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Inside Delphi 2006
by Ivan Hladni

Publisher: Wordware Buy it Now! 

ISBN: 1598220039
Format: Paperback, 800pp
CD: YES

Whoah, the first book (and the only one with "2006" in its title) on Delphi 2006 currently on the market. Let's see if it meets the expectations a Delphi developer could have for such a title.

If you were "following" Borland in the last couple of years, you know that BDS (Borland Developer Studio) 2006 is an integrated development environment for building Delphi, Delphi for .NET, C#, and C++ applications. If you are primarily a Delphi developer, you know that this is the 10th incarnation of the Delphi language.

Don't be mislead by the title of this book. Inside Delphi 2006 might be better titled as "Inside Borland Developer Studio 2006" as it covers all four programming languages included in the BDS 2006: Delphi for Win32, C++ for Win32, Delphi for .NET and C# (for .NET).

Given that "Inside Delphi 2006" extends over some 800 pages (and that is too little to cover everything BDS 2006 is made for) I was pretty anxious to see what topics Hladni managed to cover and what topics needed to be left for (I hope) the second edition of this book.

Taking a quick a look at the TOC: the first 400 pages (1/2 of the entire book content!) seems to be targeted at beginner developers. The first chapter covers the IDE and the elements of the IDE. A new developer might be confused with the title of this chapter: "The Delphi IDE". Wherever Hladni uses "Delphi" a reader should read "BDS" - as the same IDE is used for Delphi, C# and C++ development. Somehow, this is to expect from a long time Delphi developer, Hladni obviously is. Many Borland (Delphi) developers are confused about the naming for the IDE. Is it Delphi is it BDS? It's BDS as Delphi is only one of the four programming languages supported by the Borland Developer Studio 2006.

Moving to the next chapter ... mainly beginner topics: the structure of a program, data types, variables, conditions, iterations, procedures and functions, etc. This is a very interesting part of the book for a novice developer.
Every section is accompanied by a sample code block. Both Delphi and C++ source code examples are provided. What? C++? Hm, I thought "Inside Delphi 2006" is about Delphi, not about C++. This is why I stated that this book should be better titled as "Inside BDS 2006".

For a novice developer trying to learn Delphi, C++ examples are just a waste of paper. For a C++ beginner developer (wanting to use Borland tools), Delphi code samples are a waste of paper. Skipping a few chapters ... C++ code samples next to (mostly) every Delphi code sample. Is this bad or good? I cannot be sure. I guess Hladni wanted to cover the basis for both Delphi and C++ developers as well. On the second thought, maybe this was not a bad idea ...

This is not a reference kind of book. One should read this book from cover to cover because each chapter builds on the previous one. Of course, if you already have some Delphi (or should I say C++) experience you can skip a few chapters and dive into those that interest you more.

I stated that the first half of the book is targeted at novice developers - yet, the section on Procedures and Functions describing the *new* "inline" Delphi directive is taking up some 2-3 pages unnecessarily going into describing machine language instruction generated by the compiler. Obviously, this is not something that a beginner developer could understand. For those wanting to know exactly what does "inlining" mean those 2-3 pages are valuable.

Moving to more advanced chapters ... Pointers, OOP, Handling Exceptions, DLL programming ...
Hladni obviously knows how to explain those complex (for a beginner) topics in easy words. Using components (20 pages), MDI development (10 pages), Component Development Essentials (40 pages). In short: to many topics to be covered in only handfull of pages Hladni managed to devote to a particular topic - yet, more than enough to explain the most important aspects of programming with the VCL and to attract a user to look for more info.

Working with databases. Should one expect to find much info on database development? No, the book does not cover database development in Delphi - only one chapter introducing TClientDataSet to build a simple desktop program. Again, a source code block follows a text section to better describe what the author is trying to tell the user.

Moving toward the end of the book. Chapters that follow are: "Advanced Component Programming", "Printing, Creating PDF documents", "Image Processing".

On the last 100 pages Hladni tries to cover .Net development with C#. Again, this is too little for a developer trying to learn C# - however more than enough for a Delphi developer wanting to learn how to read C# code.

No ASP.Net, no web development at all. I was at first disappointed with the fact that Inside Delphi 2006 provides no chapter on ASP.NET. On the other hand, by including only a few pages (the author must have been restricted by the number of pages), Hladni would only scratch the Web development surface. So if you are looking for ASP.NET developing in BDS 2006 - this book is not for you.

The companion CD contains the code and compiled executables for every example in the book, along with two tools (sources included) that help you explore the contents of the CD.

Verdict: this is not a Delphi book. This is a book about developing in Borland Developer Studio 2006 using Delphi (or C++) as the langauge of choice. Many new features and goodies of the BDS 2006 are not mentioned in details (Live Code Templates, Refactoring, ECO, etc).

Should you buy this book? If you are either a beginner or an intermediate developer this book will help you understand the Delphi language and will help you start using BDS 2006. Yes, go for it!