ActiveXProp

Sample Computer Book Proposal

Developing Visual Basic 4.0 Programs for the Internet with ActiveX Controls
by Wayne S. Freeze

SUMMARY:

A brief description of the book:

Developing Visual Basic 4.0 Programs for the Internet with ActiveX Controls is a guide for readers who already have a basic understanding of Visual Basic and are now ready to learn how to write Internet enabled programs. Each of the ActiveX controls is presented in a straightforward fashion by discussing in detail the necessary components and briefly touching on the more advanced components. Sample programs demonstrating how to use the controls are presented with practical advice on how to use the controls. These programs and a copy of the ActiveX controls are found on a CD-ROM included with the book.

The manuscript details

The book will contain 29 chapters with approximately 500 pages. Each chapter should take about a three to four days to write, so the book should take about three to four months to complete.

List of chapter titles:

Part 1: Fundamental Concepts
    Chapter 1: Introduction
    Chapter 2: TCP/IP Concepts
    Chapter 3: TCP/IP Applications
    Chapter 4: TCP/IP and Windows 95
    Chapter 5: Installing the ActiveX Controls and Sample Programs

Part 2: Transferring Files with FTP
    Chapter 6: FTP Protocols and Functions
    Chapter 7: The FTP Client Control
    Chapter 8: The FTPDirItem Object
    Chapter 9: icError Object
    Chapter 10: FTP Runner

Part 3: Reading News with NNTP
   Chapter 11: NNTP Protocols and Functions
    Chapter 12: The NNTP Client Control
    Chapter 13: DocInput, DocOutput and DocHeader Objects
    Chapter 14: News Runner

Part 4: Sending and Receiving Mail with SMTP and POP
    Chapter 15: SMTP Protocols and Functions
    Chapter 16: The SMTP Client Control
    Chapter 17: POP Protocols and Functions
    Chapter 18: The POP Client Control
    Chapter 19: Mail Runner

Part 5: Surfing the Web with HTTP and HTML
    Chapter 20: HTTP and HTML Protocols and Functions
    Chapter 21: The HTTP Client Control
    Chapter 22: The HTML Client Control
    Chapter 23: The HTMLAttr and HTMLForm Objects
    Chapter 24: Web Runner

Part 6: Advanced Features
    Chapter 25: The WinSock TCP Control
    Chapter 26: The WinSock UDP Control
    Chapter 27: Talk Runner

Part 7: Conclusion
Chapter 28: Summary and Review
Chapter 29: Now it's your turn

The Market:

This book capitalizes on three hot topics: the Internet, Windows 95 and Visual Basic.
ActiveX is the latest technology available from Microsoft. It was just released for beta testing on 14 March 96, which implies that this book will be one of the first books available on this subject.
A CD-ROM will be included with complete source code for all examples along with the latest version of the ActiveX controls from Microsoft.
While this book is targeted to the reader who is already familiar with Windows 95 and Visual Basic 4.0, it could also be used as a follow on book in a series that discusses Visual Basic.

Comparison with the key competition:

There are no other books available at this time that discuss ActiveX. It would be naïve to expect that there are no other books being written on this topic. However, since this book would be one of the first available, it should sell well to those programmers who wish to learn the new ActiveX technology for programming on the Internet.

There is a book scheduled to be released in May 1996, called Visual Basic Internet Programming, by Carl Franklin. It will be published by John Wiley & Sons and is expected to cover such topics as adding Internet capabilities to Windows programs and producing Internet utilities or software applications. It appears that this book will not take advantage of the ActiveX controls to access the Internet.

About the author:

Wayne S. Freeze is the Technical Support Manager for the University of Maryland at College Park's Administrative Computer Center with responsibility for a large scale IBM mainframe and development of client/server architectures. He has a Bachelors' degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Business Management from the University of Maryland at College Park. He is also the author of a popular shareware program called Car Collector which is written in Visual Basic and incorporates the ActiveX technology.

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