There goes the saying 'Too many cooks spoil the broth', but imagine many cooks each one serving you his favourite meal. That's what happened in this book - based on a mailing list decision several professional C++ Builder insiders wrote about their field of expertise relating to the Borland C++ Builder development environment. Therefore all the material presented is of high technical correctness.

If you are using the C++ Builder environment, then this book is the 'unleashed' source for you. You will find nearly every topic imaginable covered - from valuable C++ programming tips, communications and Internet protocols, XML and database programming, over distributed computing, image and sound processing, OpenGL and ActiveX programming up to techniques for software installation and updates. I was quite impressed by finding for instance the return value optimisation explained in the same book that covers COM+ programming. The density of the material makes this possible; each of the 34 authors gets straight to the point, which makes this book a highly valuable resource where you can open a chapter and immediately start working with its contents.

This first-hand knowledge comes in a book of nearly 1400 pages and on a CD with 2050 pages - only the latter containing the complete text. That's the only problem I had in reading this book; jumping to the chapter of your interest just to find a note that the complete text appears on the CD. That means reading at least ten chapters on-screen. The CD includes further a 60-day trial version of the C++ Builder 5, the sources and additional development utilities.

If you are developing with the C++ Builder then this book is a valuable resource and reference book giving you useful hints and tips on a wide range of different fields. Also, as soon as the Kylix (Borland's 'Delphi and C++ Builder for Linux') C++ version is released, you can use the majority of the material from this book as Kylix C++ is anticipated to be quite similar to the C++ Builder.