cay

Short:

I'm looking for a book that can explain to somebody who has never done
any programming beyond DOS batch:

What the terminology used in Delphi 6 help files means - and what the
associated concepts are. I'm talking Programming terminology in
general, and Delphi one specifically.

It should also explain Delphi programs' structure, that is, the whole
Forms/Units business and what the major sections in the code of a Unit
actually are for.

I'm not nessecarily looking for a guided course or exercises. I'm
looking for something that can explain concepts to one who asks (a
newbie's glossary), or a course that guides through examples but
explains every single line of code (even the "Uses" section).

It's hard enough for a green to figure out ways to implement what they
want to do, without requiring them to figure out the ideas of
functions, data types, procedures, parameters, etc at the same time.

Long:

My 15 year old brother started programming classes in high school
recently. He's pretty desperate. The main problem, in my opinion, is
that no basics or concepts are explained. There is no theory at all in
any form. Lessons look like this:

People are given an assignment that details exactly how the UI should
look and what the program should do. The first 2 lessons they're also
told what to type. (Without, however, explaining any commands.) From
lesson 3 on, it's only the assignment, after which the teacher
corrects math homework on her computer for the rest of the lesson - if
she isn't on some congress holding lectures about modern teaching
methods.

If you speak german, you can look at the assignments, which constitute

I see that learning by doing is an important part of learning to code,
but I also see that it's not enough.

The consequences are:

1.) Writing basically consists of taking an existing line of code and
tweaking it until it does what it's supposed to do.

2.) People feel compelled to use IntToStr or StrToInt functions every
time they set properties of objects in delphi, even if data types
match. They don't know what a data type IS.

3.) People don't know what a function is, either.

4.) It is understood that all programs have a big block of byzantine
code at the top, (Uses? Interface? Public? Private? Var? SR*.dfm?),
that is better not messed with.

5.) Most haven't yet realized that they can change default names.

6.) The Programming class does not put the students into a position
where they are able to read delphi help files.

Hope you can help.

Thanks in advance!

-C

alfred ten hoeve

Don't know if this is what you're after, but I give it a try.

Get yourself Turbo Pascal 6 (for DOS). Try to get a copy of the book
Turbo Pascal 6 programming for the PC by Douglas Hergert (SAMS, 1991)
ISBN 0-672-22811-4.

That book teaches you Pascal-programming. It explains the various parts of a
program and the language.

After you managed that book, try to find a copy of the book
The way of Delphi by Gary Entsminger (Prentice Hall, 1996) ISBN
0-13-45571-7.
That book teaches you Delpi (1 and 2). Most of it will work in later
versions.

Of course, the modern Delphi-versions have much more power than Tubo Pascal
or Delphi 1, but I learned a lot from these books, especialy the
fundamentals.

Good luck, and welcome to the Delphi community,

Alfred.

carterrk

Download "Esssential Pascal" and "Essential Delphi" from Marco Cantu's
website, and see if that helps. http://www.marcocantu.com/

Rick Carter
Chair, Paradox/Delphi SIG, Cincinnati PC Users Group

alanglloyd

In article <fm5qrvoj9rl8iq3h5kc10stdtmgmhufq42@4ax.com>, Cay <wit@nil.nil>
writes:

The whole ethos of teaching appears to be "ignore concepts, just do examples".
IMO it is very poor teaching to expect a student to deduce concepts from
examples. A concept (however simplistic) is the framework in which later
detailed facts are mentally stored. Most textbooks also go down this route. I
believe the basic reason for finding this in schools is that the teachers
themselves have not been taught concepts, or they know their subjects only
experimentally and not conceptually.

Looking at the web-site you quoted, it certainly looks superficial, with loop
constructs being poorly explained, every example assumes a multi-statement
content, the concept of an "ordinal" or of a logical expression is missing.
There is no mention of program design, just an example. Other classes on the
website seem to ignore declaration blocks.

The books and sources quoted in other posts are a good source, OTOH I can help
on individual questions if the OP contacts me by email.

Alan Lloyd
alanglloyd@aol.com

andrew

"Delphi 3 for dummies" is an excellent book, and for basic programming
still valid. Be carefull though that that is the title, there is
another "for dummies" delphi book about and it is not very good.

leon zandman

And after that buy one of his books from the "Mastering Delphi" series.
They're the best books on Delphi currently available.

Greetz,

Leon Zandman

henry bartlett

or, if you really want to go back to the roots, download a free copy
of Turbo-Pascal 5.5 from the Borland Community Museum
<http://community.borland.com/museum/>.

and have a look at Learn Pascal
<http://www.mit.edu/~taoyue/tutorials/pascal/compilers.html>

but, personally, I would stick with Delphi and try one or more of the
excellent on-line tutorials and books listed on my Delphi Programming
Links page http://www.hotkey.net.au/~hambar/habit/delflink.htm>


Hear! Hear!

--
Henry Bartlett
HABit utilities ( http://www.hotkey.net.au/~hambar/habit/ )
email: hambar@Spamlock.microtech.com.au.
Please remove the "Spamlock." from my address when replying.

nicholas sherlock

If I were paying for this course, I'd be looking for a refund.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock
-- program HeresHowToEmailMe;
var{$apptype console}s:string='EVJ?<ICF:B7@?L>%:F%EQ';
n:byte;begin for n:=1to 21do s[n]:=chr(ord(s[n])+9);
writeln(s);readln;end.

sheldon simms

Have you looked at this link yet?

http://www.polgargym.at/index2.htm

There are some links there to various webseites (in German) that
offer more information than Ms. Hans is giving, at least. This site:

http://www.gymmelk.ac.at/%7Enus/Delphi/

looks pretty good actually, although I have just glanced at the
first few pages.