was published this week by Course Technology.

"The book takes a non-traditional approach to teaching Visual Basic.NET," explained Douglas. "Often books teach a language and try to find problems that it fits. Our approach is to take applications and use the language to support software development."

Although the approaches may sound similar, the results are very different. Rather than teaching how to write a program in a specific language, Doke and Douglas focus on business applications.

"We teach programming from a business perspective and we wanted a textbook that would be business-oriented," Doke said. "Our students will be designing applications like databases for businesses. We look at the things to consider in designing an application and how to approach a business problem."

Object-Oriented Application Development Using Microsoft ^" Visual Basic" .NET is designed for students with some experience in programming. It begins by setting up a fictitious business — Bradshaw Marina — which is used throughout the book. Students are provided an extensive real-world business environment including customers, leases and physical facilities. The book includes a CD containing all example code plus a trial version of the VIsual Basic .NET software.

In addition to designing Windows-based business applications, Doke and Douglas address creating web-based applications and complex database applications. Students learn to design and implement complete business applications.

"A key feature of our book is the hands-on exercises," explained Doke. "Each chapter starts with a concept and then provides an example. In the end, students are given a hands-on exercise to reinforce concept learning."

Object-Oriented Application Development Using Microsoft ^" Visual Basic" .NET is the second book in a series. Edited by Reed Doke and John Satzinger, the series is devoted entirely to object-oriented system development for information systems students. Release last year, the first book focused on using Java, while the final book in the series will use the C# programming language.