My second book to be published on Lulu will be a new edition of Essential Pascal. From the introduction:

"This is a detailed book on the Pascal language found in Delphi, and in some of the available Delphi dialects. On purpose, the book coverage focuses on the traditional Pascal language constructs, not delving into its object-oriented extensions."


The most relevant update is that all examples are now console-based applications, to make it easier to compile on different platforms and to avoid introducing the VCL and OOP concepts in the book for the sake of writing the demos. I've also added some new footnotes, references to recent changes in the Delphi language, and updated the material somewhat. Of course, this is a book for newbies, not for expert Delphi developers. It is being used by universities around the world, and is covering a small (but I hope relevant) niche.

At the very beginning the book was only available in HTML. Later editions were available as PDFs, which was free downloads although I did ask for a volunteer-based license fee (or donation).

Now I'm publishing the book in multiple formats:

  • Free HTML version with advertising, with a one file per chapter format. This will remain available on my web site.
  • PDF version you can buy on Lulu.com (the tentative price is 2.99 Euros)
  • Printed version you can order on Lulu.com (the tentative price is 9.99 Euros)

Readers will be able to pick whatever edition they prefer. The content will be the same. In other words, this is a very different project from Delphi 2007 Handbook. The price is very low and the same material will be available in multiple formats. Will it work? Hard to tell, but I think it is worth experimenting with the model.

When will it be available? I hope to finish my review in a week or so, will have an editor work on it, will find a couple of tech reviewers (any volunteers?), need to wait for the cover, prepare the index, do a little bit of typesetting... so it will be something between 4 and 8 weeks. After that, I might start on some advanced material, but I'll let you know first.