I got a very exciting package in the mail yesterday. Not one, but two, copies of Professional Excel Development Second Edition arrived from the good folks at Addison Wesley. You see, unlike some of the more selfish bloggers, I’m always thinking about you, the reader. When AW asked if I’d like a review copy, I said “Let’s make it two so I can give one away.” How could they refuse?
If I could have got one for each of you, you know I would have. But I only got one extra, so we have to have a drawing to see who wins. For a chance at your free copy, send me your best idea for the name of a new spreadsheet. A product that would compete with Excel, Lotus, OpenOffice Calc and the like. If you were in charge of naming such a product, what you would you name it. Send it in an email with a subject of PEDSE. When I get back from Manhattan next week, I’ll randomly select a winner. And of course I’ll post all the names.
Here are the rules:
- Send me an email with your product name ideas.
- I must receive the email by 12:00AM Central Daylight Time, June 8th, 2009.
- You must send the email from the same email account with which you registered on this site. If you’re not registered, you can’t win. If you used a fake email to register, just include that fake email address in your message so I can confirm you’re registered.
- This list of eligible entrants will be entered into an Excel spreadsheet, a random number will be entered next to his name, and the list will be sorted on the random number. Whoever is at the top, wins.
- I’ll list some of the more interesting names, but I won’t associate them with your name.
- One entry per registered reader.
- The winner will get my extra copy of PED mailed to the US (or reasonably priced) address of his choice
- Any other rules that make this contest less of a burden on me or that I may choose to enact retroactively or otherwise makes the give-away legal and easy are hereby included.
I’ve tried to register, but I received no mail.
Tried also to get new password, and I received an error message :
The e-mail could not be sent.
Possible reason: your host may have disabled the mail() function…
Sorry….
Too late !
I got mine in the post last week too :D
I have a couple of points to add to Dick’s excellent announcement. If you aren’t the lucky winner and you want more detail on what’s in the second edition of PED, you can find a complete summary on my web site at:
http://www.appspro.com/Books/ProExcelDev.htm
We have also inaugurated a web forum specifically to support PED and our readers at:
http://www.ProExcelDev.net
I’d be glad to answer any questions you have about the book, either here or by e-mail.
Send an email anyway Cyril Z. I’ll remember that you couldn’t register. Also, I’m trying to fix the registration problem, so thanks for calling that to my attention.
Hi Rob,
I looked thru the book’s contents and VB.Net is the language of choice if you’re using VS.Net? It’s not recommended to use C#? I’ve heard of the pitfalls of using C# with VSTO for Excel but you think VB.Net will be the standard?
MacroMan,
We use VB.NET in PED because some of its syntax is familiar to VBA developers and VB.NET is the successor of classic VB (VB6).
C# may be the prefer language to use for standalone .NET solutions. However, when used with Excel Object Model it gets more annoying then with VB.NET as every parameter must be filled in (either with a valid value or with “Missing”).
With the upcoming version 4.0 (part of VS 2010) it will be not required when using C#.
I wouldn’t claim that VB.NET is the standard in order to work with managed Excel automation or with VSTO. In many ways these two languages are equivalent. However, C# offer more “plumbing” then what VB.NET does.
What I dislike is that C# is the preferred language within MSFT and therefore they publish a lot of the information with C# samples only.
Hope the above give You the answer.
Thanks and all the best,
Dennis
Sorry, I should have added a “Thank You” to Dick for making a post about second edition of PED :)
Thanks,
Dennis
[…] I should also mention that Dick Kusleika has acquired an extra copy to give away. You can find his competition here. […]
Dear Rob Bovey,
I can not register in the forum. Could you check. I received the reply email with the content:
“Your registration for “Professional Excel Development” as http://proexceldev.net was denied. The reason, if any, is specified below.
You must use Your full real name, i.e. first and last name, for the account.”
Tks,
Le Van Duyet
Hi,
If You apply again for an account I will make sure it will be set up properly.
Kind regards,
Dennis
I understand that starting with C# 4.0, you wont have to fool about with the “missing” parameters. Optional paramters come part of the language. I understand this was was a feature added with VSTO / COM in mind.
http://modeeb.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/c-40-whats-next/