Rating: 
Summary: Beginner Luck.... NONE
Review: I am usually quite nice when it comes to reviewing anything but i am a student studying IPT (Information Processing Technology) and doing Delphi. For me this book has done nothing but confused me. I am a beginner and am looking for a book to get me started and teach me code in the simplest form... if anyone knows any then EMAIL ME please. I believe that as soon as i have that experience under my belt that this book by MARCO CANTU will be very greatly appreciated. It is definately NOT a book for BEGINNERS! INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED users I reccommend this book but BEGINNERS NO!I think i'll get a copy of Delphi 3 for Dummies because hopefully that will teach me what i need to know. Beginners once again this HUGE 1100 page book i believe is not aimed at you so don't spend the AUD$85 to buy it if u're in my case. THANX BYE
Rating: 
Summary: Without high hopes!!
Review: I give 5 stars because the book starts and end great, of course ther is a lot of things missing, and sometimes I tell my self sheize, but, for starters this book is great, i also have developer's guide wich is more complete but also leave us in the middle of something, i'm still looking for more specific books, i mean one book cannot cover all delphi potential, and you have to keep looking in market, i'm sure Marco will bring another piece of great work, and if he doesn't someone will, i'll keep looking until I become a MASTER OF DELPHI...
Rating:
Summary: Delphi Delight
Review: I knew absolutly nothing about Delphi or any other programming language. As a complete beginner it can be very frustrating trying to find a book that explaines the basics well and continues into in-depth delphi programming. I have a number of other books, all of them assume that you know the basics of delphi programming and are not clear enough. This book was a bit hard for me to start with, however I was able to download an introduction to pascal and delphi from the authors website ... which made the learning process allot easier, and after allot of sweat I made the change to this book.
I have not finished going threw the entire book yet as it really goes into advanced topics that take more time, However I am coping well enough with the more complex delphi topics and have made real progress. I would highly recomend this book to anyone interested in learning delphi from A-Z.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Delphi Book for Real Programmers
Review: I've bought a lot of Delphi books over the last few years, and this is one of the best! Excellent coverage of Database (including ADO, SQL, and N-Tier), Client/Server, and Internet programming. If you own Delphi 5 Pro or Enterprise...get this! It doesn't waste your time with a bunch of silly sections on creating little overlapping circles on your screen, nor does it deal much with Multimedia (my only complaint). If you are writing a real world database or Internet application, this book is well worth the money! (With it I finally understand the Delphi "messaging system.") This is a large book, with over 1000 pages, so it's no light read, but Canti's writing style is enjoyable. It's not really a book for absolute beginners, although it has an excellent language section for those who may need to bone up on Pascal. With this book, and a good Multimedia book you'll be well equipped to write the next great killer app!
Rating:
Summary: I wish I had read other reviews before buying this book :(
Review: It is VERY badly structured, not at all comprehensive (despite the number of pages), and definitely not for the beginner who actually wants to do something rather than just marvel at the brilliance of Delphi 5. For example, all I wanted to do (initially at least) was read some data (from an ascii text file) into an array and after processing it chuck the results out into another text file. Not until page 8 hundred and something was file I/O mentioned and then it was promptly ignored. Reading this book made me think that I had to build a database in order to do this!
Rating:
Summary: Maybe A Good Book But Definetely Not 4 Beginners
Review: Maybe in a few months from now (June 2001) i will find this book an excellent one for Delphi. But right now i need a book that explains why his code is doing several things. From my point of view you don't have to already Know Object Pascal and old version of Delphi to read a book that is selfrated as All Levels. So if you are looking for something to start with THIS IS DEFINETELY NOT THE BOOK YOU NEED. Do i have any recommendations for alternatives? Well i don't but i am working on it...
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners...
Review: OK - a very simple review. We have this book at the office both in the 4 and 5 versions. We also have the Teixeira book ("Developers guide"). Cantu actuallly does a good job for beginners and the text quality is ok. There could easily be some more depth and better (intelligent) examples. We actually have a joke that you *never* find anything in this book. For language reference/tutorial: this is *not* it. For the components: This is definitely *not* it. I really don't know what this is for, except as an introductory overview... in... 1250 pages ! Pretty strange really. So I dunno - nice book but still not very helpful. Does *not* go beyond Delphi's own documentation. Doesn't even cover that much. Your still gonna be looking through source and wondering what's going on here and there. Sidenote: Still haven't found any good book on Delphi components. For language, real-world programming - Teixeira is much better. We ordered the O'reilly book, hope it's good.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Unstructured
Review: The content is spewed all over the place. The book is not well structured. Cantu knows Delphi extremely well but writing a book is a different ball game than development. Had the book had an excellent editor it would certainly come out better than what it is today. I doubt if the next version covering Delphi 6 is going to be any better. If you are new to delphi or coming from VB than try tom swans book "delpihi bible". It is more coherent and structured. For an advanced Delphi book, I have yet to find one that really shines. Most of them are so, so. Overall - yes you will benefit a little if you hang on it long enough and that is where the problem.
Rating:
Summary: Great for Beginners!
Review: This book has helped me understand Delphi 5 with minimal problems. ALL of the examples worked, and that alone says something for this Author! Although I am not a starting fresh programmer, I found this book to be very helpful with understanding Delphi structures/components. I am transitioning from VB to Delphi, and this book really has shown me the ropes of Delphi! Much of the content overlaps what I already knew in VB, but showed me how it was done using Delphi. I have read dozens of books written for C/C++, Java, VB, HTML, ASP, and this one really gets into the "meat" of what is going on (unlike most). Don't worry about non-intelligent examples -- THE POINT IS: to show how the component or methodology works, and if you are talented enough to understand this, you will easily turn those examples into real situations/solutions. I have found that by using the simple approach, a beginner will understand how something works one step at a time; instead of getting a real-world situation all at once to only be confused by its complexity. Have an open mind while reading ANY book, and you will understand it much better :-) Anyway, this is a great book -- No doubting that. Marco Cantu really knows Delphi, and explains it very well. Great Job!
Rating:
Summary: Great for Beginners!
Review: This book has helped me understand Delphi 5 with minimal problems. ALL of the examples worked, and that alone says something for this Author! Although I am not a starting fresh programmer, I found this book to be very helpful with understanding Delphi structures/components. I am transitioning from VB to Delphi, and this book really has shown me the ropes of Delphi! Much of the content overlaps what I already knew in VB, but showed me how it was done using Delphi. I have read dozens of books written for C/C++, Java, VB, HTML, ASP, and this one really gets into the "meat" of what is going on (unlike most). Don't worry about non-intelligent examples -- THE POINT IS: to show how the component or methodology works, and if you are talented enough to understand this, you will easily turn those examples into real situations/solutions. I have found that by using the simple approach, a beginner will understand how something works one step at a time; instead of getting a real-world situation all at once to only be confused by its complexity. Have an open mind while reading ANY book, and you will understand it much better :-) Anyway, this is a great book -- No doubting that. Marco Cantu really knows Delphi, and explains it very well. Great Job!
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