The textbook is chuck full of practical programming advise which applies not only to Visual Basic, but other programming languages as well (example - see the section on data validation).
At the end of each chapter the authors do a case study which not only illustrates the concepts introduced in that chapter, but applies a mini-development methodology: Analyze the problem; Design the interface (GUI); Design the logic; Code and test the programs; and document the program / project.
The program code provided with the textbook runs cleanly.
In some places, the text could use additional examples to illustrate ideas. It could also introduce ADO as the database access method. But these are minor issues that could be addressed in a second edition. It's my hope that the authors consider doing a comparable textbook for the new VB.Net language.