Q: You have charted the development of Visual Basic through your other Wrox titles. How did you first get involved in writing books on Visual Basic?

It’s actually quite a funny story. I had written a lot of articles on game development, and programming in the home computer market for a number of leading magazines in the UK - in fact, games programming on the Commodore 64 was how I cut my teeth, but that’s another story. Anyway, as an aside to the articles I used to spend a lot of time in the Compuserve and CIX (an online conferencing system here in the UK) answering questions from readers of the articles, and generally trying to learn more myself by answering as much as I could. Wrox had only recently formed back then and their managing editor Dave Maclean approached me after seeing my forum posts on Compuserve. The rest as they say is history.

Q: What new features of Visual Basic 6 really excite you?

Wow...that's a tricky question. ADO is undoubtedly the biggest change to hit VB in version 6, but to be honest I think you have to step back from VB for a moment and look at the entire Visual Studio suite. The whole suite (VC++, Visual Java, VB, Interdev) all work together to provide a comprehensive set of tools to satisfy all kinds of development needs. It’s really the new technologies in Visual Studio then that I find most exciting. ADO as a technology is pervasive throughout the suite, and it’s fantastic to at last see a position where developers can use a common set of objects to hit databases at the back end, instead of the C guys having to fool around with ODBC Direct while the VB guys kick out RDO code. ADO wraps everything up - local database access, server based backend access, and even remote access to data sources like text files out there on the Net - into a single unified set of objects that just makes the whole thing so easy, and so easy to migrate from one development environment to the other. Of course, VB is the cornerstone, since its ease of use coupled with ADO's simplicity make for a development solution that few bean counters would ignore.

Away from the database stuff though, the Web side of things has really come a long way. VB developers can now really produce some neat code to deal with the Internet, be it in terms of developing internet client applications, to embedding their code and components in a web page, right up to full support now for DHTML projects and ASP to really add some punch to the back end of things. VB just makes the whole Internet side of things so much easier now through its DHTML projects, and web classes ... I really think with the maturity of this stuff in VB6 we are going to see a massive growth in the amount of VB people working on client/server apps that incorporate the Internet now, and that's really going to make the Internet live up to all the marketing hype we have been fed for the past few years.

Q: What do you think the future holds for Visual Basic?

That's another really tricky question. VB is still single platform, but the market is really crying out for something that's multi-platform. Linux is growing like its on steroids, Apple is making a comeback par excellance, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a growth in the network computer/java computer markets too. To that end I think the future has to hold some form of cross platform functionality for VB. Java is a great tool, and a fantastic OO environment, but its still way up their as a prestige geek toy. VB on the other hand is a pretty open system that most anyone can pick up. Wouldn't it be neat to see Internet programming totally opened up on all platforms by a platform independent Visual Basic?

Q: Why did you choose to write a book on Objects?

I lead a lot of software projects in my role as consultant, and time and time again the same problems come up; developers aren't good at working together on a project, on sharing information and working to a common design. Projects go over budget through peoples inability to understand the complexities of writing a large scale business application. When I first came across OO 2 things stuck me immediately. First I thought, "Wow, this is a really cool way of thinking about a project - detaching yourself from the techie stuff and thinking 'Real World'". Secondly I thought, "My God! If you can detach yourself from the techie side and focus on the real world stuff, and talk about a system in real world terms, then wouldn't it be so much easier to approach the design and analysis side of things and really get people working together as a result of understanding a common set of goals". Over the past few years then I've been doing just that, really pushing the OO side of development into the teams I work with and the results have been astounding. If you can sit down and do a real world, OO-based design for a project, involving your developers and your customers then you end up with everyone knowing where you are coming from, where you want to go, and how you intend to get there. In terms of the OO design you have a clear blueprint (with the object methods and properties) of what each object must do, what its interface is, and what each developer needs to do to complete their tasks. At that point you end up with systems coming in on-time, meeting user expectations and with very very few 'process' bugs. The problems that you get are usually simple syntax type things, or form layout type things, since you already had it out with the users as to what you were going to do, and with the OO way of presenting things they actually understood what you were saying.

Now, with VB5 and 6 we really start to get some powerful OO technologies in that environment, not just from classes and stuff, but from the ActiveX and COM side of things, technologies that really do let you fly with the OO way of doing things. But still I kept on seeing time and again customers and other developers trying to shy away from the OO side of things saying, "Its too hard", "Its too new", "Its too...'not us'". I was extremely keen to show anyone with an interest that its not hard, its actually easier than the old way of doing things, and VB just adds to that ease.

Q: Do you use or read any other programming books?

I do read a lot about development process and methods. Code Complete for example is just the best book in the world, in my opinion, on what it is to be a programmer, and what it is to be a good programmer. Its complusory reading for anyone on any teams I lead. I have to admit that I also read a lot of very very geeky stuff. Looking on the shelf in front of me for example there's Computer Graphics Principles and Practice, Unix Network Programming:Sockets and XT, and Unix Network Programming:Interprocess Communications. I find its good to get a really broad coverage of technical topics, not just to focus on VB. That way you tend to see the bigger picture of programming in general and approach your VB work with a very lateral viewpoint.

Q: In Beginning VB6 you mentioned multi platformed networks in your bedroom. Please tell us more.

Hehehe. Well, we actually converted a bedroom into an office, though my friends tend to call it "Geek-Heaven". We have two Linux boxes which act as Internet routers, mail servers and development systems. I have a huge Pentium on my desk running Windows, of course, but with an XWindows client to connect to the Unix boxes as well. It also dual boots in BeOS, where I do a large amount of work as well (BeOS is a brand new operating system). Opposite me my wife Heather has a Win98 box, which also runs as an X-Windows client. There's a notebook running Windows 95 and another running SuSE Linux, and there's also a Mac here too.

The reason for the diversity is that I have a team that are working on a huge multi-platform online-only game that's due for release next year.

I think they are amused by it, at least that's the feeling I get when I talk to them. American writers tend to be extremely professional in what they do and what they say. They may make one or two humourous quips but on the whole they keep it clean and "Just the facts Ma'am" kinda thing. I get the impression that many of them find it something of a breath of fresh air to read a book that talks to them as if they were a friend down the pub. I don't have a problem with saying if I think something is unnecessarily complex, or just plain naff, in one of my books, and I don't have a problem with saying "Hey, let's ignore this feature 'cos you aint never gonna use it anyway". Of course, there is always that American fascination with English sarcasm as well, and that comes across in the books too.

To be honest I have only ever been slated once by an American reader for my writing style. A young lady, with strong political beliefs on woman's role in society objected to an example I had used earlier on. I was saying how programming was like making coffee...you follow a series of steps (put water in kettle, turn kettle on, put coffee in cup etc) and that's basically programming. I then when on to explain procedures and functions and said that you could wrap our earlier example into a "WifeMakeCoffee routine". She didn't like that and made no bones about it. I think I toned it down - but everyone I spoke too (women and Americans included) thought it was quite a neat example.

Q: If you could invite anyone, alive or dead, to a dinner party who would they be. Also, what would be on the menu?

Can I invite more than one person ? I gonna assume that I can....

Alan Turing - the first real geek. He invented the Enigma machine, the computer which in World War II cracked the german codes and played a large part in the allies winning that conflict. He was totally random in his thoughts and actions, completely absorbed by his work, and more often than not belittled by the people around him for being too geeky - in his day he had another problem which added to this, and that was his homosexuality, something which later landed him in Jail. Can you imagine that! The father in many ways of the computers we have today, and a guy who single handedly did a lot to save this nation and he got put down and locked up and driven to suicide just because of his lifestyle.

Richard Stallman, head of the Free Software Foundation, and the GNU project. The code this guy puts out is just incredible, and its equally incredible to see someone in this industry actually living to their beliefs, in his case a religious belief that information, particularly relating to programming, be shared.

Robert L Shaw - author of Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvers for the US Naval Press Institute - you'll learn why later.

Kate Winslett - well, you gotta lighten the meal up somehow ;)

As for the menu......chocolate, sugar, cream, fudge, more chocolate and jam tarts.

Q: What else do you do apart from writing books?

I am a HUGE flight sim addict, and gaming addict in general. I have a set of replica flight sticks from an F16 here which I play all my sims with, and regularly take part in massive online real time dogfights in Microsoft's gaming zone (hence inviting Robert Shaw to the meal). I also am fanatical about writing games, a passion I have had since I had my first ones released when I was 14. To that end we have a huge multiplayer online strategy game coming out around July/August next year (you can find out about it at www.dapad.co.uk).

Away from the PC, I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie, a fact I only really owned up to in myself this year. I ride a very fast motorcycle (180 mph top speed), my wife and I own a speedboat, and I'm into wakeboarding, kneedboarding, surfing and flying.

To relax, I just lay around the house and veg, with a good weepie on the video, and my wife in my arms.

Q: How do you feel when you see your photograph on the cover of a book?

I hate it. I detest it. I try everything I can to get Wrox to not put a photo on each book. I hate to be recognised, not because I'm all stuck up and snooty, I just get embarrased by it. To that end I recently took the ultimate plunge, cut my hair real short, spiked it and bleached it blonde. I have a pool of "the old Pete" photos lying around for the next time I get asked for a cover shot. So...catch me now oh readers of mine - first one to do so gets a free book.

Q: What are your plans for the future?

Games and books. As I keep saying (its going to be really really really cool) we have a game coming out...called Imperion...and that's hopefully going to lead to more and better things. Aside from that I'm also working on my first novel, which should be out early next year.

Q: Why do you think your books sell so well?

Well, the readers are predominantly female, and so of course the cover shot helps.

Seriously though...I really don’t know. I guess its because the writing style is very down to earth and not too techie. I try to be fairly witty in the books and I think it comes off well, and for a book whos content is really really geeky by nature, that's a pretty rare thing.

Having a huge marketing team and fantastic editors helps a little bit though...

Q: Do you keep in touch with your readers through forums and the like?

Sure. I attend conferences and shows, I speak at them too and never once had someone fall asleep. I keep an eye on the newsgroups too, and post fairly frequently. Aside from that I get a lot of email from readers, good and bad, and reply to most of it (I really really can't help you write your application though.......<hint) and I have guestbook on one of my websites that keeps me in touch. Oh yeah, I help out on the Wrox forums from time to time as well.

Q: What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?

I don't really have one. I love to drink Malibu and orange though - we call it a "Carribean Sunrise"....(you have to say that with a Jamaican accent while wearing shades).

Q: Do you like the Didgeridoo?

Nope. The weirdest thing was writing Beginning VB5 and being sent WAV files by my editor at 3am of didgeridoo sounds. My wife says I can do a good impression of one with a toilet roll though.