From: lahtonen@utu.fi   
      
   >>my admittedly limited experience is that the language guides and manuals   
   >>are not very helpful,   
   >   
   >   
   > Sigh, carried kilo's of books to the post office for nothing :-)   
   >   
   >   
   Sorry, Marco :-) For the benefit of other readers I will disclose that   
   I bought Marco's spare set of manuals a few years back, and he had to   
   carry them to the post office thru sleet, snow and rain for the measly   
   compensation of a few dozen euros. Feel free to flame me for not   
   practising what I preach.   
      
   Let me rephrase. They are not very helpful for learning how to program.   
   They are not very helpful for learning a language. They are, indeed,   
   helpful for learning the workings and features of a particular compiler.   
   Also they are helpful for learning treatment specific to this   
   implementation/platform. For example, the compiler directives where more   
   or less unknown to me (IIRC) before I studied these. Other add-ons   
   (inline assembly, conditional defines) to "standard Pascal" are   
   explained. I would like to benefit more from the OO guides. My burn-out   
   took me away from this hobby for a couple of years, but I'm making a   
   comeback. So far they have been mostly used as reference books.   
      
   Cheers,   
      
   Jyrki   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)