Learning Delphi

CSGnet Archive CSG2001
1

[From Bruce Abbott (2001.08.10.0920 EST)]

Bruce Nevin (2001.08.09 23:03 EDT) --

Bill Powers (2001.08.09.1445 MDT)

Delphi is sort of the successor to Turbo Pascal. I don't know much about it
yet, but if it's learnable it may be the answer to the demise of supported
Pascal 7.0.

Teach Yourself Borland Delphi 4 in 21 Days
http://www.kaposnet.hu/books/tysdelphi4/

The book appears to be entirely on line.

Thanks, Bruce. I read through the introductory part and found much that is
familiar from the old Borland Pascal with Objects, the system I am currently
using. The Windows environment forces the use of objects (now called
"components"), but I don't think it will be too great a problem to get used
to this mode of programming. What I like is that the programming
environment appears to handle some things, like registering windows with
the Windows operating system, that in the past had to be done via separate,
stand-alone programs. From within the Delphi environment you just click and
the system creates the window (or other object) you want your program to
display; you then add the code that creates whatever actions you want to
happen with that object.

The text even refers to the language as Pascal with Objects, and preserves
much of the structure of the Turbo Pascal environment Bill and I are used
to, such as the ability to create reusable Units that can be added to the
main program via the Include specification.

Of course, I say this not having tried to actually use Delphi yet . . .
Caveat emptor.

Now all I need is the trick of living more than one life in parallel.

Have you considered trying dissociative identity disorder (multiple
personality)? (;->

Bruce A.

2

[From Bruce Nevin (2001.08.10 13:36 EDT)]

Bruce Abbott (2001.08.10.0920 EST)--

Thanks for confirming that Delphi is a new flavor of Pascal. Please let us know as you learn more.

ยทยทยท

At 09:22 08/10/2001 -0400, Abbott_Bruce wrote:

>Now all I need is the trick of living more than one life in parallel.

Have you considered trying dissociative identity disorder (multiple
personality)? (;->

Trouble is, they "lose time". The multiplicity I've already got, but it remains a sequencing problem, closest I can get to concurrency is fast interleaving. Where are those time warps when you need one?

3

[From Bill Powers (2001.08.11.0954 MDT)]

Bruce Abbott (2001.08.10.0920 EST)

I have now downloaded the whole 140 MB file for Borland Delphi 6.0 Personal
Edition (free) and installed it successfully. It took 2 nights, and
couldn't have been done without the shareware program GetRight, which can
handle broken downloads (13 breaks altogether). To get the Delphi program,
you have to register online at www.borland.com, and during installation you
have to register it again. Of course you can spend $99 and get it on CDROM.
I don't think I could send you a copy with the required authorization key
and serial number so you could run it, and anyway I don't want to be sued
by Borland.

I also downloaded that book -- thanks to Bruce N. for finding it.

Best,

Bill P.

4

[From Bruce Abbott (2001.08.11.1600 EST)]

Bill Powers (2001.08.11.0954 MDT) --

Bruce Abbott (2001.08.10.0920 EST)

I have now downloaded the whole 140 MB file for Borland Delphi 6.0 Personal
Edition (free) and installed it successfully. It took 2 nights, and
couldn't have been done without the shareware program GetRight, which can
handle broken downloads (13 breaks altogether). To get the Delphi program,
you have to register online at www.borland.com, and during installation you
have to register it again. Of course you can spend $99 and get it on CDROM.
I don't think I could send you a copy with the required authorization key
and serial number so you could run it, and anyway I don't want to be sued
by Borland.

I don't think that Bill intended it to sound that way, but just for the
record, I did not ask him to send me a copy, authorization key or no
authorization key!

Bill, when you've had a chance to take it for a test drive, how about giving
us your "first impressions"?

Bruce A.

5

[From Bill Powers (2001.08.11.2126 MDT)]

Bruce Abbott (2001.08.11.1600 EST)--

I don't think that Bill intended it to sound that way, but just for the
record, I did not ask him to send me a copy, authorization key or no
authorization key!

Oops, I didn't think of that. I was thinking about how to save others that
loooong download time, considered burning CD ROMs, and then realized that
there would be a problem with registration, as well as a legal problem. All
in my own imagination, hooked up directly to my mouth, or fingers.

Bill, when you've had a chance to take it for a test drive, how about
giving us your "first impressions"?

My first impression is that it will be easier to use than Visual C++. I'm
making my way slowly through the online book that Bruce Nevin put us onto,
and so far have tried the simplest programming examples, no problem.

I don't like to be overwhelmed with details, which is a problem because all
these Windows programming languages require that you grasp a lot of details
before you can do anything even slightly useful. It's hard to try things
out a little at a time. I do think, however, that I'll get used to Delphi a
lot quicker than the Microsoft stuff.

I hope you'll get started with Delphi, too (and that others will, too).
It's basically very similar to Turbo Pascal 7 or Object Pascal, as you
noted, which takes away some of the pain. And I suspect that learning will
go better with help from others who are also sweating it out.

Even with your 28.8K baud system, Bruce, you should be able to download the
program in two nights, with GetRight. But I hope you have a big disk.

Best,

Bill P.

6

[From Bruce Abbott (2001.08.12.1855 EST)]

Bill Powers (2001.08.11.2126 MDT)

I hope you'll get started with Delphi, too (and that others will, too).
It's basically very similar to Turbo Pascal 7 or Object Pascal, as you
noted, which takes away some of the pain. And I suspect that learning will
go better with help from others who are also sweating it out.

Even with your 28.8K baud system, Bruce, you should be able to download the
program in two nights, with GetRight. But I hope you have a big disk.

Well, I'm going to have to do all my Delphi work in my office -- the paltry
hard drive on my machine at home is stuffed to the limit. Tried downloading
from the office and was able to get the whole thing in just over two hours
(!), no problem, and have had Delphi up and running already, however briefly.

During the download I spent the time in my lab, trying to get an old IBM XT
clone to recognize its 3.5" 720 MB disk drive. The problem arose because
the hard drive quit and wouldn't you know it, the only copy of DOS I could
find to boot from the A: drive with was 2.1 -- and 2.1 never heard of a 3.5"
diskette! I finally solved the problem by raiding my friend Ken's office
(Ken never throws anything away) and locating his pristine distribution copy
of DOS 4.01.

This whole business was necessary because my experiment stations still use
antique IBM PC clones and these are equipped only with 5.25" drives. The
3.5" drive mentioned above provides the pathway by which I can transfer
run-time programs from the Pentium-based Windows 95 machine on which they
were created to the 5.25" disketts my old lab computers can read. By the
time I got that problem cured, Delphi had finished downloading back in the
office. However, by this time it's nearly 7 pm and much as I would like to
play around with Delphi, it's time to go home and get a bite to eat.

Bill, I'll get the Tutorial Bruce Nevin pointed out and start working my way
through it, probably sometime tomorrow. My impression of the programming
environment thus far is -- hey, cool! That may not hold up, but I'm
encouraged. At this point with Microsoft's product (C++ development
environment) I was reduced near to tears . . .

Bruce A.