Cowell is convinced that the impact of Delphi 2.0 on the development of Windows applications will only increase. He opens this book by defending the use of Delphi in this domain, and closes with a favorable comparison of Delphi to Microsoft’s Visual Basic. The remainder of the book (except for a chapter that reviews Pascal syntax and a brief chapter about Object Pascal) explains and illustrates the use of  Delphi  2.0. These 14 brief chapters present the primary features of Delphi step by step, with sample applications. They begin by introducing the Delphi environment, illustrating this environment with a simple example, and describing the organization of projects. Subsequent chapters describe the standard set of controls (including list boxes, buttons, and edit boxes), and techniques for displaying dialogue boxes, using forms, developing menus, and using database classes. These chapters include some simple, illustrative examples. Chapter 12 describes event-driven programming in the context of mouse and keyboard events.

This book is not a textbook, nor is it a Delphi reference manual. It is, however, a useful introduction to Delphi. Sufficient detail is given to enable an experienced programmer to become productive, but the book is not designed for programming novices.

The book’s long-range usefulness is enhanced by chapter 15, which covers standard Delphi components systematically. This chapter allows Delphi users to quickly locate the names and usage of these components. The pictures and screen images throughout the book, and especially in this reference chapter, enable the reader to visualize the use of this tool. The index seems adequate. It includes entries for the names of Delphi components (controls) and functions that are covered in the book. An experienced programmer who wants to learn Delphi 2.0 will find this book useful.