Arabic book for Object Pascal كتاب إبدأ مع أوبجكت باسكال

[motaz]

I've uploaded Object Pascal book for beginners written in Arabic Language.
This book has standardized Free Pascal/Lazarus as a primary dialect/tool for book samples and language reference.
I wanted to announce this book after solving Arabic letters problem in Linux. Previously we can't write Arabic in Lazarus for linux (version 0.9.26.x) which is using GTK 1. Current official version 0.9.28.2 is supporting Arabic because of GTK 2 (Unicode).
Unfortunately Linux software repositories like Ubuntu is still holding 0.9.26.4 which does not support Arabic, they need to download it from Lazarus site instead of using Add/Remove software. But I'm sure that Ubuntu repositories will update to the latest version soon.

Book name in Arabic is: إبدأ مع أوبجكت باسكال
Which means: Start with Object Pascal
Book type: PDF
License: Free Book
Home page: http://code.sd/opbook.htm

[idog]

Wow, this looks very impressive! (I know just enough Arabic to be able to read "أوبجكت باسكال"  )

Good luck with your book, I hope it will help many programmers!

[Zaher]

@motaz
السلام عليكم
سأقوم باذن الله بقراءة الكتاب و المحاولة المساعدة في التنيقيح
شكرا جزيلا لك

@idog, if you can read Arabic, you can understand it because our languages are very similar with words

I am glad to see more peoples using Lazarus/FreePascal with Right To Left languages.

[motaz]

Salam Zahir
You have an Interesting site that has many Delphi/Pascal projects.
btw. Are you Zahir Deurkey?

[Zaher]

Yes my name is
Zahir Deurkey or Zaher Dirkey

I am interested with your book for teaching other peoples Pascal, especially your mention to FreePascal/Lazarus, because in Syria they still use Turbo Pascal 5 or Delphi 7 for teaching.

[idog]

I wonder, where else is Pascal/Delphi still used for teaching? In highschool we used Turbo Pascal, but that was almost 15 years ago, and I think it's only C# or Java now.

Zaher: You said

I am glad to see more peoples using Lazarus/FreePascal with Right To Left languages

The feeling is mutual, believe me  RTL was always an issue here, in all software/web related products, because it's a relatively small market and none of the big software companies bothered with it. I'm still waiting to see a RTL TTreeView! 

P.S. I learned some Literary Arabic in junior highschool. There's actually a surprisingly big difference between it and Hebrew, considering the similar origins and syntax. Sometimes it's confusing, e.g. the Arabic word for meat (LAHM) is just like the Hebrew for bread (LEHEM)... BTW السلام عليكم does sound similar and means the same thing - SHALOM ALEIHEM.

[skalogryz]

I wonder, where else is Pascal/Delphi still used for teaching? In highschool we used Turbo Pascal, but that was almost 15 years ago, and I think it's only C# or Java now.

Pascal's used as educational language in Russia in high school and universities (as Turbo Pascal or Delphi).
Too bad that lot of students consider it too old, switching theirs attention to "modern" languages.

The RTL was always an issue here, in all software/web related products, because it's a relatively small market and none of the big software companies bothered with it.

The company i'm working at, is trying to implement the proper edit-control, to support mixed RTL and LTR writings (the subject of the thread is one of the examples).

But the problem is, that all kind of available editors (windows Notepad, MS Office, Open Office, OSX TextView) behave different, especially then it comes to text selection and/or cursor placement.

How do you guys handle such issues? Is there some good editor, that can be used a sample of good RTL-LTR handling?

[motaz]

Hello Zahir Dirkey, we met before in Arab developers.
Here in Sudan they teaching Pascal in high schools using Turbo Pascal 7.

Two days ago I gave this book and Lazarus to my friend who is a Pascal teacher in a high school, I hope that he can persuade some people to see it.
If I find a time I can find a way to do a demonstration for High Education Ministry here in Sudan, but I can't do it until we get version one of Lazarus, no one can depend of beta software. From this point, I want to ask Lazarus developers team, when they plan to release version 1 of Lazarus, and what is missing now, we might help.

in Universities here in Sudan they start teaching with Java which scares the students, for that reason we stopped getting experienced programmers. Previously when we hire new graduated programmers who do their graduation projects with Delphi, we can immediately give them a real-world project and they can do it easily, but now fresh graduation need to study a real development tool, after than after a year they can start doing real projects.

[idog]

Skalogryyz - thanks for the information.

I'm not a professional in RTL matters, and I only use Windows, but to my experience the best RTL support is indeed in Microsoft Office. OpenOffice 3.1.1 has a Hebrew edition that's also very good in terms of RTL editing.

I don't know if the methods they use are the best possible - maybe we're just too used to them  - but that's more or less the standard to look up to.

[skalogryz]

thanks for comments, idog.

@motaz, @Zaher: what can you say?

[motaz]

We don't have a problem in RTL and Arabic in Linux and Windows. I wrote this book in Ubuntu using Open Office, and there is no problem in Arabic at all.
Our main problem was in older version of Lazarus which does not support Unicode in Linux, but now every thing is fine.

[skalogryz]

good to know, thanks!

[Zaher]

I always distribute Lazarus and FreePascal CDs to every one asks about Pascal teaching, but still no one interests to get it or just make a setup, Turbo Pascal is only the step to learn another languages (C#, Java), and Pascal is dead for them all.

@idog
We are a closed neighborhoods

TTreeView can not be RTL in Windows because it is not supported by the system without Flip the layer, but there is a TVirtualTreeView in Lazarus-CCR project has BidiMode property
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lazarus-ccr/

@skalogryyz
I read this topic yesterday
http://www.catch22.net/book/export/html/14

[svoboden]

I wonder, where else is Pascal/Delphi still used for teaching?

It is studied a lot in Bulgarian schools too. IMHO Pascal is best language for beginners.

Here in Sudan they teaching Pascal in high schools using Turbo Pascal 7.

Two days ago I gave this book and Lazarus to my friend who is a Pascal teacher in a high school, I hope that he can persuade some people to see it.

I have created a CD with free software (for Windows) for Bulgarian schools, and it contains Lazarus too. It has an automatic installer of all programs, custom settings to some of them, etc. It is in Bulgarian, but maybe you can find useful some of its code or ideas:
http://cd.svoboden.net/bg/

This summer I've presented my project at 10th Libre Software Meeting. You can find an presentation in English about the project here:
http://cd.svoboden.net/bg/lections/learn-free-advantages.pdf

[Vincent Snijders]

Nice presentation. :-)