PFC Programmer's Reference Manual

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.

I've read this book. I've even reviewed Richard's new book. I can't believe those that are slamming the book. Sure, it doesn't give you everything that you need to learn the PFC's but it doesn't claim to. Richard Brooks has a world wide reputation for free help for PowerBuilder programmers stretching many years back. That anyone could slam him is beyond me. Thousands of us have learned PowerBuilder from his writings and this book is just more of his teachings.

Congratulations on a job well done Rik! I visit your PowerBuilder Dojo frequently and found this book to be up to the high standards of all of your articles. For those of you that have difficulty with using this book, might I suggest buying a "How To" book instead of a reference manual, this book does not hold your hand but will help you navigate the pitfalls and rough spots if you are a serious PFC Programmer.

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 :-)

I would highly recommend this book for anyone even considering developing with the PFC. I first picked up Powerbuilder with version 5.0 and was completely intimidated by the PFC due to the very sparse and difficult to follow information included in the online help and CD. If Rik's book would have been around then, I would have written my first application on top of the PFC. This is a very well thought out and exhaustive review of the PFC. It is not meant to be a novel. You will find a step by step, object by object, function by function overview of everything in the PFC. Yes, some of the chapters contain information directly from the CD. But this is just background information. Rik goes on to explain in patient detail all of the ins and outs of each function and object. One very nice feature is that he also notes quite a few gotchas that can trip up those unfamiliar with this class library. There is also code galore in here that really helps explain the material. The level of detail and insight provided here only comes from a few very rare resources with the extensive knowledge Rik brings to this topic and Powerbuilder in general. The rating system out here only goes to 5 stars. I have read a very small number of 5 star books. This one honestly rates slightly higher than that. Combined with the very thorough and complete explanation of the PFC is Rik's distinctive writing style. I have not met another author who even approaches Rik's ability to present complex, technical information in a very easy to understand manner. With everything I have ever read from Rik, I get the impression that he is sitting by my side and patiently walking me through the subject. In addition to recommending this book, I would not hesitate to highly recommend any book written by Rik.