[.ca] C++Builder 5 Developer's Guide (ISBN 0672319721)

Makes a great doorstop:
The reason I gave this book 1 star is because there is nothing smaller. The CD contains the same stuff you can download from Borland's web site. In fact, the book is a compilation of help screens, tutorials, and published sample applications. Borland's help is obscure at best. Taking the SAME data and putting it in print doesn't make it clear, just heavy. My particular interest was in their implementation of OpenGL. The description says "discover the latest in multi-media techniques with OpenGL". One paragraph that mentions two examples on the CD rom (The same two examples that you get for free with the eval version). Don't waste your money.

If you have C++Builder, you want this too!:
This book isnt really awesome, then again, what technical text is? This is still the definitive works upon the subject of C++Builder, it learns you the neat details about the IDE, it reveals the depths of the API and shows some very interesting techniques on standard C++. It is simply a book written by some very experienced programmers, seasoned in Borlands solutions. So who would want this book? Well, C++ Primers does not want it unless they have an extreme learningrate, it mainly targets people who know how to write a basic DOS program in C++ and have done some windowsprogramming in Delphi, Pascal or Visual Basic and want to get get the hinch of Windows programming in C++. You should know how C++ works, and you should know how Windows operate (You will get a crashcourse on the latter though -- See the topics on API) and want to tie the two together. Another group that would greatly benefit from it is people accustomed to Microsoft Visual C++ and wants to migrate to Borlands RAD to get more done in shorter time. If you think you are among these, you really should get this book, it is cunning and it is interesting, it reveals tricks and howtos on advanced topics and is the best book Ive ever seen on programming in Windows. So why only give it 4 stars? To put it simple, the fact that half the book is on CD only annoys me, and the fact that they crippled it in a stupid format as PDF annoys me even more! I previously bought Visual Basic Unleashed, which had their book in HTML wich was way more convenient. Not as nice looking, but way more convenient. The fact remains though, this is a very good book, and it is the only book that dwells the depth of C++Builder 5.0 -- If you intend to spend some time working with this, you owe it to yourself to have a copy of this on your shelf.

DLL and COM chapters are great:
This book is fantastic. You do not need any other book for Builder 6. I was having problems with DLL and COM programming, but this book stepped me right through it. It is easy to understand and has very good examples. The CD includes a copy of the developer's guide for Builder 5 so it is great for people making the transition from 5 to 6.

Not for beginners:
Make sure you are not starting with C++ or C++ builder if you buy this book. Being a beginner, I found its reading very frustring since it often uses concepts (ex. data-aware components) or talks about classes without explaining them, without including a reference to another chapter that would explain it and without giving you an example that would help you find out what is meant. My focus was on how to connect to an ACCESS database with ADO objects. For example, chapter 11 explains that you should first connect to a database in a paragraphe of 10 lines, no examples, no reference to another chapter; it talks about different objects as if you would already know how they work and what their properties are. Moreover, you will find that most of the chapters on databases lack exemples in the book and on the CD.

Having several difficulties reading this book:
I am reading through this book and have experienced the following issues: 1. The CD does not contain the examples that the author refers to in the book. Chapter 2 refers to a debug example on the CD and Chapter 3 refers to a DragDrop project. Both these projects do not exist on the CD. I had to stop and write a review at this point where I am only in Chapter 3... 2. Many sections in the book are not organized and leave the reader totally confused. Chapter 3 explains about frames... I had to skip that section as I could not understand anything. A constructive example would be much better. I am somewhat disappointed with the publisher Daniel