"Kylix: The Professional Developer's Guide and Reference is a comprehensive guide for developers wishing to make quick inroads into developing native applications for the Linux platform. Consisting of fourteen chapters divided into five sections, author Jon Shemitz's book covers a wide-ranging gamut of topics relevant to both novices and experts alike. Section One, "Object Pascal," is devoted to a quick introduction to Object Pascal, Shemitz quickly brings non-Delphi/Kylix programmers up to speed regarding the foundational concepts of one of the platform's core languages. Section Two, "Kylix," turns the reader's attention towards the core functionality of the Kylix application, including information regarding basic configuration and platform navigation, object design and manipulation, using libraries, and component creation. Section Three, "Linux," is devoted to programmers migrating from the Windows platform to Unix, providing a general survey of those components that a Unix novice would be best-served to understand when developing native Linux applications. Section Four, "Projects," is devoted to illustrating how two practical applications are created in Kylix. The book closes with Section Five, "Appendices," which includes a comparative reference for programmers migrating to Kylix from Visual Basic and Delphi backgrounds. Valuable information regarding optimization and deployment is also included. Learn more about the author and "Kylix: The Professional Developer's Guide and Reference at http: //www.midnightbeach.com/kylix/.