Delphi
Group Options

GROUPOPTIONS

Delphi Home

eMag: Delphi Edition

Delphi Store

Delphi Articles:

KB Articles

Delphi Tid-bit Lists:

Delphi Knowledge Base:

Knowledge Base

Recent KB Articles

Delphi for Win32 Group

Delphi group covering all aspects of Delphi for Win32 and the upcoming Delphi for Win64 as well as a Kylix archive.

Since its inception, Delphi has proven itself the RAD development system for Win32 applications.

Designed specifically to "play nice" with virtually every database in existence, Delphi has long been the choice of serious developers that need to produce sophisticated, high-performance, custom applications. One of Delphi's strengths has alway been the incredibly diverse and rich 3rd party component libraries that extend Delphi's already considerable power.

Delphi continues to be a viable candidate for new projects. It still creates the fastest native-code Win32 applications and with the upcoming Delphi for Win64, Delphi applications will have the ability to take advantage of 64-bit processors. Delphi for .Net is a serious competitor of Visual Studio.Net and worth considering for your projects.

Also consider joining our...

Join The Delphi Group Now! Start here!

This page lists NEW and UPDATED Delphi for Win32 content from all areas (news, message board, knowledge base, blogs, comments, FAQ lists, file library, resumes, job postings, etc.). In addition, this page contains weekly content posted each Monday at 1 AM from our tib-bits (smaller KB posts).

Delphi News

5/26/2008

New DevExpress Updates Now Available
List of releases available as part of the newest update of Express Install, v1.36.

5/9/2008

Delphi Acquired by Embarcadero Technologies
CodeGear, Borland's development tools division is being acquired by Embarcadero Technologies.

6/16/2007

So Many Great Databases: Can It Get Any Better?
Contemporary databases provide incredible features, and supporting tools. Even so, there is one "add on" you should know about.

2/20/2007

Delphi 2007 for Win32 Launches!
CodeGear Introduces Delphi for Win32, Providing RAD Development for Windows Vista and AJAX. New RAD Environment Allows Developers to Jump-start Microsoft Windows Vista Applications While Seamlessly Supporting Existing Users.

2/20/2007

Delphi for PHP Announced
Delphi for PHP brings RAD productivity benefits to PHP Web developers that Delphi users have enjoyed for years. PHP is the most prominent dynamic Web language today and one of the top 10 programming languages overall. Delphi for PHP is designed to take PHP development to the next-level by making it faster and easier to develop rich, database-driven Web applications.

Our Delphi News List | Post Your News

Weekly Delphi Content! Week 27, Posted Monday 7/7/2008 Content changes every Monday @ 1AM!! Check back once per week. Learn! Review! Test Yourself!
Tip of the Week Tip: Before adding many new entries to a TStringList, set its Sorted property to false. Add all your entries. Finally, set the Sorted property back to True (if desired). Sorting is expensive, in terms of macnine cycles. By leaving the Sorted property set to True, you force the TStingList to re-sort itself after each entry. This can significantly slow things down. This applies to TStrings, as well, and all components that have a TStrings property, like TListBox, etc. View Tip	FAQ of the Week Question: Why do I have to specify virtual when creating an abstract method? Why not just abstract? Answer: For abstract methods, you must specify either regular virtual with the virtual keyword or dynamic virtual with the dynamic keyword. In Delphi for Win32, virtual methods are optimized for speed and dynamic methods are optimized for size. The Delphi help indicates to use virtual for most situations. It is true that the compiler could make virtual the default and therefore optional but requiring one or the other is consistent with Object Pascal's strong typing. View FAQ

Definition of the Week Delphi Unary Operators - An operation with only one operand (a single input). In Object Pascal, a unary operator (+,-, and ^) always precedes its operand (for example, -B), except for ^, which follows its operand (for example, P^). View Full Definition	Link of the Week Magazine: Blaise Pascal With the demise of Delphi Informant, we've gone quite a while without a good, English language Delphi periodical. It's exciting, then, so see the appearance of an English edition of Blaise Pascal, especially given it's lineup of writers; Nick Hodges, Bob Swart, Kim Madsen, Julian Bucknall, Jeremy North, and Hallvard Vassbotn. That's a virtual "who's who" of the lofty world of Delphi gurus. A quick, simple, free registration gets you access to a PDF version of one issue. Check it out! More Info

Code Snippet of the Week What does this code do? procedure TUtils.Delay(MillisecondsDelay: Integer); var FirstTickCount: LongInt; begin FirstTickCount := GetTickCount; repeat Application.ProcessMessages; until ((GetTickCount-FirstTickCount) >= Longint(MillisecondsDelay)); end; Check Your Answer	File of the Week Delphi for PHP Free Trial View File Info Page

Delphi Board Overview Q&A!
Techie talk! Post your Q&A to our Delphi board. Our custom built message board uses a traditional Q&A message board format you can browse, search, post new topics, and reply to existing topics.

Topic

Threads

Posts

Last Active Thread

Last By

Delphi COM / ActiveX / DCOM

How do I access menu comman...

by Neophyte185

Delphi Distributed Apps

158

MSSQL locks on ApplyUpdates...

by pooh

Delphi Internet Solutions

Calendar Components...

by the7son_ms

Delphi News / Other

227

710

RE: CodeGear has a new home...

by Rick Carter

Delphi Object PASCAL

103

589

Creating simple PDF files...

by hyp3n0zy5

Delphi Single User Apps

191

503

Slow access to ADO table on...

by Ron.Roper

Delphi User Groups

Delphi User Groups LIsting...

by mprestwood

Delphi VCL

252

RE: problem with the code- ...

by Wes

Kylix (Archive)

Suse 9.1 and Kylix 3...

by jwerfel

New Delphi MB Posts

Thread

Started By

Replies

Last By

Topic

Views

! CodeGear has a new home!
Posted 5/11/2008, Updated 6/3/2008

Rick Carter

Delphi News / Other

887

problem with the code- dont know where
Posted 5/8/2008, Updated 5/12/2008

pkakkar

Wes

Delphi VCL

456

Pascal Database Toolbox (TAccess)
Posted 9/1/2002, Updated 5/8/2008

Jarmulowicz

peterw1956

Delphi Object PASCAL

428

Tip: Create Round Windows
Posted 11/27/2000, Updated 4/24/2008

Larry J. Rutledge

psantoro

Delphi News / Other

246

Delphi User Groups LIsting
Posted 3/26/2008, Updated 3/26/2008

Mike Prestwood

psantoro

Delphi User Groups

296

Calendar Components
Posted 3/18/2008, Updated 3/18/2008

the7son_ms

Wes

Delphi Internet Solutions

303

Using TWebbrowser to enter text and click button
Posted 3/12/2008, Updated 3/13/2008

riotboy

Wes

Delphi VCL

324

Slow access to ADO table on 2nd pass
Posted 3/5/2008, Updated 3/10/2008

Ron.Roper

Wes

Delphi Single User Apps

327

Database Problems
Posted 10/4/2007, Updated 3/1/2008

Daydreamer

Wes

Delphi Single User Apps

243

Creating simple PDF files
Posted 12/8/2005, Updated 2/12/2008

hyp3n0zy5

Wes

Delphi Object PASCAL

335

New Thread Notifications

New thread subscribers: adorraga edaurdoamped ferganyalex jpgolay Mike Prestwood moudy owen.moore pkakkar rbrownsr the7son_ms

Want to subscribe? Sign in to subscribe to new threads posted to this group.

New Delphi Knowledge Base Articles

KB Article

KB Topic

Group

Counters

FAQ
Flashcard

1. Virual; Abstract; vs. Dynamic; Abstract;

Question: Why do I have to specify virtual when creating an abstract method? Why not just abstract?

+Add Comment (2 Comments last by mprestwood )

Mike Prestwood

OOP

Delphi for Win32

All: 88
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 87
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 1

FAQ
Flashcard

2. Native Code versus Managed .Net Code

Question: What are the benefits of Win32/64 native code over .Net?

+Add Comment (0 Comments )

Mike Prestwood

Beginners Corner

Delphi for Win32

All: 90
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 90
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 0

Definition
Flashcard

3. Delphi Module

Short Definition: A unit. A unit is defined in its own source file (a .PAS file) that contains types (including classes), constants, variables, and routines (functions and procedures). Each unit begins with unit UnitName; where UnitName must match the filename (minus the .PAS extension). The .PAS unit files are compiled into Delphi Compiled Units with a .DCU extension. A Delphi program is constructed from units. Specifically, the .DCU files are linked into your application. The Delphi compiler is very fast because it only recompiles units that have changed. You can force Delphi to recompile all units with a build all.

+Add Comment (0 Comments )

Mike Prestwood

Beginners Corner

Delphi for Win32

All: 77
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 77
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 0

FAQ
Flashcard

4. Protected versus Strict Protected

Question: What is the difference between Protected and Strict Protected visibility?

+Add Comment (0 Comments )

Mike Prestwood

OOP

Delphi for Win32

All: 65
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 65
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 0

Definition
Flashcard

5. Strict Visibility

Short Definition: The Strict specifier tightens up the scope for private and protected. With Strict Private, members within a class are visible ONLY within the class declared and Strict Protected are visible only within the class declared and descendent classes. Without strict, private and protected members can also be seen by all classes declared in the same unit (friendly classes). The Strict specifier was introduced with Delphi for .Net preview in Delphi 7 in an update to the .Net compiler preview and with Win32 in Delphi 2005 to fully comply with the .NET CLS. Delphi's traditional private specifier maps to the CLR's assembly visibility and the protected specifier maps to the CLR's assembly or family visibility.

+Add Comment (0 Comments )

Mike Prestwood

OOP

Delphi for Win32

All: 84
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 84
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 0

Updated Delphi Knowledge Base Articles

KB Article

KB Topic

Group

Counters

Post

1. Using BDE TTables to read or write text file records

How to read or write data from comma-delimeted or fixed length record text files in Borland Delphi.

+Add Comment (1 Comments )

Scott

BDE

Delphi for Win32

All: 487
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 481
Mods: 1
Clients: 0
Staff: 4

Tip

2. Associative Arrays in Delphi/Object Pascal

Tip: Although Object Pascal doesn't have a native associative array, many developers just use a TStringList. Others have implemented a true associative array in Object Pascal. Search the Internet for TStringHash and THashedStringList classes for examples.

+Add Comment (0 Comments )

Mike Prestwood

Language Reference

Delphi for Win32

All: 151
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 150
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 1

Post

3. Set File Extension to Always Show in Explorer

The default setting in Windows Explorer is to always hide known file extensions. This Delphi code shows you how to programatically set your own extension to always show in Explorer.

+Add Comment (1 Comments )

Scott

Coding Tasks

Delphi for Win32

All: 356
Members: 0
Non-Mem: 353
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 3

Post

4. Using GetHeapStatus

Memory Management and Delphi

+Add Comment (1 Comments last by david_chesnet )

Mike Prestwood

Coding Tasks

Delphi for Win32

All: 421
Members: 8
Non-Mem: 413
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 0

Article

5. Sub-Classing the BDE TQuery Component

First in a series

+Add Comment (0 Comments )

Joshua Delahunty

Delphi for Win32

All: 372
Members: 5
Non-Mem: 364
Mods: 0
Clients: 0
Staff: 3

New Delphi KB Comments/Entries

Mike Prestwood
Prestwood Software

PS Staff

Moderator

Rank: Fleet Admiral

Joined: Oct 2000
Visits: 21312
MB Posts: 971
KB Articles: 864
Location: Citrus Heights, CA USA

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Read | +Add Comment

Also of note...

In Delphi for .Net, there is no difference between virtual and dynamic.

Regarding...
Virual; Abstract; vs. Dynamic; Abstract;

Why do I have to specify virtual when creating an abstract method? Why not just abstract?

Mike Prestwood
Prestwood Software

PS Staff

Moderator

Rank: Fleet Admiral

Joined: Oct 2000
Visits: 21312
MB Posts: 971
KB Articles: 864
Location: Citrus Heights, CA USA

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 (Updated 7/1/2008 5:34:05 PM)

Read | +Add Comment

Here is the syntax in question:

function Age: Integer; Abstract; //Does not work.

The above returns the following error:

[Pascal Error] poc_ClassTestsUnit1.pas(23): E2167 Abstract methods must be virtual or dynamic

Here is the correct syntax:

function Age: Integer; Virtual; Abstract; //Optimized for speed and most common.

function Age: Integer; Dynamic; Abstract; //Optimized for size.

For example, here is a complete simple class example:

  TMyClass = class(TObject)
  private
    function Name: String;
  public
    function Age: Integer; Abstract;
  end;

Then in a descendent class, you implement it:

//Class declaration...

TMyClass2 = class(TMyClass)

public

  function Age: Integer;

end;

//Method implementation...

function TMyClass2.Age: Integer;
begin
  Age := 12;
end;

Regarding...
Virual; Abstract; vs. Dynamic; Abstract;

Why do I have to specify virtual when creating an abstract method? Why not just abstract?

Mike Prestwood
Prestwood Software

PS Staff

Moderator

Rank: Fleet Admiral

Joined: Oct 2000
Visits: 21312
MB Posts: 971
KB Articles: 864
Location: Citrus Heights, CA USA

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 (Updated 6/25/2008 7:28:57 PM)

Read | +Add Comment

For more information on the history of Pascal Casing:

History of Pascal Casing by Brad Abrams

Regarding...
Camel versus Pascal Casing

What is the difference between Camel Casing and Pascal Casing?

Mike Prestwood
Prestwood Software

PS Staff

Moderator

Rank: Fleet Admiral

Joined: Oct 2000
Visits: 21312
MB Posts: 971
KB Articles: 864
Location: Citrus Heights, CA USA

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 (Updated 6/18/2008 9:11:21 PM)

Read | +Add Comment

Thanks Wes for adding to this code snippet. Mucho appreciated!

Regarding...
Associative Arrays in Delphi/Object Pascal (Use TStringList)

TStringList Example
Object Pascal doesn't have a native associative array, but you can use a TStringList the same way. (Alternatively, search the Internet for TStringHash and THashedStringList classes for implementations of a true associative array).

Wes Peterson
Prestwood Software

PS Staff

Moderator

Rank: Commander

Joined: Jan 2004
Visits: 699
MB Posts: 66
KB Articles: 96
Location: Citrus Heights, CA USA

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 (Updated 6/18/2008 2:25:22 PM)

Read | +Add Comment

Another Delphi candidate to stand in for an associative array is TObjectList. It holds a list of pointers to any object you care to create. If you have a class with multiple members, you can associate many values - of many different types - in your class instances, then put them in a TObjectList.

One important Boolean propety of TObjectList is OwnsObjects. If set to True, your TObjectList instance will free the objects it stores when it is freed, as well as upon some other operations (see Delphi help for details). If False, it's up to you to free all the objects - probably before freeing the ObjectList.

The downside (an upside in some cases) to TObjectList is that it has no predefined sorting mechanism, which makes sense, because it really has no idea what it contains. You'll have to write your own "Compare," a TListSortCompare function. Again, see Delphi help.

Regarding...
Associative Arrays in Delphi/Object Pascal (Use TStringList)

TStringList Example
Object Pascal doesn't have a native associative array, but you can use a TStringList the same way. (Alternatively, search the Internet for TStringHash and THashedStringList classes for implementations of a true associative array).

Recruiters and Employers

Prestwood Staffing Options
To receive an email notification when a new resume is posted to this group, you must post at least one job posting and specify this group as one of your 3 job posting groups. When there is a reasonable match, either the applicant is near your location, your willing to pay for relocation and/or the applicant is willing to relocate, or remote work is a possibility, our system will automatically notify you.

Employer Overview

Featured Delphi Job Posting

Receive New Job Postings? To receive an email notification when a new job posting is posted to this group, you must post your resume and specify this group as one of your 3 resume groups. When there is a reasonable match, either the job is near your location or remote work is a possibility, our system will automatically notify you.

1 Job Postings...

		Job Posting	Status	Work Location	Length	Commitment	Payment
1.		Job #123: book keeper needed work at home and get payed weekly Compensation: Negotiable Industry: Health Area Code: +44 Physical Location: iowa, IA USA Ad Dates: 4/7/2008 thru 6/6/2008	Need Now	@Prestwood	3+ Months	Full-time	Corp Pref./Emp. Okay

Delphi Tip: ADS Master/Detail Dataset in Delphi 6

by Scott Wehrly

Tips and techniques for creating a typical master/detail relationship between Advantage Database Server tables in a Delphi 6 form. This article also includes tips for using client datasets in relationships between ADS tables.

Read Full Knowledge Base Article Now

Online Delphi Lessons

Let the web teach you Delphi with these short, easy to read and follow, lessons.

Creating and Using Arrays

Simple examples of creating and using arrays in Delphi.

Displaying Things In Delphi

Beginner level introduction to Delphi. Demonstrates how to use ShowMessage and others simple techniques to display messages to your users.

Heterogeneous Joins in Delphi

By Mike Benemelis. A heterogeneous join is when you join tables from two different SQL servers (or a server and a local table) within the same query. This short article will show you how to perform such queries using Delphi.

Packing dBASE and Paradox Tables

Information on reindexing and packing Paradox and dBASE tables.

Using Case Statements

Instead of using a bunch of complex nested if statements, you can use a case statement to provide a more readable alternative so long as the conditionals return an integer.

Using Null Terminated and PChar Strings

ObjectPascal has two varieties of string variables: Pascal strings and PChar strings.

Using Sets

Simple example of using a set.

Delphi Articles

COM Collections (125 KB PDF)

Abstract: Correctly implementing COM collections.

By William Pantoja. For developers to communicate among the applications they develop, Microsoft has provided an evolutionary path from DDE, OLE, OLE2, to COM (DCOM allows you to communicate between applications on different or distributed machines).

Developing Web Servers with Delphi

By Kim Berry, Prestwood Software & Consulting

A Delphi web server can be an extension of IIS accessed as COM objects, or it can be a stand-alone program, providing the maximum flexibility to meet particular needs.

Mainframe Connectivity via SNA Server

by Kim Berry, Prestwood Software
Abstract: An overview of using Delphi to connect to the DMV.

Windows Shell Extensions

by Larry J. Rutledge

Shell extensions allow developers to add functionality to the existing Windows™ shell.

Writing High Quality Routines in Delphi

By Mike Prestwood

This Power Point presentation presents coupling, cohesion, and scope from an OO Delphi point of view. This presentation was given at the 1998 August Sacramento Delphi User Group meeting.

Delphi Gazette Archive

Although we don't have time any more to release a monthly newsletter, here are is the archive of past newsletters.

Delphi Gazette - Nov 1998 - Volume 1, Issue 10
- View On-Line -- HTML
- Download Word Doc Document (153 KB zipped)
Delphi Gazette - Oct 1998 - Volume 1, Issue 9
- View On-Line -- HTML
- View On-Line -- PDF (799 KB)
- Download Word Doc Document (45 KB zipped)
Delphi Gazette - August 1998 - Volume 1, Issue 8
The August issue contains A New Look At Exceptions by Robert Muir, Using JPEGs in resource files by Larry J. Rutledge, Windows file association, Writing out Delphi source code to HTML, and more!
- View On-Line -- HTML
Delphi Gazette - July 1998 - Volume 1, Issue 7
The July issue was skipped because Larry J. Rutledge, our editor, broke his collar bone.
Delphi Gazette - June 1998 - Volume 1, Issue 6
The June issue covers Callback Procedures Using Delphi 3.0 by Dan Anaya, our Delphi Apprentice column covers several topics, and in our Components 101 column Larry J. Rutledge covers how to Auto-Repeat TSpeedButtons. Much more included!
- View On-Line -- HTML
- View On-Line -- PDF (783 KB - Wow! It's getting big!)
- Download Word Doc Document (277 KB zipped)
Delphi Gazette - May 1998 - Volume 1, Issue 5
The May issue covers Incremental Lookups in our Delphi Apprentice column, and TFileInfo in our Components 101 column.
- View On-Line -- HTML
- View On-Line -- PDF
- Download Word Doc Document (52 KB zipped)
Delphi Gazette - April 1998 - Volume 1, Issue 4
Last Month, Mike Prestwood demonstrated how to design an object in Delphi by creating a TSysTime object. This month we'll extend it, adding needed funtionality to take an example class and make it more useful. Also in this issue is how to determine the cursor position in a TM

DelphiGroup Options

Delphi for Win32 Group

Weekly Delphi Content!

Week 27, Posted Monday 7/7/2008

Delphi Board Overview Q&A!

New Delphi MB Posts

New Thread Notifications

New Delphi Knowledge Base Articles

Updated Delphi Knowledge Base Articles

New Delphi KB Comments/Entries

Recruiters and Employers

Featured Delphi Job Posting

1 Job Postings...

Delphi Tip: ADS Master/Detail Dataset in Delphi 6

Online Delphi Lessons

Delphi Articles

COM Collections (125 KB PDF)

By Kim Berry, Prestwood Software & Consulting

by Larry J. Rutledge

By Mike Prestwood

Borland

Database

dBASE

Delphi (Delphi Info @ Prestwood)

Interbase

Object Orientation

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Delphi Gazette Archive

Delphi
Group Options