Dan Appleman’s API Puzzle Book and Tutorials for Visual Basic
Dan Appleman

Publisher: APress	Ship Date: January 1999	
Category: Visual Basic
Level: Advanced	Price: $39.95	
7 3/8 x 9 1/4, 400p., CD-ROM	ISBN: 1-893115-01-1	
Key Note
The key to accessing the power of every operating system is its API (Application Programming Interface). Visual Basic can access only part of the Windows API without special help. To write the most powerful possible programs, VB programmers need to work with all of the API. The big problem for VB programmers in trying to do so is that all of the available documentation on the Windows API is written for C++ programmers. In other words, the directions for using the API is written in a language that VB programmers don’t understand. Dan Appleman’s Win32 API Puzzle Book and Tutorials for Visual Basic shows VB programmers how to turbocharge Visual Basic by teaching them how to control the entire Windows API. This is the long awaited complement to Dan’s previous best seller, Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to the Win32 API, with over 75,000 copies in print.
Major Selling Points
•	Appleman is the best selling author of books about the Windows API for Visual Basic programmers with over 150,000 copies of his Windows API books sold and  is widely regarded as the authority.
•	This new book is a must have companion to his Win32 API guide (over 75,000 copies sold).
•	Most programmers love solving problems and this book offers them a challenging and fun way to learn.
•	Appleman’s writing is light and entertaining, his approach humorous and occasionally controversial.
•	This approach works: Alan Feuer’s classic The C Puzzle Book, the inspiration for this book, is one of the best selling computer books of all time.
Description
This book has three parts. The first is a series of programming puzzles of increasing complexity. The puzzles describe a typical API function as it would be documented in C++ by Microsoft, followed by a small Visual Basic program applying the function. These programs almost work but they are all missing something. The reader is challenged to solve the puzzle and fix the program—thus learning in the process. The second part of the book contains solutions to the puzzles, along with in depth technical explanations of the solutions. The third and final part of the book is a series of general tutorials that readers can refer to if they need help solving the problems.
Author Information
Daniel Appleman is the president of Desaware Inc, a major developer of add-on products and components for Visual Basic. He is the author of many books including Dan Appleman’s Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to the Win32 API, Dan Appleman’s Developing ActiveX Components with Visual Basic 5.0: A Guide to the Perplexed (2nd edition forthcoming), and How Computer Programming Works. Appleman speaks at most major conferences for Visual Basic professionals and writes for both VBPJ and VB Developer magazines the leading Visual Basic magazines and is a cofounder of APress. He has degrees in Computer Science and Electronic Egineering from the University of California, Irvine.
Marketing Plans
•	Advertising in over 1 million copies of the Visual Basic in-box catalog (shipped with each copy of Visual Basic and Visual Studio.
•	Advertising in the Visual Basic Programmer’s Journal (the most widely circulated magazine for Visual Basic programmers).
•	Widespread coverage on the major Visual Basic programming web sites including Carl and Gary’s (http://www.cgvb.com), MSDN online (http://msdn.microsoft.com).
•	Promotion at major Visual Basic conferences internationally (including VBits) where Appleman is a frequent speaker. Book signings and exhibit at many conferences through Appleman’s company, Desaware.
•	Appleman writes for several magazines and is a regular columnist for “Pinnacles Visual Basic Developer Newsletter” in which he often features small excerpts from his books.
•	Promotion and support on Desaware’s web site (http://www.desaware.com) and the APress web site (http://www.apress.com)
Author’s Recent Books
Title	ISBN	Publisher	Pub. Date	Sales	
Dan Appleman’s Visual Basic 5.0 Programmer’s Guide To The Win.32 API	1562764462	ZD Press	03/97	>75,000	
Dan Appleman’s Developing ActiveX Components with Visual Basic 5.0	1562765108	ZD Press	02/97	>25,000	
Comparison/Competition
Dan Appleman’s Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to the Win32 API is widely regarded as the definitive work on the subject of Win32 API programming from Visual Basic. Appleman has carefully crafted this new book to be a necessary supplement and companion to his Win32 API guide. The two books differ in approach and have almost no overlap: His Win32 API guide focuses on teaching programmers how Windows works from the perspective of a Visual Basic programmer, providing in depth coverage for hundreds of API functions. The Puzzle book emphasizes what programmers need to know to understand the Microsoft documentation and translate sample code written in C++ into Visual Basic. Neither book has significant competition at this time.
Why We Like It
Dan Appleman is the authority on the Win API for VB programmers and many, many people have long awaited a tutorial companion to his definitive reference works.
Market
•	Readers who purchased Dan’s Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to the Win32 API (over 70,000 copies sold)
•	The estimated 200,000 hard core VB programmers who want to squeeze every ounce from Visual Basic.
Some Good Quotes about Dan’s books
“Bottom line: If you need to extend VB beyond its core functionality, this is a book you’ll want within arm’s reach at all times”—a featured review at Amazon.com 

Table of Contents
Part I – The Puzzles

Chapter 1	In the Beginning 
Chapter 2	Feeling Comfortable? 
Chapter 3	In the Groove 
Chapter 4	Rocket Science 

Part II – The Solutions 

The solutions to the puzzles. Each puzzle has a solution.

Part III – The Tutorials 

Tutorial 1: Finding Functions 
Tutorial 2: Memory, where it all begins. 
Tutorial 3: A Bool and its Bitfields are Soon Parted 
Tutorial 4: How DLL Calls work - Inside a stack frame 
Tutorial 5: The ByVal keyword - The solution to 90% of all API problems. 
Tutorial 6: C++ Variables Meet Visual Basic 
Tutorial 7: Classes, Structures and User Defined Types 
Tutorial 8: Porting C header files 
Tutorial 9: Inside A DLL File - Exploring the DumpInfo program. 
Tutorial 10: A Case Study – The Service API