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Summary: The Delphi Book to take on a Dessert Island
Review: If I were going to be shipwrecked on a dessert island and could keep only one Delphi book, this is the one that I would choose. "Delphi in a Nutshell" contains easy to find information on all of the most important features of Object Paschal. The explanations are concise and to the point. Examples are helpful. This book has done more to increase my productivity than any other Delphi Book. It is perhaps not the best recommendation for those new to Delphi and the IDE, but all Delphi programmers will benefit from it. Kudos to Lischner.
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Summary: Finally, a book that answers questions!
Review: One of the drawbacks to the two most recommended books for Delphi, Mastering Delphi and Delphi Developer's Handbook, is that they encompass so much that it can be hard to know where to start.Delphi in a Nutshell is highly focused. You read a section, read it again because you *want* to make sure you are understanding what this guy has to say and then move on to the next topic. I always like the O'Reilly press books because of their high value for the price and this book is yet another fine example of O'Reilly's commitment to excellence. Of course, that darn binding came free the first day and I wasn't happy about that, but I'd buy this at twice the price if they'd do it with a spiral binding as one of the other reviewers suggested. Buy it, you won't regret it.
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Summary: Finally, a book that answers questions!
Review: One of the drawbacks to the two most recommended books for Delphi, Mastering Delphi and Delphi Developer's Handbook, is that they encompass so much that it can be hard to know where to start. Delphi in a Nutshell is highly focused. You read a section, read it again because you *want* to make sure you are understanding what this guy has to say and then move on to the next topic. I always like the O'Reilly press books because of their high value for the price and this book is yet another fine example of O'Reilly's commitment to excellence. Of course, that darn binding came free the first day and I wasn't happy about that, but I'd buy this at twice the price if they'd do it with a spiral binding as one of the other reviewers suggested. Buy it, you won't regret it.
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Summary: Concerned About Organization
Review: Other reviewers have adequately covered the positive aspects of this book -- with which I largely concur -- but I encountered some annoyances with its organization. Lischner has separate sections for the language reference and the many useful functions in the SysUtils unit. To a programmer, this distinction means very little, and I'd much rather see the two combined into a single reference. He compounds this problem by organizing the two chapters in very different ways. The first is alphabetical -- the second divides functions into logical groups. These groups aren't listed in the Contents, and functions in the SysUtils chapter don't even make it into the index! Cross-references are also inconsistent. For example, the SetCurrentDir function in SysUtils rightfully mentions that it is an alternative to ChDir in the language section; but ChDir doesn't make the complementary reference. Bottom line: this book does little to help those programmers who find themselves writing their own functions, only to discover later that they are provided in SysUtils.
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Summary: Keep this on my bookshelf
Review: Ray has written an excellent desktop reference for Delphi. I really liked the explanation of the SysUtils unit. I found that there were functions in there that I had written myself, if I had only known I would have saved myself some time. The Language reference with the Tips and Tricks is excellent, helps make more sense of the sometimes archaic online help. My only complaint is that this is the ONLY Delphi book published by O'Reilly, I would love to see a Learning, Programming, or Mastering book!
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Summary: Most referenced book in my library
Review: This a must have book for any Delphi programmer.
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Summary: Decent as a language reference, but..
Review: This book is decent as a language reference, but when it comes to a conceptual reference, it falls a little short. The first 3rd is the conceptual part. The latter portion is the language reference - goes over objects and commands and such. I was hoping for a little more from a desktop reference. If I were to only buy one book, it would be from Marco Cantu.
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Summary: The Perfect Quick Reference
Review: This has been and continues to be my perfered source for quick reference. It always stays within arms reach. Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Quick Reference
Review: This has been and continues to be my perfered source for quick reference. It always stays within arms reach. Buy it!
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Summary: A New Trend?
Review: This is a book about Object Pascal the language, something that is long overdue. The Delphi IDE is way cool and I love using it, but the language is what makes the tool worthwhile. When I solve a work problem I do it in the language. The IDE is just a pleasant place to get the work done. This is a reference manual not a textbook. The author's style is simple and to the point. There are no silly embellishments that get in the way of the information. However, I did read the book from cover to cover and that introduced me to several new Delphi features that I haven't explored before. Now it sits on my desk and gets picked up when I have a problem. I hope this book is the start of a trend; Delphi books that are about just part of the product. There aren't many books on the Delphi section of the shelf (even at Amazon) and unfortunately way too many of those have a distressing sameness. Part one covers the neat stuff you can do by dropping components on a form (Delphi as Visual Basic) and part two drives off into database programming (Delphi as Cobol). That was fine the first couple of times I read it, but my user interfaces are very simple (usually just one form) and I don't do database programming. My work tends to be mathematical. There have been no books on mathematical simulations in Delphi, but I can tell you it works very well for that job (yes I admit it, Delphi as Fortran). There is a practical problem with this book. The cover fell off the second day I had it. That's a shame, because the picture of the Lynx is very nice.
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