The Tomes of Delphi 3: Win32 Graphical Api

The Tomes of Delphi 3: Win32 Graphical Api
David Bowden,Larry Diehl,Phil Dorcas,Kenneth Harrison,Rod Mathes,Ovais Reza,Mike Tobin,John Ayres | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | Wordware | 879 | Software Engineering
A comprehensive reference to all of the Win 32 API function calls used to display graphics and user interface elements, this book highlights such topics as drawing primitives, color palette management, regions, and paths. The highly innovative InstallShield and DemoShield software are included on the CD-ROM. .
Reviews
Is this a tome? I was expecting deep subject coverage. What we have instead is a reproduction of the API docs. Does that a tome make? I think not. What's missing? Complex examples. Real-world examples (who creates windows with API calls when we have TForm?). Undocumented insights behind the APIs -- things you can't find in MSDN or the Platform SDK. More than anything, this book highlights the bloody lack of good Delphi books. This one is definitely a pass.
Reviews
Couldn't help but notice the obvious similarities between this book and the examples in MSDN and the Platform SDK. If you have either of these, I don't know why you'd need this book. I bought it thinking I'd get expert advice and insights. All it really is is a rehash of what's publicly available from MS anyway.
Reviews
I don't know many Delphi developers who can't at least read VB code. Obviously, the authors of this book can, because the examples are eerily similar to the VB Win32 examples in MSDN. So much so that I rather doubt a competent Delphi developer who has MSDN would really get much value from this book. If you can read VB, you don't need this book. I was expecting unique insights into the way that Delphi implements the API, particularly the graphics API, but instead got a lame VB-to-Pascal translation. Can't recommend this book.
Reviews
Like a fool, I bought this book in spite of the many negative reviews on this page. I was sorely disappointed. As the other reviewers have said, if you can read Visual Basic and you have MSDN, you don't need this book. The examples are beyond useless. The writing is disjoined and poor. Basically, this thing is nothing but a very expensive paper weight.
Reviews
I didn't think I really got my money's worth on this one. For the price paid I expected a lot more than a hackneyed translation of the graphics API. For one thing, all the examples use 8 bit graphics -- something that was passe when the book first came out and something that's certainly passe now. For another, there isn't much depth here. Many of the examples are overly simple. Last, there's too much repetition. Do we really need every graphics-related record structure repeated multiple times? I would return this one, but I've waited too long. Don't be like me -- don't waste your money on this one.

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