Ken Henderson, "Client/Server Developer's Guide With Delphi 3 (Sams Developer's Guides)"

Client/Server Developer's Guide with Delphi 3 takes an authoritative, real-world approach to learning database design and creating full-featured client/server applications. Focusing on the more advanced features and topics, this guide makes you a proficient Delphi developer. Written by an industry expert, it helps you fully understand this powerful development environment and use it advantageously. With tips, techniques, and practical examples, this resource delivers the information you need to improve your skills, expand your knowledge, and achieve optimum results. Learn the concepts to: master key tasks; exploit ActiveX technologies with Delphi 3; and use the Delphi 3 TDatabase object to manage online transactions. Build the applications that: create database components and experts; build complex reports with Quick Report components and Object Pascal; and develop applications that connect to Oracle, ODBC Compliant, ANSI SQL Standard, and MS SQL Server databases.



Summary: Well-done, Mr. Henderson, very well-done
Rating: 5

When this book arrived on my desk, I didn't know what to think. Would it be another 1000 page paperweight or something I could actually use? Fortunately, it was the latter. I can't say enough good things about this book. It's the best Delphi book I've ever come across, and I have most of them. There is an obsession with detail in this book that is refreshing in these days of 10-pound books that say little and inform even less. I can only imagine the amount of work that went into getting the tutorial right. A tutorial that spans several chapters? You don't see those anymore – not in these days of books written before products are even released and then rushed to print. I especially liked the *specific* coverage of connecting to and working with the various DBMS back-ends – good stuff and quite useful. The Internet chapter is a real gem, too. There is no glossing over details in this book. The author obviously worked his behind off to cram as much helpful text as he could into this book. And I really like his writing style. I agree that formal, stiff writing has no place in technical how-to books. It's refreshing to find a book where the author focuses his attention on helping the reader understand his message rather than on stroking his own ego. Highly recommended. (Ignore the D3 on the cover – this book applies just fine to D5).


Summary: Yikes!
Rating: 5

This is good. This is better than good. I consider myself a pretty good technical writer, but I've never been able to pull off this combination of nitpickingly complete technical detail, utterly clear tutorials, and friendly, readable prose.

If you're new to Delphi, you need to read this book. It covers important functional details that are not clearly described anywhere else.

If you're an experienced Delphi programmer, you need to read this book. It covers all the practical details you thought you already knew.

If you're a novice database programmer, you need to read this book. You can use it with the evaluation version of Delphi (download for free) to learn how client-server applications are supposed to work.

If you're an experienced database programmer, you need to read this book. It will show you what you're missing in your current development environment.

Never mind the "Delphi 3" in the title. There are details that are inconsistent with Delphi 5, but these problems are simply overwhelmed by the extreme clarity of the text.


Summary: A wonderfully comprehensive tome on Delphi C/S Development
Rating: 5

I finally found a copy of this book on an online auction after several frustrating calls to the book's publisher, Sams. Seems that Henderson's book isn't being reprinted due to a dispute between him and the publisher despite repeated requests from the Delphi community to at least keep the D3 version in circulation, if not update it.

This is a wonderful book. It's comprehensive and covers the things you need to know to build database, client/server, and n-tier apps in Delphi. The chapter on Internet development is priceless and is the only one like it that I've found in all the Delphi books I have. Similarly, the chapters on database and application design are unique among the Delphi books out there and a must-read for any serious Delphi coder.

Though this book is hard to come by, like all good technical books, it has stood the test of time. Though it originally targeted D3, it's just as applicable today as it was the day D3 was released. I highly recommend this book to any serious student of Delphi.


Summary: Client-Server Developers need this book
Rating: 5

I've read about 30 Delphi books over the past 3 years. Most of them move down my bookshelf to the floor, but this one has real staying power. It's the only one that has *specific* help for connecting to and using SQL databases, and has very good information on Borland's Database Explorer. Additional information on using a Data Dictionary, Data Modules, SQL, and an excellent overview of building a project using the repository and inheritance make this book a great tutorial on Delphi, even if you're not doing Client Server development right now.


Summary: Well written, but CD is sadly incomplete.
Rating: 2

I found the text to be excellent, however most (or all) of the Silverrun modeling products that were supposed to be on the CD are not. And they are no longer available from the publisher, Silverrun technologies, or the author. You can download later versions of the Silverrun software, but they are crippled demo versions that do not allow you to create some of the larger models built in the exercises. So all you can do on those excercises is read the book, and do the programming. Much of the modelling in the first half of the book is not possible using the silverrun tools explained in the book.

I would return the book, but it does have many excellent Delphi examples.