This book is the first (and as far as I know the only) book about Delphi 8 for .NET, written by Xavier Pacheco with guest authors Steve Teixeira, Nick Hodges, Alessandro Federici, Rick Ross, Steven Beebe, and Brian Long, and Hallvard Vassbotn as technical reviewer.
The book has 34 chapters, divided over 5 parts:
- Introduction to the .NET Framework
1. Introduction to .NET
2. Overview of the .NET Framework
- Delphi for .NET Programming Language
3. Introduction to Delphi for .NET and the New IDE
4. Programs, Units, and Namespaces
5. The Delphi Language
- The .NET Framework Class Library Development
6. Assemblies - Libraries and Packages]
7. GDI+ Progamming - Drawing in .NET
8. Mono - A Cross Platform .NET Project
9. Memory Management and Garbage Collection
10. Collections
11. Working with the String and StringBuilder Classes
12. File and Streaming Operations
13. Developing CUstom WinForms Controls
14. Threading in Delphi for .NET
15. Reflection API
16. Interoperability - COM Interop and the Platform Invocation Service
- Database Development with ADO.NET
17. Overview of ADO.NET
18. Using the Connection Object
19. Using Command and DataReader Objects
20. DataAdapters and DataSets
21. Working with WinForms - DataViews and Data Binding
22. Saving Data to the Data Source
23. Working with Transactions and Strongly-Typed Datasets
24. The Borland Data Provider
- Internet Development with ASP.NET
25. ASP.NET Fundamentals
26. Building ASP.NET Web Pages
27. Building Dtaabase Driven ASP.NET Applications
28. Building Web Services
29. .NET Remoting with Delphi
30. .NET Remoting in Action
31. Securing ASP.NET Applications
32. ASP.NET Deployment and Configuration
33. Caching and Managing State in ASP.NET Applications
34. Developing Custom ASP.NET Server Controls
Nick Hodges has written chapter 34 on ASP.NET controls for this book.
Although 34 chapters are a lot, and this is no book that you can read in less than a week, there are still a number of topics that I feel are missing from this book.
From small topics, such as sealed classes and final methods (in part II of the book), to the lack of coverage of the DB Web controls in the ASP.NET part, and Enterprise Core Objects (ECO).
There is also hardly any coverage of VCL for .NET or migration details from VCL to .NET.
Finally, there is little coverage of the Borland Data Provider (only one chapter in the ADO.NET part, and no coverage in combination with ASP.NET).
The fact that Borland-specific technologies (such as VCL for .NET, BDP, the DB Web controls, and ECO) are hardly covered comes from the fact that the main goals for the book are:
- Teach existing Delphi developers .NET.
- Teach new .NET developers .NET by using Delphi.
Which excludes any Borland specific enhancements, I reckon.
Something to keep in mind if you're looking for VCL for .NET or detailed BDP coverage (for example in combination with ASP.NET and the DB Web controls) - which you won't find here.
Of course, the topics that remain are more than enough to satisfy the needs of Delphi developers who want to learn about .NET (using Delphi).
And as such the book is highly recommended.
You can order the book with a discount from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
(Bob Swart)
