Tutorial for Pascal/Delphi for C++-Coders - delphi

I'm a C++-Programmer. But now i have to learn Pascal/Pascal. Are there any websites, documents around that can teach someone with my knowledge the difference?

It shouldn't be too difficult to pick up. C's design was influenced by ALGOL and Pascal, so the semantics and logical flow are going to be pretty familiar. You can get an overview of the differences between basic Pascal and basic C here.
But you tagged this as Delphi and you mentioned C++, which implies that you'll need information on OOP techniques. Try this article or this one, which compare object-oriented programming in Delphi with C++ and other languages. Both are a bit dated, but most of the basic information in them still applies today.
If you have any specific questions about language features, feel free to ask them here, and welcome to Stack Overflow!

You can check Essential Pascal written by Marco Cantù, is a introduction to the Pascal programming language. you can download a free copy from here.
Another excellent site for beginners, is Delphi Basics, this web site provides help and reference for the fundamentals of the Delphi language. It gives an introduction to the Delphi Object Oriented Language for newcomers.

A website that helped me a lot when I learned Delphi was http://www.delphibasics.co.uk/. I still use it. It presents common methods in a nice way.

You might consider this post on beginner guides to Delphi. It has some good links included that may be rather simplistic for you, but can still take you a long way.

Marco Cantu (mentioned in several answers) also has a book series called "Mastering Delphi." It is a great (maybe only) top to bottom resource. Everything Delphi is in it. But the last edition is for 2005. Four versions of Delphi have been released since. There are a couple of update sheets available from Marco's website (D2006 was mostly a bug fix of 2005). And Marco also has the Handbook series, but that is aimed at people who already know Delphi and are looking for help on the newest improvements.
Personally, Delphi is my favorite language. I hope you enjoy it!

your name sounds german so you might wanne check these pages out
delphipraxis
it's not really a comparison for cpp and delphi/pascal but you'll find a lot of information
due to me being a new user i'm not able to post a second link. but search google for delphi forum..

The Free Pascal documentation is another great resource:
http://www.freepascal.org/docs.var

Related

Delphi Programming Manual

I am trying to find a Delphi Programming Manual where I can see a description of what each function does, its arguments, and return values. Does anyone know where I can find one? Something similar to Microsoft's?
Just so you know, I have never EVER programmed Delphi before and I know absolutely nothing about it (and I don't have the time to learn it).
Thanks!
The official site for Delphi documentation is the Embarcadero Documentation Wikiwhich can be found in this location Online Help for Delphi® XE2 and C++Builder® XE2, this is the equivalent to the MSDN of Microsoft. if you are looking for tutorials check this question Delphi = Pascal? Resources for Learning?
One of the better resources for this is to find the Windows based help files from an earlier version. So much better and more informative than the current help (but not perfect!). I have the Delphi 6 Files loaded in an easily accessible folder for reference. Or scour ebay for older printed Manuals. The basic VCL and windows API calls have not changed that much over the years.
If you like books better than reading online. http://www.lulu.com/shop/bob-swart/delphi-xe-development-essentials/paperback/product-13211362.html

OmniThreadLibrary Overview

Is there a place where there is an introductory overview of the OmniThreadLibray for Delphi?
I have the current code installed in Delphi XE. The examples work. I've been looking over the associated The Delphi Geek blog with usage examples. Gabr admits the documentation does not exist. I would like to get a handle of the structure of the framework before diving into specific examples. I do have an understanding of the usage of TThread so I don't need go to a Threading 101 site.
The framework has shown to have a loyal following and I'd like to think I just haven't looked in the right place.
The author of the OmniThreadLibrary, Primož Gabrijelčič, is working on a book to document the library. It started off as a wiki and has been growing.
OmniThreadLibrary Book Wiki
The ebook: Parallel Programming with the OmniThreadLibrary
As sections are completed in the Wiki they are added to the eBook. From Primož's blog:
In accordance with the Lean Publishing Manifesto, Parallel Programming
with OmniThreadLibrary is published as it is written. When I’m happy
with a chapter (or even with a section, if it is important enough), I
click the Publish button on the LeanPub site and new, updated book is
available to all the readers
As far as I know, there's no overview of the type you're talking about. The closest there really is is the examples. They provide demonstrations of the things you can do with OTL, and you can study the code to see what they're doing and how it's implemented. I don't think you'll find anything better than that, for the moment at least.

Great Delphi source code to read and learn from

This question relates to
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9603/what-is-some-great-source-code-to-read
which compiles a list of great (in the sense of readable, elegant, ...) source code.
Part of the learning experience when reading source code is certainly independent of the language but every language has its own ways to do certain things. So in this question, I'm looking for great Delphi code.
What is some great Delphi source code to read and learn from? Any suggestions?
The VCL/RTL itself is a very good example of great delphi code. It is available at your delphi installation folder ($delphi)\source, except for the new Starter edition, which I heard does not include the source code.
My suggestions
All the Jedi projects are very well written JCL (Jedi code library), JVCL, JEDI Windows API Library (Great to learn abot windows api and header conversions).
VCL and RTL Source code.
Virtual Tree View
Well for once, if you ask me, the VCL is fairly well written, and you can learn quite a bit about the Windows API from it.
Then there is the much hyped Delphi Web Script, which sounds rather interesting.
I would also recommend DEHL, which is quite a nice library, and the VirtualStringGrid, as a hugely popular and quite well written, though complex, component.
Then there is the JCL and JVCL, that I would also recommend.
The GExperts sourcecode on sourceforge.
Obvious answer: My sources
http://svn.berlios.de/viewvc/dzchart/utilities/Delphi7Help4Bds/trunk/
http://svn.berlios.de/viewvc/dzchart/utilities/dzAutoSave/trunk/
http://svn.berlios.de/viewvc/dzchart/utilities/dzCmdLineParser/trunk/
http://svn.berlios.de/viewvc/dzchart/utilities/dzLib/trunk/
http://svn.berlios.de/viewvc/dzchart/utilities/dzPrepBuild/trunk/
You saw that coming, didn't you?
Bold for Delphi - Framework, a masterpiece, huge and immaculately designed
StarUML - An UML Editor, wonderful clean design and code
Clever Internet Suite - Communication component set - clean architecture and code, commercial
"Good code" is a rather subjective topic ... everyone has an opinion on what can be considered good/bad code. Readable code might not necessarily be considered effective code, and vice-versa.
If your interest is learning how to create well-written code, you should instead study any code and find out how to improve or fix it. When I was in the Air Force, part of the training I would give my new troops would include them visiting sites like Koders or Sourceforge, where they would download source and analyze for functionality, effective results, coding standards, proper software engineering principles, etc. They would look at the code and answer "how would I do this differently?" This exercise gave them a much better understanding of what well-written code should look like.
My point is, you can't learn how to write "good code" if you don't know what "bad code" looks like.

Delphi Coding Standards [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
What Delphi coding standards document(s) do you follow? [closed]
(8 answers)
Closed 8 years ago.
I am in the process of writing (down) our companies coding standards for Delphi programming, so what would anyone suggest to have as a basis, anything that you would recommend to use / not use ?
I used Delphi Language Coding Standards Document as a basis for an internal document.
The Object Pascal Style Guide could probably be termed the "official" one, I think - as far as there is such a thing.
Be careful not getting too anal about forcing standards. You might want to collect a few sample examples from your most experienced programmers, get them to agree, and use those as templates for everyone.
Jeff Atwood recently had an interesting Blog entry about just a single aspect of standards: "Death to the Space Infidels!" and in there he says:
"It doesn't actually matter which coding styles you pick. What does matter is that you, and everyone else on your team, sticks with those conventions and uses them consistently."
Coding standards are a classic bike-shed topic. People argue and fight about this stuff BECAUSE it's little, and ultimately not as important, as good design. Clean, readable code is worth having, and clean readable badly designed code is very little better than unreadable badly designed code. Maybe the most readable bad code makes it easier to figure out that it needs throwing away.
Efforts to encourage team members to contribute clean readable code can include the promotion of style guides. Style guide reviews where you bash someone repeatedly for using the wrong style, are counter productive. If someone has trouble using an acceptable style, introduce them to the joys of using some tools. Do not make a highly competent programmer buckle under the strain of too much criticism over very minor points.

Delphi resources for existing .NET developer

Can anyone recommend some decent resources for a .NET developer who wishes to get a high level overview of the Delphi language?
We are about acquire a small business whose main product is developed in Delphi and I am wanting to build up enough knowledge to be able to talk the talk with them.
Books, websites etc all appreciated.
Thanks.
DelphiBasics gives a good overview of basic syntax, library functions etc.
Essential Delphi is a free e-book by Marco Cantu that should give a good overview, also of the VCL
Feel free to ask around here as well, or in the Delphi newsgroups, if you encounter specific issues :)
[edit] #Martin:
There's a free "Turbo" edition available at the Codegear/Embarcadero website. I guess it has some limitations, so you could also try downloading the trial version.
There's also a Delphi wiki
This even has a "Beginning Delphi" page with lots of external links on it. (some of them already mentioned)
http://www.delphifeeds.com/ is a good place to start, it has most news about what is going on in the delphi community.
There are a number of videos by Alister Christie at codegearguru - check them out :)
edit... #Martin, check out the Turbo products at CodeGear
#Martin there is a free version.
Turbo Delphi
If you are comfortable with c# you will see many similarities with Delphi.
I also found the community surrounding the newsgroups to be active and helpful. They have a smilar concept to MVPs they were called Team B (but as Borland doesn't own them the name may have changed now).

Resources