Rating: 
Summary: Hard copy of online help
Review: The "PFC Programmer's Reference Manual" is basically a hard copy of the online help that comes with PFC. If that's what you're looking for this book is good, otherwise, you can get the same information from online help.This book also has some publishing errors - on page 83 it references Appendix M - the book has no appendix M!
Rating:
Summary: Hard copy of online help
Review: The "PFC Programmer's Reference Manual" is basically a hard copy of the online help that comes with PFC. If that's what you're looking for this book is good, otherwise, you can get the same information from online help. This book also has some publishing errors - on page 83 it references Appendix M - the book has no appendix M!
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new in this book.
Review: The book is a big dissapointment. It's a just a list of functions and a little description of them. Nothing you can't get from the help. It's odd that reviews are either 1 star or 5 stars. Makes me think if the 5 star reviews are coming from the author's friends or himself. 5 star reviews are lengthy.. very suspecious.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent complimentary documentation
Review: This book gives you what the PFC documentation does not. A detailed explanation of various internal workings that once followed, leads you to discover the things that make a library like the PFC work. Missing more overview and architectural discussion, but that is covered by the PFC Professional Reference. Together the 2 books provide what PFC developers need. A complete look at the PFC library. A must-buy for serious PFC developers. Despite being an author of a competitive book, although I call it more complimentary than competitive, I would receommend this book to anyone. Good job Rik.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I needed
Review: This book is exactly what I wanted it to be. It is a reference manual. I don't need a how to book and the title of this book led me to believe that it is exactly what it says that it is, a reference. Already I have put the 'How To' book in the bookshelf and relegted the CD to a rack in my closet but this book seems to have found a permanent spot on my desk within arm's reach.
Rating:
Summary: Not the whole story
Review: This book is not enough for me. I found that the Professional Reference by Team Powersoft gave me the skills that I need, but left out the exhaustive reference that this book provides. I use them both and think that both of them do a wonderful job at what they do. Maybe I'm just easy to please :-)
Rating:
Summary: This book contains nothing but the CD and Help files from PB
Review: This book serves the same purpose as the CD and the help files that come with Powerbuilder 5.0. I really feel cheated!
Rating: 
Summary: PFC Programmer's Reference
Review: This is a book that I had not intended on writing. After I broke the learning curve on the PFC libraries I found myself confronted with another problem. There are hundreds of functions scattered about in the libraries. I couldn't remember where they all were. The documentation that came on the CD didn't help a lot, it was slow and the interface difficult to deal with and still I couldn't easily find what I needed. Obviously I needed something printed out and referenced the way I like things referenced. So I wrote a large document that was simply a reference to the functions. It was cross referenced and indexed to let me find what I needed quickly. This worked very well. As time went on I began annotating my document. I put in the 'gotchas' and the tips as notes to myself. Before long my document had grown from 30 pages to 150. When I added some articles from my web site to them the document was up to 200 pages and almost a book. I approached Manning Publications about publishing this book and they were excited. So after a few months of tidying it up and expanding it further I had a book. I didn't like the idea of just a reference manual though. That was fine for me, but I'm an advanced programmer. I also wanted something for those just learning. So I added more to the definitions of the functions and I approached several industry leaders about writing 'how-to' appendices. These are people that I trust and know to do go work. Finally the book is ready. It is basically in three parts. There is introductory material in the very front. Then there is the reference material. Finally there are a lot of appendices in the back that explain in a mentor-like way the functionality of what I consider to be the more complex or difficult aspects of the PFC. My goal was not to write something that you would enjoy or like at all. I wanted to write something that would help you get your job done. I hope that you find that I have succeeded.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book but needs more examples.
Review: This is a good, general book on the PFC for developers not familiar with it. What would greatly benefit the reader would be a lot more real-world examples.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to read.
Review: This is the worst book I have ever read. I put my nose through the thick book and learn nothing. Later I read a thin book from Powersoft PFC training. I learn a lot from each page of it. The author of this book does not know how to write book.
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