The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Delphi in a Nutshell: For the Bookshelf Major Keary majkeary@netscape.com.au

0'Reilly has gone Delphi and Delphi's going Linux. O'Reilly publications represent a benchmark for computer books; content, quality control, and typographic design are of the highest level. The title list is, in comparison to other main-stream publishers, restricted, but once O'Reilly adds a topic to its list one can be assured of ongoing support.

A new addition to the Nutshell series, Delphi in a Nutshell signals O'Reilly's intention to publish Delphi titles. The other good news is that Delphi is being ported to Linux, thus making a powerful application development tool available to the Linux community.

Delphi in a Nutshell assumes some familiarity with Delphi. It is not a tutorial and is not recommended to raw beginners. The book is true to label: a desktop reference for quick solutions. Regardless of how expert a user may be, there are always occasions when human memory runs out; the Nutshell series is designed to meet the need for a reference that can be kept conveniently at hand, presents information in a succinct form, and is well-organised.

The page size of this 32 mm thick book is slightly larger than A5 and the binding is RepKover, which means there is no need to break the back for it to stay open where you want. A convenient thumb index makes for easy location of sections within the book.

The first four chapters (some 120 pages) contain introductory material that explains what Delphi Pascal is, how it works, the Delphi object model, and other topics. It is written for program-mers who need an introduction.

The main part of the book is a Language Reference section, which lists in alphabetical order "every keyword, directive, function, procedure, variable, class, method, and property that is part of Delphi Pascal". The following information is provided for each entry: syntax, a description, an example of usage, some tips and tricks, and any relevant cross references. Some of the entries are quite extensive.

Separate sections cover System Constants, Operators, Compiler Directives, Command Line Tools, and the SysUtils Unit.

Reprinted from the August 2000 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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