Delphi in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference

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.

I am a novice at object-oriented languages and I'm learning to use Delphi. I recommend this book because it delivers something not found in the the other books out there - a reference to the base language that is up-to-date! The bulk of the book is the language reference section. There are a few other chapters that are masterly-written in a style (reminiscent of Kernnigan & Richie of C-language fame). The author knows his subject deeply his writing is commensurate with this knowledge. I think the short chapters on the Delphi language and the Object model are worth the meagre price of the book alone. I only wish that Lischner would take the time to write a separate Delphi overview covering the VCL - we would all learn a lot!Don't be discouraged by warnings about the poor binding - I used a glue-stick to put it back together several months ago and it is doing just fine!

I am using this book a lot. I like the reference style info together with examples. It contains much of what I've always wanted to really understand (memory management, RTTI, interfaces). Great job.

"Delphi in a Nutshell" isn't just another ordinary Delphi book. Once again Ray has manage to take on topics that are unique and not covered in any detail if at all by other authors. The chapters on RTTI and the Delphi object model alone are well worth the price. This goes onto my short list of "must have" Delphi books for any serious program (Ray actually now has 3 of the 5). Good work Ray.

If you frequent the many Delphi newsgroups and programming lists available to all via the Web as I do, you'll note one question in particular that gets asked time and time again. "Can you please advise as to a good Delphi book?" It's a question that comes in many flavors, depending of course upon the proficiency of the writer, but unfortunately is rarely answered sufficiently. Not that there aren't quite a few high-quality books being published on the subject. There are! But like so many informational resources today, these books are usually written in devotion to one or two particular areas of Delphi interest or endeavor! Great for those who already command the language and need to explore in more detail their current needs. And of course there are a few beginner's books to be found, but these seem to mostly rehash simple descriptions of the VCL components, or take the reader on an example-filled journey through basic programming situations without considering the basic information necessary to satisfying the beginner's need to know why! "Delphi in a Nutshell" is the first and ONLY manual on the Delphi programming system that blends a complete overview of the subject with the kind of nuts and bolts information that every programmer, regardless of skill level, needs available every single day! Starting with a very precise look at what a Delphi project is, how it is managed, and the many files that make it up, Lischner continues ferociously into Types, Arrays, Methods, Exception handling, pointers, and just about every conditional need a programmer might come up against! A whole chapter is devoted to the Delphi Object Model, another on Runtime Type Information, and yet another on Threads called "Concurrent Programming"...three subjects sorely under documented over the years. And broaching topics I've not read more than a few paragraphs about elsewhere, the author considers Delphi's command-line tools in detail, explaining what they're for, when to use them, and providing a complete list and definition of every parameter! Finally, the SysUtils unit is broken down in it's entirety, providing not just a brief overview, but a complete listing and explanation of every procedure, function, and constant it provides us, broken down by use in such a way that makes Delphi's own help files on the subject seem amateurish by comparison! The discussion on it's Error-handling hierarchy alone is worth the price of this book. Never before reading this had I really grasped the elegant way Delphi provides for this practical need! Saving the best for last, the largest chapter in this book is called, "Language Reference". Stuck right in the middle, making it easy to get to with the thumb and forefinger, Lischner has documented for us EVERY keyword, directive, function, procedure, variable, class, method, and property that Delphi's version of Pascal provides for us! And these aren't the simple descriptions we're u