vbdos wasn't around for very long as I recall, so there probably aren't
many books on the subject. I've got "the microsoft visual basic for
ms-dos workshop" by John Clark Craig, published by microsoft press of
course, and "building database applications in visual basic" by Chuck
Butkus published by MIS: press which is not specific to the dos version
of vb but says on the back cover that it "is applicable to visual basic
for dos". You might try a search for one of these but I doubt that
either is still in print.
also, if you must use vbdos, I would definitely recommend a the standard
edition because the runtime module for the pro version is so enormous
that it doesn't leave any room for your program code. and that extra
runtime stuff is, mostly, just to support ISAM which is now considered
to be obsolete. I think there are also a few more sample codes in the
pro version? but they may even work in the standard version IIRC(except
for the ISAM stuff of course).
PDS is a better choice for most uses though. It doesn't have a form
designer, but it does come with a user interface library that allows you
to create many of the menus and dialogs available in vbdos. Plus the
source code for that library comes with it so you can give the outdated
dialogs a more up to date appearance(not an option with vbdos) and you
have the option of taking the code with you if change to a different
compiler(also not an option with vbdos). plus vbdos is loaded with bugs
not found in PDS.
My personal favorite is POWERBASIC for dos 3.5 which can be purchased at
http://www.powerbasic.com . it is very compatible with QB/PDS. In fact I
converted the PDS user interface library to PB in about an hour using a
program called qb2pb
http://www.geocities.com/rlglass2/qb2pbv2.zip (not
the one that comes with PB). I only had to rewrite a couple of inline
asm routines and reconcile a few variables that conflicted with PB
keywords, and it worked like a charm.
buck