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WILL
25-05-2007, 06:44 PM
I could have sworn that there was at least 1 book published on the Free Pascal compiler. Or even Lazarus, but nope, not a single one could I find.

So here is what I propose... Someone write a book!

Seriously there are a number of topics that could be found useful out there. Here a few sample titles for thought:

Homebrew GameBoy Advanced Programming with Free Pascal
Homebrew Nintendo DS Programming with Free Pascal
The Definitive Guide to GP2X Development with Free Pascal
Lazarus in a Nutshell
Free Pascal for Dumbies
Object Pascal Game Programming for Beginners
Game Physics in Object Pascal
Learn Object Pascal in 24 Hours
XNA & Chrome: Your Way to the XBox360!

I'm sure that one of those would be picked up and bought somewhere. :)

Would anyone be seriously considering writing a book in the next year or so?

dmantione
25-05-2007, 06:49 PM
Two books have appeared until now:

http://www.computerbooks.hu/FreePascal/ (Study book in Hungarian, FPC 2.0)
http://www.cul.de/freepascal.html (German translation of manuals, FPC 1.0)

WILL
25-05-2007, 07:00 PM
Ah excellent! :)

Though I'd love an English language book to add to my collection. What are the odds that we could get these from Amazon.somthing?

EDIT: Darn, I just tried adding 'Free Pascal' (http://www.amazon.de/Free-Pascal-Michael-Van-Canneyt/dp/3932311671/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/303-2471844-8648215?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180119794&sr=8-1) to the Books DB and it doesn't work because it's for Amazon.de not Amazon.com. :? Looks like I'd have to make some major changes to the new script get it displaying. That or you guys can write one in English. :D

dmantione
25-05-2007, 07:55 PM
Both publishers allow you to order on-line, so my guess is you can get them:

Hungarian book:
http://www.computerbooks.hu/kiadvany/

German book:
http://www.cul.de/bestellfrm.html#freepascal

I own both of them; for the Hungarian one Karoly Balogh ordered a few copies, then sent them to the other members of the team. Since he lives in Hungary this made things easy. The publisher of the German book knows Michael van Canneyt very well, and they sent him & Florian a few copies for free.

Almindor
26-05-2007, 08:18 AM
I started writing a "booklette" of free pascal. A sort of advance usage and language features tutorial with example code, but didn't get that far. Perhaps I'll finish it one day when the time permits, but I doubt anyone would publish that (still I think it'd be useful especially since the advanced OOP stuff is missing in pascal tutorials)

WILL
27-05-2007, 01:15 AM
Well you could always publish it as a small companion book. Those are quite handy from time to time.

Have you talked to a publisher yet?

Almindor
03-07-2007, 01:45 PM
No. Even if I manage to finish it I'll just put it where it's most useful... online :)

I don't like real books much myself. Too much of a hassle and cost and no search function to boot.

WILL
03-07-2007, 02:36 PM
and no search function to boot.

*psst* TOC & Index... ;)


Seriously though, thats fair. Free = good, right? However my only beef with pdf books --and found bonus with book in print-- is that when I have a book open on my screen, I don't have my IDE there. Until I get rich and get myself a couple of nice big flatscreens to rig up as a dual screen setup.


Personally I'd love to see a published series for the PGD community. It would be a real boon. Maybe one day, I or someone else will organize a 'Gems' or 'Guru' book.

cairnswm
03-07-2007, 06:34 PM
It would be just as nice to see a PGD magazine - much like the DevMag.

Or just start throwing LOTS if stuff DevMags way. The PGD site is the first non South African site to have regular input into the devmag :)

savage
03-07-2007, 10:32 PM
It would be just as nice to see a PGD magazine - much like the DevMag.

Stay tuned....

Legolas
04-07-2007, 09:37 AM
It would be just as nice to see a PGD magazine - much like the DevMag.

Stay tuned....

YAY!!! :drool:

WILL
04-07-2007, 02:23 PM
Now, I'm intrigued... even I've not heard of any plans. :D

arthurprs
22-07-2007, 10:37 PM
Don't found nothing on the web

if someone found please PM ^^

sekelsenmat
05-08-2007, 06:56 PM
Recently, a brazilian publisher named Editora Erica (www.erica.com.br) published a brand new book about introdutory computer programming with
FreePascal.

http://www.editoraerica.com.br/buscafinal.asp?cod=1369

WILL
06-08-2007, 12:45 AM
Very cool! Nice find. :)

Here is a pic of the front cover...

http://www.editoraerica.com.br/sinopses/1369g.jpg

Too bad it's not in English. Or on Amazon.com/etc for that matter. Mind you, covering DOS is a bit of a weird move. I guess some still haven't gotten into 32/64-bit systems yet. :?

So... when is someone going to write/translate a book into English? :lol:

arthurprs
06-08-2007, 05:13 PM
Very cool! Nice find. :)

Here is a pic of the front cover...

http://www.editoraerica.com.br/sinopses/1369g.jpg

Too bad it's not in English. Or on Amazon.com/etc for that matter. Mind you, covering DOS is a bit of a weird move. I guess some still haven't gotten into 32/64-bit systems yet. :?

So... when is someone going to write/translate a book into English? :lol:

100R$ here ;/

I don't work, so vry heavy to my wallet

edexter
06-11-2007, 02:09 PM
It doesn't realy cost anything to self publish... I have a users manual (that I already have online) that I can polish up and self-publish just so free pascal is on amazon.com. IF ANYONE CAN DO THE PDF COVER I WILL POST IT.... I see the book ads as a dare..

Legolas
17-01-2008, 02:05 PM
....
So here is what I propose... Someone write a book!

Seriously there are a number of topics that could be found useful out there. Here a few sample titles for thought:
...
Homebrew Nintendo DS Programming with Free Pascal
...
Would anyone be seriously considering writing a book in the next year or so?

I'm resuming this old post, because I've started writing something on this subject :D
It's a spare time project, so I don't know when (and maybe if) I'll finish it... I think I'll release it on lulu.com as pdf for free and as real book for a small fee, in order to cover the printing costs. The book will be available in English and Italian; it will be a bonus cd with compiler, tools and sources too, that I'll put for download on my home page.
At this time I have written a draft for chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 in Italian. Here's a draft of the index:



I. First steps

1. Two word to start

1.1. Why programming the Nintendo DS?
1.2. Is homebrewing legal?



2. Hardware

2.1. NDS tech info and features
2.2. Backup devices
2.3. Other devices



3. Development tools

3.1. Compilers
[list]
devkitARM
Free Pascal

3.2. Libraries

libnds
libndsfpc
palib

3.3. Emulators

Debuggers

3.4. Other tools

Tools for graphics
Tools for sound




4. Introducing fpc4nds

4.1. Get it
4.2. Installing
4.3. Other needed stuff
4.4. Configuration
4.5. Recompiling from sources



5. Let's start!

5.1. Differences between arm7 and arm9
5.2. Hardware initialization
5.3. Usign both screens
5.4. Using the touch screen and keys
5.5. Loading and saving data
5.6. First example (hello ds!)



II. Graphics

6. Backgrounds

6.1. What's a background?
6.2. Graphic modes
6.3. Tiles Background
6.4. Extended Background
6.5. Setting memory banks for background
6.6. Example: static background
6.7. Example: dynamic background
6.8. Example: tiled background



7. Sprites

7.1. What's a sprite?
7.2. Sprites handling on NDS: OAM
7.3. Initialization
7.4. Updating sprites
7.5. Attributes
7.6. Activating and deactivating a sprite
7.7. Moving a sprite
7.8. Rotating a sprite
7.9. Setting the priority
7.10. Setting memory banks for sprites
7.11. Example: Showing some sprites on the screen
7.12. Example: Moving a sprite with the stylus



III. Other stuff

8. Sound

8.1. Sound handling on DS
8.2. ARM7/ARM9 interworking
8.3. Example: playng a sound
8.4. Example: using modules



9. WiFi

9.1. WiFi on DS: what can do and what can't do
9.2. Esempio: exchanging data on the web



10.Touching things up

10.1. Example: interacting with the microphone
10.2. Example: interacting with closing lid
10.3. Example: grab the screen



IV. Appendix

11.Tips’n’tricks

11.1. Fixed-point maths



12.References

12.1. ]




The writing tool I'm using is LyX (http://www.lyx.org), with Koma-script and a hand made template. About the title: something like

[list=a]
Homebrew Nintendo DS Programming with Free Pascal
Nintendo DS for Pascal people
Nintendo DS for Pascal addicted
Nintendo DS homebrewing with Free Pascal
[/list:o]

Well, I'm open to suggestions :mrgreen:

The book is open to external contributions too: if someone wants to write about a subject on the index, or even about a new argument, please PM me :D

arthurprs
17-01-2008, 06:01 PM
nice idea legolas!

good luck on it

LP
20-01-2008, 01:39 AM
Well, I'm open to suggestions :mrgreen:

I'd suggest adding a section on how and where to acquire the license to develop for Nintendo DS. Something about whom to contact, what are the requirements, pitfalls, limitations, the prices and how/where to pick the distribution channels. Also, perhaps a section with an overview of publishers for Nintendo DS.

Unless, of course, your book is targetted at hobby/freeware developers only.

Legolas
20-01-2008, 01:37 PM
The question is easy: Nintendo gives DS licenses to sh with some published projects and a solid financial background only. The easier way to get published is to submit your work to an already licensed sh.
However you can sell your homebrew project, as long as you add a disclaimer that you're not related to Nintendo at all. By the way, I'll add something about this subject :)

LP
20-01-2008, 11:14 PM
However you can sell your homebrew project, as long as you add a disclaimer that you're not related to Nintendo at all. By the way, I'll add something about this subject :)
This is probably the most interesting part. It might be needed to check with some lawyer, but it would be great to sell homebrew stuff being unrelated to Nintendo itself.

Almindor
24-01-2008, 08:19 PM
How about gp2x? I'm about to buy one, afaik it has some emulation properties? What's the FPCs status on it? (the fpc4gp2x is a bit outdated)

dmantione
25-01-2008, 09:44 PM
The gp2x runs binaries generated by a vanilla FPC 2.2.0 for ARM-linux. You need to write a small shell script, for example my_gp2x_program.gpe:

#!/bin/sh
./my_pascal_program
exec /usr/gp2xmenu/gp2xmeny

Just copy the exe and script to your gp2x and it runs.