[fpc-pascal] Maybe a new fpc book :)

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2008, Anthony W. Henry wrote:

> I recently responded to a question on the community board
> asking about an fpc book by recommending a Turbo Pascal
> book by Jeff Duntemann.  His book started me out as a Pascal
> programmer in 1989 and I still find these old books useful from
> time to time.  
> 
>    I have two by him:
>         Turbo Pascal from Square One 
>         The Complete Borland Pascal
> 
>   Mr. Duntemann has also written other programming books and
> was employed by Borland for a while as a technical writer.  I have
> found his books to be the best available for learning Pascal.  
> 
>   When I responded to the board question it started a train of 
> thought that resulted me in contacting Mr. Duntemann about writing
> a book on FPC.   To my (pleased) surprise I found him provisionally
> enthusiastic for the project.(He hasn't made his mind up yet). 
> 
> He has the following questions for the community. 
>                 POSTED WITH HIS PERMISSION.
>                 
>                 1. What OS is most-used for Free Pascal? Windows? Linux?

If I remember the download statistics correctly:
Windows comes first and then Linux.

>                 
>                 2. What libraries do most people use for console (i.e.,
>                 "terminal" or text-mode) apps? I dislike ncurses; is
>                 there a better way?

You can use crt or the video unit provided by FPC.
You have Free Vision, the Free Pascal port of the old turbo vision.

>                 
>                 3. Does anybody really use Free Pascal to write Win32
>                 apps?

Sure. Some people use it to create their flagship applications.

                 
>                 4. Do people make heavy use of Free Pascal objects?

I think this depends on the definition of objects: 
The Old TP-Style: probably not any more, or very limited at any rate.
The new Delphi style: Yes, it is heavily used.

As for information: he can always join this list or the lazarus list.

Michael.