Return to Delphi Programming Bookstore with more Book Reviews.
Kylix: The Professional Developer's Guide and Reference
by Jon Shemitz

Publisher: Apress Buy it Now!
 
ISBN: 1893115895
Format: Paperback, 900pp
CD: NO

The book serves as a comprehensive resource to all aspects of creating powerful Linux applications. Both novice Kylix developers as well as Delphi experts will find an accurate and coherent reference to Linux programming.

This book is divided into four sections (with more than 900 pages in fourteen chapters), plus a series of appendices. Unlike some other Kylix books, this book is not in any way a "port" of a Delphi book.

The starting 3 sections - about Object Pascal, the IDE and the CLX, and Linux - are linear and straightforward enough to be read as tutorials, yet detailed and organized enough to be used as a reference. The author quickly brings non-Delphi programmers up to speed regarding the foundational concepts of one of the platform's core languages - Object Pascal. Section 2, Kylix, is a top-down tour of Kylix - the RAD Development environment on Linux. In five chapters, you'll learn how to use the IDE with several tips on IDE configuration, how to design and debug your projects, and the components that can be used with Kylix. The last chapter in this section will even teach you how to make components on your own.
The third section, Linux, looks at Linux from a Windows programmer's perspective. Linux newbies will find that chapter on Unix, contains what they need to know about files and processes, memory mapping and Signals, as well as environment strings and user ids.
The last section contains a couple of extended examples, and two complete applications with detailed walkthroughs of their most interesting features, showing Kylix in action. The final chapter in this section introduces X and Qt.

The Appendices contain particularly useful reference material highlighting the differences between Kylix and Visual Basic and between Kylix and Delphi. Valuable information regarding optimization, deployment and BASM is also included. There is also a three page glossary describing some of the terms that you must understand to be able to read the book. The book has no CD-ROM, therefore you'll need to go online to pick any code it contains.

Unfortunately, the book does not provide sections on database programming nor about Web development. Delphi is well known as a RAD tool that speeds database and Internet development to the max. A book on Delphi for Linux - Kylix should contain at least an introductory chapter on the topic.