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.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself Delphi 4 in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. THIS IS A GREAT BOOK. IF YOU ARE A PROGRAMMING BEGINNER, DON`T BUY IT. THERE ARE MANY BASIC PROGRAMMING SUBJECTS IN THIS BOOK THAT AREN`T EXPLAINED VERY WELL, GO AND FIND SOME BASIC PROGRAMMING BOOK FOR BEGINNERS.

   IN THE OTHER HAND, IF YOU ARE A C++ BUILDER, VISUAL BASIC OR ANY OTHER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE PROGRAMMER THAT WANTS TO LEARN DELPHI, THIS BOOK WILL REALLY HELP YOU GET THE BASICS OF THE BEST AND MOST POWERFULL DEVELOPMENT TOOL THAT IS DELPHI. IF THIS IS YOUR CASE, DON`T WASTE YOUR TIME AND CLICK THE ADD TO CART BUTTON RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! BUY IT!!!!

   THE END OF CHAPTERS EXCERCISES AND QUESTIONS REALLY HELP YOU TO GET THE KNOWLEDGE.

   ANOTHER GOOD BOOK FROM KENT REISDORPH!! GOOD JOB!!




2. I used this book as my introduction to Delphi and found it useful, but less than ideal.

   The early chapters of the book gave a good introduction to the basics of Delphi programming, and in particular the many tricks which Delphi has to make programming easier.

   If all you intend to do is produce a program to present databases in a particular way this book will probably meet your needs fine.

   My reservations relate to the presentation of information about the language itself. The explanation of the various features of classes seemed sketchy, and left me unsure of when I should use what sort of features. I had hoped that the chapter on "Advanced programming techniques" would help, but this focused on elements which "polish" a programme, but don't bridge the gap to a finished application of any real complexity.

   I didn't bother finishing the last few chapters on matters such as producing components and DLLs as I felt I needed to learn more about classes, properties and datastreams before I would benefit.




3. An ideal book for anyone who wishes to begin learning Delphi (version 4, 5 or 6). I an experienced Visual Basic programmer and purchased Delphi 5 hoping to use the on-line documentation to learn Delphi but found it too advanced and not an ideal learning environment. (On-line help tends to be a great reference tool but it's always hard to learn from.) I then purchased the Delphi Developerýs Guide, which seems to be regarded as the best book on the subject. Although a superb book in its own right, its not aimed at beginners. I have now completed the Samýs Delphi 4 in 21 days, and let me say, itýs a terrific book for beginners, which teaches in a lesson format, which is actually surprisingly easy and fun to follow. Donýt be put off by the Version 4 title either, all the lessons work just fine in Delphi 5.



4. After reading all the reviews this book had I was very surprise to see how terrible this book is. Make sure not to buy this book I was very very disapointed, it is supposed to be for an intrudoctory level, but this book is way below that, the only person who should by this book is someone who has never used a computer. This is very disapointing considerint other Sam publication. Botom Line DON BUY THIS BOOK



5. I purchased this book, without having any background in programming in any computer language, except a small amount of Basic & HTML, hoping for fast results. The truth is that although the book is comprehensive and user friendly, it relys heavily on a pre existing knowledge of the subject matter and is really NOT for the absolute beginner. My only other observation would be the constant "I'll cover that part later" aspect of the text, which is very frustrating, and makes the reader want to skip ahead to consolidate learning. I would certainly recommend this book, but only as an addition to the library of someone who knew a great deal about Delphi first, without which 21 days is optomistic at best!

3 comments about Borland Delphi How-To: The Definitive Delphi Problem Solver (How-to).

1. Once in a while you'll stumble across a gem of a book that you can't put down. This is it! If you ever get to a point in your program that you think you need to put some pizzazz in it, this book might be just what you're looking for.

   It has something for everyone. It's chaulked full of usefull tidbits that you can add to any application. I'll list a few entries from the table of contents so you know what I mean:
   "Size a form's control automatically"
   "Add search and replace to my editor"
   "Remember the sizes and locations of my forms"
   "Make the ENTER key act like the TAB key..."
   "Determine system resouces and display them"
   "Modify menus at run time"
   "Create a readme file viewer"
   "Fade one picture into another"
   "Play wave and midi files"
   "Make a customizable toolbar like Delphi's"
   

   It has 103 of these "How To's" do make your application really shine. Two or three of these features would pay for the book. That's like getting the other 100 for free!

   Even though this book is written for Delphi 1, the majority of these tricks will also work for Delphi 2. All of the sample code is on the CD-Rom so you can easily see it working before you install it into your application.

   If you want to spruce up your application, I definitely recommend this book. You'll also improve your Delphi techniques by learning how some of these "tricks" are performed. This book is a keeper. Don't leave the bookstore without it!




2. Once in a while you'll come across a book that you can't put down. Well, this is it. It doesn't matter if you're using Delphi 1 or Delphi 5, this book has enough tricks and how to's to pay for itself 10x over. It's well organized, concise, plenty of code snippets, and lots of working programs on the CD-Rom. If you want a fun read and like magical code, this How To book will put a smile on your face and add a shine to your programs!



3. Once you have been initialized into the world of Delphi, it is time to move on to the realm of developers. When that point is reached, there is no better source of educational exercises than this book. It is split into 123 different problems, each with statement, purpose, list of required GUI objects and properties; source code and complete explanation. Many of the exercises include Windows API calls, which are a must for serious developers. It is sometimes easy to forget that our programming efforts are a collaborative one with Windows. And there are times when it is best to skip the translation and go directly to the source.
   Split into twelve chapters:

   1. Forms,
   2. Standard Components,
   3. Document and Text,
   4. Mouse and Menu,
   5. Graphics,
   6. Multimedia,
   7. Environment and System,
   8. Peripherals,
   9. Database,
   10. OLE and DDE,
   11. The Polished Application, and
   12. Tips and Tricks

   All of the fundamentals are covered. I found it to be an excellent source of exercises for a course in Delphi. While they may not be exactly what you want, all are very easy to tweak to your tastes.
   Although it is not as popular as some other tools, Delphi is an excellent developmental environmental. If you are teaching a course or just want to learn it on your own, this is a superb resource

   Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

1 comments about Visual Object-Oriented Programming Using Delphi With CD-ROM.

1. I tried to buy this book a while ago. It went out of print or I couldn't get it. It has been a while since I've seen a Delphi Book by Mr. Weiner. I'm shocked that it's here. Mr. Weiner is a excellent writer of computer books. He always covers a computer language in great detail. I was impress with seeing his coverage of Delphi before the book went out of print. Then I bought his Eiffel Book and was blown away. So I know this book is going to leave a mark. Warning! This book may be a hazard to your social life. I want it!

5 comments about Tomes of Delphi WIN32 Database Developer's Guide.

1. I got this because it was listed as for Advanced programmers. But it does little more the walk through some very simple examples of the basic database issues of Delphi. If you are a beginner and need some hand holding to get you started on topics you already have a detailed explanation on. Then this book might help. But don't expect to learn much from it by itself. I would get a copy cheap from someone experienced that got suckered in to buying it.



2. Contrary to the opinions of most of the other people who have written reviews on this book, I thought it was great. I have been developing applications in C++Builder for about a year or so (and in Delphi for a few years before that), but never had to do anything too complicated with databases. I especially found Part II of the book extremely valueable and easy to understand.

   Even though this is a Delphi book it was invaluable to me in completing a C++Builder database application that I was required to write.

   In my opinion, if you aren't advanced enough to know how to do database programming in Delphi (or C++Builder), but would like to be, this book is for you. If you are already an accomplished database programmer, then you probably wouldn't look for a book like this in the first place.




3. This book is probably not for the advanced Delphi programmer as it states, but I found it useful.

   I come from an engineering background. Most of my prior programs are number crunching Fortran programs. I've switched to Delphi to do Windows programming. I had no database background.

   This book got me started with database theory, and database practice with Delphi. I must admit if I was a Delphi database expert and bought this book I would probably be dissapointed. But it fit my needs with good discussion and examples for my level of database experience.




4. If you do not know database, or you need a very slow introduction to both databases and how to use them in Delphi, this may be the book for you. The book touts itself as Advanced on its back cover level rating. I don't know what marketing manager came up with Advanced, but this book is not even Intermediate -- it is Introductory. Do you know relational databse design? Well, the table of contents divides this book into three parts, and Part One is relational database design. If you already know the basics, this is just a rehash of everything you already know. None of the examples in parts two and three could be called Advanced -- they are Introductory. This is a book for beginners. The only thing that might be a redeeming quality of this book is that the Appendix has an exhaustive list of BDE API calls, but if you don't need this text (sans examples, etc.), this book won't do you any good. I was very disappointed. CONCLUSION: LOOK ELSEWHERE.



5. I have spent a lot of time studying this book. The early chapters are the best. The book needs work. It has a lot of valuable information, especially for a programming student who does not have much database experience. Unfortunately, it has a few glaring errors and omissions. The book has graphics that are labeled wrong. It refers to files on the accompanying CD that do not exist. I couldn't find an errata page on the Internet for the book. If the book were taken through a very serious editing process and re-published as a second edition, I might buy the new version.
   However, the quality of the writing, the overall poor quality of the binding, and the annoyances of being mis-directed make this book a poor comparison to "Delphi 4 Unleashed" and the Tomes of Delphi "Algorithms and Data Structures." Buy this book, only if you gave up trying to read database chapters in the Delphi 4 Unleashed. Also, be prepared to make a few mental jumps when you try to follow the projects.

5 comments about Mastering Delphi 6.

1. I have little to say other than this book is exceptional. All items are well covered and specific emphasis is placed on the latest changes to the Delphi IDE as well as the latest new features in Delphi 6 (which are superb).

   The code examples are clear, bug free and pertinent to the topic at hand. The author's style of writing is superb. His tone is set at the right level, being both factual and very readable. The moment the book arrived, I couln't put it down.

   I was a little annoyed that the section on the Pascal language was relegated to the CD, and I felt the section on SQL was sparse (also in pdf format, and on the CD only). However one could validly argue that this book is geared towards the intermediate + level of programmer, and the reader should already be familiar with these topics.

   Advanced programmers (a status which I have not yet attained) may be disappointed with topics covered in the client/server sections.

   5 stars, once again Mr Cantu! Strongly recommended for intermediate programmers.




2. Just got this book the other day. Not too much of beginners book if you don't know Pascal. Worthwhile though for Delphi though. I'll learn the Pascal as I go along. There are other books for Pascal as well as the authors own website. Great book so far.



3. I've read Mastering Delphi 3 and 6 and while Marco Cantu does a good job of exposing Delphi to beginners, his style is VERY lacking when it comes to advanced techniques. I also feel he is somewhat condescending in his explanation of technical matters and assumes that his reader is a near-complete neophyte (well that could also explain the popularity of his books). Still, the website complementing his books does show an effort to make it useful and attractive to his audience.

   Fairly experienced programmer will find that his writing style in the Mastering Delphi series hobbles learning as in the effort to sound more 'friendly' by not adopting deeper technical terms he takes two paragraphs to explain something which a couple of sentences should suffice to.




4. I bought this book to learn Delphi. I have no prior experience in it. I am not even 4 pages into the book, and the author is already telling me that he is not going into any details on the basics of Delphi, but instead, is going to focus on enhancements concerning Version 6. He already assumes I am familiar with the Delphi IDE, and if I am not, I can go to his website and get the information I need. I went to his website, and it is more confusing than the book (needless to say, I cant find his "step by step instructions on Delphi IDE). I think this guy needs to jump off of "cloud 9", and step back down into the real world. I want to learn Delphi, not write a thesis on it, or go off on some intellectual space fantasy into the cosmos. I just want to learn Delphi! This book has over 1000 pages, and already assumes you know Delphi!



5. I have had other books by Marco Cantu, including "Mastering Delphi 4". His style of writing is gentle, albeit at times a bit repetitive. He certainly has an over all grasp of Delphi and the "ancient history" of Borland leading up to it and demonstrates a close relationship with the company. His coverage of the "Visual Pascal" portion of the Delphi suite is helpful and fairly complete. Overall I rate this book ****.
   
   The missing * is based on inadequate (in my opinion) coverage of graphics and printing. However, this might be more the result of Borland's inadequate facilities for these two important (to me, at least) areas of development. It seems that development environments have moved away from non-Web based software, and this trend is reflected in books of this calibre.
   
   I did have a problem with the CD that is included with the book. On the CD is an Ebook version of the text. Unfortunately the Ebook wouldn't work on my computer. It turns out that Adobe made some changes to version 8 of Acrobat Reader which causes the Ebook to fail. The only "solution" Sybex offered was to install Acrobat Reader 4.0 from the CD after removing version 8 from the computer. They also told me that version 8 could then be reinstalled. They obviously did not try this, since it doesn't work. A side effect of simply leaving version 4.0 on the computer is that my e-mail client (Mozilla) no longer knows how to handle .PDF attachments. They (Sybex) have a lot of excuses of the form "The book was published in 2001..."

5 comments about Delphi Component Design.

1. This book is all about what goes behind the curtains. If are a crazy developer like me and interested in knowing how Delphi designers implemented different mechanisms such as WIndows messaging OLE COM this title is a must



2. The book is a breath of fresh air and covers a good basic foundation: attitudes of programmers, basic structures of OOP with objects:- various virtual methods, basic construction of building blocks, streams, other forms of communication and a few peculiar things to watch out on. I personally have no interest in databases were some may have. 32 bit is the way to go as I can now see access to the windows API with the assistance of the book and Delphi Pro.
   Danny points out its not necessary to understand every base object behind the object you are building off from.
   This is true if you wish to add a minor adjustment to a component. But this I believe this is a major miss conception if you are building a new and different component. And for this purpose the book dose not begin to address threading, what is happing in TObject, as TObject is not in Delphi Pro to view and is the fundamental object that every object is built from!!!!!!. This is no different than the Pascal 7 days when every one wanted to read the OOP code for them selves at an enormous cost for a copy.
   I'm not saying the book should cover the windows API as that's another subject on its own, but how a action is handled through the Objects, or how a windows event is managed though OOP:- draw, mouse button.....
   I need a book that should cover enough to be able to install an object into a base object like a speed button into an editor or a listbox connected to a speed button so something like TCombobox or TGraph is understood how each piece interacts and is constructed together as a unit. When the OOPer's get hold of this understanding the tools for Delphi could become available will become limitless to the users. VB definitely has this advantage over Delphi today because we do not understand enough to create something different or new. Give it another go Danny with an extra book, as it is easy to understand what you have written, be cursus to get such a difficult subject right. And you have made a breath of fresh air already into the subject that is very useful to those that have read your first book but some of us need to go further.



3. This guys are crooks. They advertise a book they DO NOT have, get your money and never reply to your e-mails.

   The book is supposed to be great, by the way.




4. This is purely a Delphi programmer's guide, but it unquestioningly well written, informative, and well-rounded: Anyone seeking to learn how Delphi's VCL component libraries work, how to development components of their own, or how to extend Delphi VCL components already available from Borland or third parties, should read this book. There is simply nothing else that comes close.
   
   Mr. Thorpe's writing style is clear, concise, and does a great job of exploring the topic at hand. Any competent Delphi programmer will be well capable of undertaking VCL development on their own if they have this book at their side. One point to note about this book is what used copies go-for on Amazon.com (and elswehere): I typically see prices of between $50 and $100, even though the book was first published about 10 years ago. How many other technology books, particularly for a specific software technology, remain in such high demand after such a long period of time?
   
   "Delphi Component Design" was written for the VCL [Borland's Acronym for "Visual Component Library"] as it was implemented in Delphi 3.0 - back in the mid to late 1990's: the implementation of VCL it describes is still the foundation underlying VCL as implemented in Delphi today, and is close enough to the modern implementation to still be a very useful text. However, since Delphi's product direction is to pursue .NET as opposed to enhancing the older VCL, the book's usefulness is limited to those who are seeking to maintain or enhance existing Delphi VCL-based applications. Even though I no longer work in Delphi, I still find myself called-upon often enough for Delphi support that I'm not going to give up my copy of "Delphi Component Design" quite yet - even despite the used copy prices I see!



5. Extending the hand dealt to you by the development package is where the quality programmers are separated from the mere developers; often the difference between an adequate product and a great one. If you are a developer using Delphi and want to advance to a higher level of production, this book contains the necessary boost. Anyone moving into Delphi component creation will find it essential. From properly choosing components from the Delphi Visual Component Library (VCL) to building your own components and interfacing with OLE and COM, most of the major topics are covered in detail, with sections of example code to really drive the message home.
   The book starts off with a brief explanation of the models used in Delphi, basic concepts of a component, and the analysis and design of new components. This is followed up by an examination of Implementation Details, the fundamentals of polymorphism, virtual methods, exceptions, RunTime Type Information (RTTI), streaming, messaging, OLE and COM interfaces, and optimization techniques. "Design Time Support Tools," opens with an overview of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and emphasizes the interface issues. Danny Thorpe wraps it all up with chapters on property and component editors, and experts and add-in tools.
   This book contains many insightful points. The chapter on virtual methods and polymorphism contains the best explanation of the implementation details of virtual methods that I have ever seen. This chapter could serve as a reference in any study of object-oriented programming. I've incorporated many of these points into my own training course. As one whose main approach to OOP has been via C++, I found this material invaluable when teaching a course in advanced Delphi recently. The clear descriptions of the underlying implementation distinctions between virtual and dynamic methods may save you in the area of performance. Knowing and understanding why virtual methods will defeat the smart linking of the Delphi compiler/linker can reduce the size of your EXE.
   When I am presenting exceptions and exception handling to experienced programmers, they always ask the following question: "What is the real difference between this and how we have traditionally handled errors?" In only a few pages, the author answers this question and puts forward two lists, "Rules of Thumb for Implementing Exception Handlers" and "Rules of Thumb for Raising Exceptions"; solid advice for both developers and educators who develop developers.
   Optimizing code when there is "abundant" stack space (surely a hint of heaven!), multiple threads and different system-defined string types differ from traditional tricks. These topics are all covered in the chapter on optimization. Just because this space is available is no reason to misuse it. Knowing that the stack will never shrink over the lifetime of the thread should force you to rethink overuse. Understanding that long strings are allocated on the heap rather than the stack should cause an occasional re-examination of approach. It is also gratifying to see that there is also a short section on sledgehammer techniques, or put another way, "genuinely useful hacks."
   There is also an occasional sweet sprinkle of humor. From polymetamorphicdata (care to guess what that is?) to TypInfo ("tip info") and GUID ("gwid") the jokes are appropriate and blend well into the message. However, they are grains of seasoning rather than the bulk of the flavor.
   Delphi is a development environment that provides the opportunity to do many things quickly and efficiently. Add in a copy of this book and you are ready to harness the true power of Delphi by creating your own components and pushing things to the leading edge of software creation. Some sections can be read and appreciated just for their insights into object-oriented programming and design.
   
   Published in Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, reprinted with permission.

5 comments about Tomes of Delphi: WIn32 Shell API Windows 2000 Edition.

1. you just cant afford not to get it, with the declining availability of good delphi source out there... its indespensible



2. Have only been been using Delphi for 4 months now. This book and the Core API are very good. I found them very easy to understand.



3. Imposing as the material in this book might otherwise be, I am most impressed with the clean authorship of the material. This book is more than a developer can reasonably hope for in a source reference. I expected to have to give maybe 10 days' time to absorbing it cover to cover, but it is written so well that most chapters require reading less than a page describing the chapter; and the rest of the material can simply be used. So full of treasure is this book that I spent hours the first evening just typing code into projects. All of it ran right the first time. I doubt a better book can be written on this subject, and will from here on consider any book with John Ayres' name on it the one to look at first on whatever the topic. A huge thanks to you John for doing your work so well. You made ours' far easier than we imagined.



4. I suppose it was just bad luck that the first API (ReadDirectoryChanges) I needed help with wasn't in this book. I ended up spending some time searching the news groups to get more information. Seems like ReadDirectoryChanges should have been included in a book that has been described as the "definitive reference for the Win32 API"... A bit disappointing.



5. I could say 5 Stars and it would be all what to say - but if you are not shure, what a type of book to choose that would be to few. Well I have this book for a long time and it is my bible. It is very practice indeed and close to the problems. My own projects have gone much more easier to solve. My own focus is on automation sectors and so I did some work for automating rs232 driven radio controls for hobbie and HAM- interested people. If you are interested in it so you can look at my website http://www.peter-geisler.de - looking to results from which I can say are a lot of ideas from John Ayres Tomes of Delphi - I rating it 5 Stars.

5 comments about Ready-to-Run Delphi(r) 3.0 Algorithms.

1. This book has an excellent collection of classic and modern computer science algorithms. Unlike many other similar books, Rod Stephens (the author) goes deep into every topic. For example, under "searching" most books write about why do we need searching, describe exhaustive searching, and then finish with binary search, saying "look: we can search among 16 items with only 4 comparisons, - is that cool or what?!" On the other hand, here is what "Ready to Run Delphi 3.0 algorithms" has under "searching": exhaustive search, searching sorted lists, searching linked lists, binary search, interpolation search, string data, hunting and searching, binary hunt and search, interpolative hunt and search. The chapters are Fundamental Concepts, Lists, Stacks and Queues, Arrays, Recursion, Trees, Balanced Trees, Decision Trees, Sorting, Searching, Hashing, Network Algorithms, and OO Techniques. I gave 4 out of 5 rating because although there is a lot of stuff in there, some important algorithms are missing. Minimax discussion is not followed by alpha-beta pruning. Heuristics, probably the most interesting part of decision trees (at least to me) is barely touched and no sample code is given. To summarize, this book' material is what I went to university for.



2. I own 20 Delphi books (I am the author of one of them), and this book is one of the select few that I come back to time and again.

   I was hoping someone would do a "concise", Object Pascal-specific version of "The Art of Computer Programming", and here it is.

   The title is unfortunate, I think. It should be something like "The Art of Delphi Programming"; the material here is virtually timeless, not Delphi 3-specific.

   While there are minor lapses here and there (for example, a data type of "string * 20", which won't compile in Delphi (it should be String[20])), that is a very minor problem.

   If you are a Delphi developer and need to learn about lists, trees, sorting algorithms, etc., search no further: this is the book you need.

   Clay Shannon




3. I found this book interesting, and at times a pretty hard slog, to read. It covers all the common programming problems such as searching, sorting, stacks, ques etc. Although the book says it is for Delphi 3, the code is generic and would work equally on later versions. I have yet to use some of the code in my own programs but I found some of his thoughts interesting, especially recursion eg. most books would use it for binary searches or factorials but as he states it would run much more efficiently by placing it in a simple loop!, a fact that most other discussions fail to recognise. He points out that while one approach may be suitable for some problems you should realise that sometimes what is a 'less efficient' approach may be better eg. don't use hashing or binary searches on short lists, exhaustive is better. It is a book that most programmers will be able to 'do without' but if you think you may need to do some of the things discussed in the book, it is probably worthwhile thinking of getting a copy.



4. You really find many things here: stacks, lists, trees etc... But the code is not very clear. And they use pointers a lot. Some simulations would be good too...



5. Having read excellent John Wiley books in the past, I had great expectations from Ready-to-Run Delphi 3.0 Algorithms. Unfortunately, this book is far from being a good book. First of all, the author, Rod Stephens, is not a Delphi programmer. He merely ported, or more precisely attempted to port, one of his previous Visual Basic books to Delphi. Several Delphi code listings contain code that is... Visual Basic code!

   Furthermore, the title is totally inappropriate: none of the supplied code is "ready-to-run." In part because it contains too many errors, but more importantly because the sample code is too academic to be really useful in a real life application.

   Do not waste your money on this title.

5 comments about Building Delphi 6 Applications.

1. The title off this book must be Delphi for Dummies, or beginners, there are not delphi 6 information like CLX full explanation, webSnap, DataSnap, XML components, and others new features.



2. First the bad news. like they said: this book does not have much on the new features specific to Delphi 6. When it comes to the point, it doesn't have much on Delphi 5 features either: it has nothing on the ADO data connections in Delphi 5 and 6, and only a short (but to someone new to it concise and useful) introduction to the Microsoft office automation features. If you want a comprehensive overview of the new features and how to use them, go to Mastering Delphi 6 or the Delphi 6 Developers Guide.

   Having said that, don't discount this book. It has a respectable and solid niche. For someone new to Delphi, or a programmer from another language who wants an orientation to Delphi, this book has achieved what no other Delphi book has to date. It provides a succinct, friendly introduction to Delphi and object pascal, and gets you up to date with features such as working with databases and the web to about the level of Delphi 4 functionality. He provides a lot of the material and background that books such as Mastering Delphi and the Delphi Developers guide tend to skip over to fit other stuff in. He doesn't really stop to teach you Pascal itself though (he pretty much assumes you know looping and conditional statements and that sort of stuff, which is often a fair assumption), so if you are really a beginning beginner you might want to find a tutorial on the web or an introduction to Pascal book.

   If you are a beginner to RAD or object oriented programming and want to pick up the power of Delphi, this book and then afterwards the Delphi Developers guide is an excellent choice. If you are in this situation and want to buy just one Delphi book however, I'd suggest Mastering Delphi 6.

   If you are using Delphi 5 or 6, this book will not cover all its features. Don't expect it to. But if you want to get the basics of object oriented programming in Delphi and a good grounding in its basics, this is a great place to start.

   Difficulty ratings:

   Building Delphi 6 applications: Beginner - Intermediate
   Mastering Delphi 6: Intelligent/Experienced beginner - advanced
   Delphi Developers Guide 6: Intermediate -advanced

   Pricing . . . this book is probably priced a bit high for what it is. It is competing by title, price and marketing with 1500 page tomes that cover everything. The publisher would be better of rebranding it into a new niche of making Delphi easy to learn, at which I think this book excels.

   Potential . . . this book has a lot of potential to position itself as a great learning object pascal and Delphi book. I think it would gain greatly from adding more of the absolute basics like learning plain Pascal so it could be a one-stop learn from scratch resource, and it obviously needs to get up to date with Delphi 5 and 6, particularly with regard to databases (ADO/dbGo, dbExpress, Interbase express) but also CLX, datasnap, XML, and so on. I think if the next edition builds on the basics but adds a concise section on up to date and new features, and changes or reflects its title more, it can be a winner.

   A note to Paul Kimmel (the author): you sure hit a lot of flack with the title! I can see where you're coming from - if you call it Building Delphi 5 applications and release it after Delphi 6 is released, you're not going to be on the best-seller list. I suggest renaming it "object-oriented RAD application development with Delphi versions 2-6". It gets the gist across of what the book is about.




3. ...at least [I] did not pay full price for this book. The problem with this book is that it doesn't seem to have a target audience. It's not a beginner's book (I am a beginner at Dephi for the record), and it also does not have the level of detail for the experienced Delphi programmer that the other books I have seen in bookstore address. Do youself a favor and skip this one. Mastering Delphi 6 is a good one from what I was able to skip at the bookstore, and I have yet to find an updated beginner's book for Delphi 6.



4. Should be called Delphi 4 for dummies.
   Does not even have ADO , which came out in Delphi 5.

   And he dares to call it a book about Delphi 6 !

   I returned my copy and used the refund to get Mastering Delphi 6.




5. Learning delphi is not very easy. If you are a beginner, buy this book along with "Programming & problem solving with delphi" and "Delphi in a nutshell" (a MUST language reference). Later you should buy "Mastering delphi X" and "Delphi X developers guide" (where X is the latest delphi version number).