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Mark, whom I have known for many years, is without doubt one of the cleverest and most thoughtful people I know. To put this in context, I mix work at The Mandelbrot Set, where I am Head of
Technology, with some work at Oxford University's Computer Laboratory, so I'm around some pretty smart people. And Mark is smart, believe me. Not only that, but in my experience (and I know him pretty damned well)
Mark never commits anything to paper that's not well thought-out, pondered upon and argued through, and this means that when he does so, it's always well worth reading. When he worked as an associate of The Mandelbrot
Set Mark also contributed to both the advanced Visual Basic books we were asked to write for Microsoft. Okay, so what about the book? Well if Mark's written it down then, er, it's well worth reading! I first read a
draft of this book sitting in the bath. I kept topping the tub up with some 'hot' and when I eventually emerged – not having finished it, but with a numb brain – I was pretty wrinkly (not a pretty sight!) But I was also
enlightened and invigorated (and I smelled pretty good too). Since then I have enjoyed many such luxurious bath-times with Mark's book (call me sad). I've read it several times by now, yet on each reading I find more
and more gems within its pages. It's worth noting that this isn't some syntax or semantics tome – it's written from the heart by someone who's been there, seen that, noted that it didn't work, worked out why it didn't
work, fixed the problem, re-coded it, seen it work and then moved on to the next problem. This is experience and 'hard knocks' distilled, and I consider it an essential read. So how come Mark asked me to write this
foreword? Well, I know a lot about Visual Basic, so allow me to blow my own trumpet for a bit. I was the first person to publicly show Visual Basic to the programmers – at Comdex in the USA – with permission of
you-know-who, of course! Before that I spent many a year teaching and writing Windows programs in C and assembler (the only languages that could be used), starting with Windows version 1. Sometime later, Microsoft asked
me to come and look at their 'new way' of programming Windows, and what they showed me was Visual Basic version 1. Although I might have felt my skills were about to become redundant, I was smitten by VB and I've been
a fan ever since. It doesn't do everything but boy, you should see the amount of C that would be needed to do what it does! Since then I've been working with Microsoft on every cut of Visual Basic, up to and including
VB.Net (in Beta 2 at the time of writing). I thought I knew Visual Basic pretty well but Mark has always argued the toss with me and, I am sure that through his insight I have in some small way played a part in helping
the language along. Mark, I thank you. Dr. Peter J. Morris.
Head of Technology
The Mandelbrot Set (International) Ltd. peetm@themandelbrotset.com
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