No comments about Key issues in information systems management: 1994-95 SIM Delphi results.: An article from: MIS Quarterly.

2 comments about Nitty Gritty Delphi 6.

1. If I purchased this book in 1995 when Delphi came up I would be really satisfied. But when you have around "Developers guide" and "Mastering" books along with the list of other usefull ones, I consider that buying this book is just waste of your money.



2. If you're just starting in Delphi and want something to supplement your classes, or you're a seasoned professional who doesn't know how to do some things in Delphi (I found the section on programming DLLs very useful as I hadn't tried programming them in the past) this book will be an excellent choice.

3 comments about Peter Norton's Guide to Delphi 2 (Peter Norton).

1. Tthis is not only the worst technical book I have ever seen, but is worse than I could have ever imagined. It totally fails to meet any of the promises on the cover. It contains a very superficial look at Delphi using a cookbook approach, padded out with long sections of irrelevant material (e.g. descriptions of Windows API functions, a section on writing DLLs in C), some of which are just inaccurate (e.g. the sections on the Registry and OLE). It is quite clear that the author only has a superficial knowledge of Delphi and prefers writing about other subjects he understands or half-understands



2. While this book is mostly unremarkable, it has an informative chapter on how to interact with a network via the Windows API, dynamically map drives, capture printers, etc.



3. This book lacks any real substance about the Delphi language and merely glosses over topics. Leave it on the shelf and the money in your pocket.

5 comments about Delphi 3 Superbible.

1. This book has good examples of code and ideas on how to implement the code in your project. That being said, this book does not cover many of the more common components that are availabel in D3. With a title like SUPERIBLE, I was expecting a COMPLETE reference but, more often than not, I am left holding the book in one hand and my problem in the other with absolutly no help coming from the book. As a developer I cannot recommend this book due to the incomplete component reference and the merely cursory look at many of the new components in D3 such as web based components.



2. Probably the best Delphi reference I've seen, including Borland's material. It contains a great coverage of the VCL heirarchy for Delphi 3, but has not yet been updated to Delphi 4 or 5. It does lack some coverage (eg TTable is not covered!) but I'd say it's the best place to start if you want to understand the VCL (ie, become a serious Delphi programmer).

   I should mention also that it is a VCL reference: it does not cover topics like the IDE or BDE in any great depth, and I guess assumes you get that information from other sources.

   I would have given it 5 stars if it had been updated for Delphi 4 and if its component coverage had been more complete. Pressure the publisher!!

   Still a great resource though.




3. This book is just a poor replica of Delphi documentation. It just talks empty air. It leaves you where you are, without solving the problem or giving you a hint on how to solve it. Now it's a huge book with a great title, but that's just it. The only thing it has that might like you are tiny programs or fraction of code on how to use the components, but you can get better if you surf the internet or look into Delphi's examples in the help files. My suggestion is save your money, or invest it in a better book. I just wasted my money.



4. This is one of the best reference I've got for Delphi It is still very relevant even we are using Delphi 5 in the office..



5. Basically this is a printed version of Delphi on-line help system. You already have exactly this information (but more complete) if you have Delphi, and it is in more convenient format for reading and navigating there. Save your money and time.

5 comments about Collaborative Computing With Delphi 3.

1. I have to comment in defense of Mr. Callan's literacy style. Due to the vocabulary-bashing he's taken here, I almost didn't buy the book. But what the heck, you've got 30 days...

   I'm glad I didn't let the nay-sayers sway me because the vocabulary isn't nearly as bad as some are saying. In fact, the author purposefully uses carefully selected phrases to hint at the deeper, underlying meanings of the topics.

   A little personal history: In my graduate studies, one of my professors assigned some research articles written by a prolific scientist. At first, it was the most difficult reading I had encountered. You know, a lot of big words and long sentences. For some odd reason, my professor wanted us to understand the material (of all the nerve) which forced me to really dig into the articles. Later, I realized that the author communicated more in one sentence than most writers do in four, and his style began to appeal to me. Have you read anything from Grady Booch lately? You'll find that Mr. Callan's writing is on the same level, but clearer.

   So maybe you do need to get out your dictionary every now and again to read this book. That's why I keep mine close by... I'm pressed for time, but not so pressed that I can't stop to look up a word or two.

   It's a good book and well worth your time. Hey, you're also on Amazon.com, so order a dictionary while you're here! They're cheap!




2. I consider myself an intermediate level programmer and this book helped me a lot. It takes real world projects and uses object-oriented methods to project and implement them. I would have liked a better index and clearer titles for the sections and chapters, but considering the usefullness of the book, it can pass.



3. James Callan's Collaborative Computing with Delphi 3 is simply the best book ever written for Delphi. Nothing compares!! Do not listen to those who got scared by the admitedly frightening and potentially confusing topics and titles. If you persevere you have a mighty treasure trove on Systems Development in general and contemporary approaches and directions. And Delphi and SQL!!

   It certainly is one of the best software development books ever written and certainly by a real software expert and visionary. Kudos to James Callan. Buy this book and go the extra mile or two to be studious and go through it. You will be surprised. And Hey - it is very entertaining. It is a very practical approach to developing component-based, e-commerce age systems. It has a lot to teach on software architecture, data modelling and database design in the spirit of excellent s/w design books like: a) Designing Hard Software by Douglas Bennet and b) Business Component Factory by Peter Herzum

   The difference here is that these other books cover the concepts in a fairly general way. Callan's coverage is practical and Delphi-specific. And his coverage of Delphi is quite comprehensive. Compared to most other 4- or 5-star Delphi books Callan's coverage is more comprehensive. And he does it in some 800 pages and still has space to not only teach you these things better but throw in a lot of s/w development wisdom.




4. Admittedly, I've not read this book, but I've seen the code this book has produced in a real production environment and it's not a lot of fun to maintain, even by an experienced Delphi developer. The code was taken from the text exactly and it is among the most difficult to maintain and most error-prone parts of our applications.

   So if everyone thinks it's such a great book why are there only a handful of reviews? And the review about the "whimsical" table of contents is exactly right-- I imagine that is what killed this book. Maybe that's a good thing. This is a technical book that should be offering practical advice not playing word games with the TOC.




5. I loved this book. I purchased a used copy on the advice of a friend as was amazed. Mr. Callan did predict the future. I read and disagreed with several of these other reviews. I then wrote Mr. Callan and asked about the book, any sequels and use of the material in commercial applications. He wrote back. I include his email below.

   "Kenneth,

   Thanks for the kind words, especially after my book has been out for so long. You had mentioned sales...the book met the expectations of my publisher and helped the publisher to break into more technical books. My last royalty check for that book arrived sometime last year, which was a pretty good run after all.

   I have not written a sequel for several reasons. First, I make a great deal more income from my consulting services than from writing. I wrote this book because the publisher asked me to write the book. Second, I have learned since the book was published that most people think tactically rather than strategically. As such, most people do not relish gaining insights on their own, independently. They prefer to have things given to them. I believe that nothing is really learned until one gets the "Aha" experience. Some readers experienced this, but many did not. Third, the book predicted the future of software five years into the future. Some of the predictions are still coming to fruit. Why mess with what works? Fourth, gone are the days that single individuals write 800 page books by themselves. I certainly will not be writing a tome this long again.

   As to your first question...To my knowledge I had received only one inquiry regarding use of the code in the book for production applications. This involved a gentleman in Germany that wanted to adapt the Date Time visual component for a PIM application. I had indicated that the component in the book was designed more to illustrate several points about aggregation and visual aggregation in particular. I advised him to expose many more options and properties than were done in the book and to add the capability of supporting foreign date formats. As the examples were intended to illustrate techniques and approaches, I do not believe that companies would be using the book examples verbatim without additional enhancement.

   As to your question of maintainability, the subject of maintainable software currently fills entire books. My book discusses at length the need for unit testing prior to integration testing. The book also spends much time attempting to goad the reader into designing software so as to anticipate change. If readers took this advice then we would have much more robust and maintainable software.

   In summary, I believe that the company that you mentioned may not have had well trained and skilled staff or the company applied the principles discussed in my book incorrectly. I have heard from several executives that purchased multiple copies of the book to infuse their respective staffs with the solid principles in the book. The book was written for the experienced programmer seeking to refine their skills and to best prepare for the future. Those that purchased the book for a quick fix have been disappointed.

   Cheers,

   Jim Callan"

4 comments about Building Internet Applications With Delphi 2.

1. I just got this book, and read most of it. The theoretical chapters on net protocols and technology are the best I have seen in any winsock book. The Delphi specific chapters include good protocol description, the code is not as wonderful as I would have liked it to be, it seems like code that was converted from C or C++, and does not have a strong enough Delphi "look and feel" for me, but it is a good start. Overall this is a great book if you are interested in what goes on in Winsock applications, and the theoretical chapters are worth every cent.



2. This book explains very good the theory behind the different protocols, but it is a little too much like a C programming book.



3. I've been using this book for 8 months. I don't use the winsock code because there are higher level OCX controls to do the job. The real value of this book is in the theory. Don't go searching for those long RFCs. Appendix A and B has become my bible for the SMTP and NNTP protocols. The scenarios presented in the examples throughout the book, helped me understand the stages of a session between the server and client. You won't get too much Delphi-specific info but as long as the various TCP/IP protocols are in use, this book is a classic



4. I'm using the book at work to write network applications. Unlike some books, this book does not spoon feed you. You have to get your hands dirty and actually write programs yourself. I've found that to get the best out of the book, you have to read a chapter, study the code, then try and write the thing yourself. My only gripe is that some of the authors programs on my disk don't work, ie FTP Client in chapter 8. So what, it forced me to write my own. Love it!

5 comments about Learn Graphics File Programming With Delphi 3.

1. I picked up this book in the Bargain book bin for $4.99 and paid five times its value. The book is poorly written, filled with errors and the CD ROM would make a good coaster. I gave this book 1 star but a 1/2 star is more appropriate.



2. I bought this book only because I need to try to support the Kodak FlashPix format, and this book happened to have some code related to that format. Unfortunately for me, the code doesn't work. It constantly returns errors and cannot even open the FlashPix pictures that came with the book on the CD. This is the second (and last) worthless computer book I've bought from Wordware. I contacted then to see if maybe there had been an update to fix the bad code on the CD, and they told me they don't support the code contained in their books and that I would have to contact the author.

   One star is the lowest rating Amazon has, so that's what I entered... but it deserves no stars and a whole mess of lemons because that's what this book is.




3. This is BY FAR the worst computer related book I have ever touched. I seriously doubt that the Author even knew what he was doing when he decided to write this book. I purchased this book a while ago, and after trying to create working examples from his bug ridden code I became so distraught that I used this utterly worthless book for firewood. I have never seen anything like this before. Even books written by college professors for use with only thier classes have less errors and those books often have several pages missing and thousands of typos. So, if you are even considering buying this book, then do everyone a favor and DO NOT buy this failer of a book. Hopefully the author will lose money by writting books and as a result be forced to give up writing, which will be beneficial for everyone.



4. 0 Stars. I contacted the publisher who suggested I work with them to fix the code. Apparently others had already complained. As noted in other reviews, neither the code in the book or the code on the CD work. In fact, the code is so terribly incomplete I am surprised any other users actually found bugs. It's hard to have a bug when the code to read or write a particular format is nothing more than a skeleton of the required code. I contacted the author, back when the book was published, and he insisted he'd update the code to work. Subsequently, he seems to have gone into hiding. I don't blame him.



5. This book uses incredibly outdated and antiquated technology. He still uses far pointers, an artifact of 16-bit Windows 3.1 that disappeared 12 years ago with Windows 95, which itself is antiquated! Nobody programs like this anymore in 2008 (or even in 1998!).
   
   I find the chapter "What's not in this book", where he rants about redundant discussions that typify other programming books, to be mildly amusing and I read it from time to time just to get a laugh. Other than that the book is a shelf decoration.

1 comments about Developing With Delphi: Object-Oriented Techniques.

1. I thought this book would give revolutionary ideas on how to use object-oriented techniques to help my day-to-day programming life, but I was badly mistaken. There is only a few chapters on actual object-oriented programming but it does not use real world examples. The rest of the book is a badly written explanation of Delphi, which there are several other books which explain it much better.

3 comments about Delphi¿ Client/Server Developer's Guide.

1. Joseph D. Booth does a pretty good job explaining the fundamentals of database designing, most of which i'd already knew, but i wish i had this book when i was learning them. he explains normalization in 4 pages, the no'nonsense way.

   he's very objective when talking about database servers.

   the only thing i didn't like is that it is based on delphi 2, so he misses to explain some components like decision cubes.

   other than that he covers quite well the rest (and more used)of the components, describing every single property and method.




2. With this book i've entered client/server programming and i can say i've learned a lot. The reason i gave 3 stars is, 1) this book is quite old and only describes delphi 2 and 1 2) it does not give a lot about servers other than interbase 3) the Author is not a delphi expert (he is clipper orianted) so i think the delphi code is not perfect. and... 4) the cd-rom given with the book is rather useless.. it has 5 chapter's code (total 18 chaps.) and you have to edit some of the code in order to make them work..

   I bought this book becuse it was the only delphi c/s book i could find.. (another written by Ken Henderson for delphi 3 was out of stock)

   I can say you can either try out this book or buy a specific book for your target platform (oracle etc.) and when you finish it find some other source to learn about delphi's components. and you become a c/s hero :)




3. Delphi Client/Server Developer's Guide by Joseph D. Boot

No comments about Essential Delphi 2.0 Fast: How to Develop Applications in Delphi 2.0 (Essential Series).