Review:Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX

Yes, it's a milestone many of you thought would never happen: a Slashdot book review on ActiveX. Jon Veal wrote this review up and sent it our way. For those of you who haven't seen this little treasure, think the words "comic novella". Click below for more.

Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX
author	Carlton Egremont III
pages
publisher
rating	10
reviewer	Jon Veal
ISBN
summary	A very short and funny book explaining the basics of ActiveX.

The Scenario

A book about Active X in less than 100 pages ? Well as you might guess from the title this is not an ordinary computing book. It is a humourous look at Active X. Starting with the concept of the pixel, Mr Bunny explains topics such as the Windows registry, Visual Basic 5 and the Internet to Farmer Jake. (Farmer Jake represents a Computer Professional.)

This is not a serious book. Very little useful technical information can be gained from it, however it is very funny. It could be considered to be anti-microsoft. There are lots of digs about the registry and the stability (or lack of) of Visual Basic.

What's Bad?

The sense of humour of the writer might not be to everyones taste. It is certainly not a good guide to activeX for that you should look else where.

What's Good?

It makes a refreshing change from other computing books. Useful tips include: 'Do not use matches near the windows registry'.

The technical content of the book is correct so it is possible that someone might actually learn something from the book.

So What's In It For Me?

I wouldn't have believed that a book with 'Active X' in the title could make me laugh out loud. Check out the web-site for quotes from the book (http://www.mrbunny.com) Overall a very entertaining read but don't expect to gain anything useful from it.

Buy this book over here.

Table of Contents

Chapter 0: The Adventure Begins

Chapter 1: The Case for Component Based Software

Chapter 2: The underpinnings of ActiveX

Chapter 3: Inside the Registry

Chapter 4: Visual Basics

Chapter 5: ActiveX Controls

Chapter 6: Delivering the Goods