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"Phred" <ppnerkDELETETHIS@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:3n3h4sF18snmeU1@individual.net...
> Thanks very much, Charles, for your thoughtful and useful response.
> I do have a followup query though:  How difficult would it be for an
> old BASIC programmer to become reasonably proficient in Delphi?

My guess is about three months. The Delphi Language is based on
Pascal rather than BASIC, but if you've used one of the structured
BASIC development systems it shouldn't be a problem. The biggest
hurdle is abandoning the BASIC way of doing things and accepting
the Pascal way.

> I believe it harks back to Pascal in many ways, so perhaps your
> earlier experience with that language would have helped in your case?

The first languages I worked with were MS- Disk Basic and C-Basic.
I never did get my head around C-Basic, because there weren't any
books available (that I could find). I got pretty good at MS-Basic, but
when Osborne owners were promised the UCSD P-System, I found
a copy of a UCSD Pascal manual and began reading up on it. I liked
what I read. Osborne never came through on the P-System promise
but shortly after I replaced that machine with a Sanyo 550, Borland
began shipping Turbo Pascal 1. I ordered a copy and spent the next
three months writing a computer adventure game.

For the next several years I did a lot of work in Turbo Pascal, but also
in MS-Basic, Quick Basic and eventually in VB-DOS. I think the Pascal
experience helped me with BASIC and the BASIC experience helped
with Pascal.

> However, judging from your response, you have also had a fair bit to
> do with various BASICs, so I would appreciate your advice on this.

I've used perhaps two dozen BASIC development systems over the
years. Most were MS Basic compatible but a few were not. In the end
I settled on Delphi because:
 - it allows for rapid development - something you won't get with
traditional systems.
 - it handles forms and components in a transparent manner (as
do VB and REALbasic. (Too many systems want to dump the form
and component code into the application.)
 - the language offers a great deal of flexibility and power.
 - it generates very fast code.

Even though Delphi is my first choice, I keep checking on what's
available in BASIC because I like BASIC.

If you would like to learn more about Delphi, you migh check out:

http://www.marcocantu.com/

Marco has written several books on Delphi and has two free e-books
on his site. These are "Essential Pascal" and "Essential Delphi".

The current edition of PCPlus Magazine (DVD Edition) has Delphi
2005 Personal on the cover DVD. The CD edition does not have it.
The personal edition comes with a non-commercial license but
is useful for learning or writning programs for your own use.

Delphi 3 Professional (the full package) is available with the book
"Delphi fur Kids" which can be had at Barnes and Noble dot com.
(Thats "fur" with an umlaut over the "u".) The book is in German
but the CD contains both the German and English language versions.

-- 
Charles Appel
http://charlesappel.home.mindspring.com/
Home of Chuck's Poker Libraries for Delphi,
Chuck's Video Poker and Chuck's Toys