Customer Reviews

Borland C++ Builder 6 Developer's Guide

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book has a much better layout then the previous book: C++ Builder 5 developers guide. Smaller print and better scaling means that all the book is on print.
It covers all the basic of using C++ Builder, + writing custom components. All of it well written. Most of the book is talking about SOAP/.NET/BizTalk/Datasnap and so on, all stuff that is only relevant for people that has the enterprise version of Builder. That does take one star from the rating, it is simply not relevant for me, since I only do engineering calculations + nice 3D plots.
People looking for a book on Builder should get this one (the documentations that comes with Builder is full of misprints) so the book fills a huge gap, even if they have the previous version. The layout + the low prize + the previous book is included, makes it a bargin!

when i try to build the example off the DLL (dynamic load) and i use the code from the book the use of the #define statements (casts) gives a name failure (the define use the same names of the used vars in the rest of the code) and the writer said: somthing like this. its better to say use __varname and explain why. . . as a beginner it cost a lot of time to find out. In my case the CDROM was damaged and it was not possible to use the example code! by the way its better to source-code the book secure. . .

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.

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.

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