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Chapter 1
Introduction 1-1
What is Delphi? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
Registering Delphi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Finding information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
F1 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
Developer support services and Web site . . . . 1-5
Typographic conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6
Chapter 2
A tour of the environment 2-1
Starting Delphi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
The IDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
The menus and toolbars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
The Component Palette, Form
Designer, and Object Inspector . . . . . . . . . 2-4
The Object TreeView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
The Object Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6
The Code Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7
Code Insight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7
Class Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8
Code Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8
The Diagram page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-9
Viewing form code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-11
The Code Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2-12
The Project Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-13
The Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2-13
To-do lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2-14
Chapter 3
Programming with Delphi 3-1
Creating a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
Adding data modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Building the user interface . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Placing components on a form . . . . . . . . 3-2
Setting component properties. . . . . . . . . 3-3
Writing code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Writing event handlers . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Using the component library . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Compiling and debugging projects . . . . . . . . 3-6
Deploying applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
Internationalizing applications . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
Types of projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
CLX applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9
Web server applications . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9
Database applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10
BDE Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
SQL Explorer (Database Explorer) . . . . 3-11
Database Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
Data Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
Custom components . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
DLLs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12
COM and ActiveX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12
Type libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12
Chapter 4
Customizing the desktop 4-1
Organizing your work area . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Arranging menus and toolbars . . . . . . . . 4-1
Docking tool windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Saving desktop layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
Customizing the Component palette . . . . . . . 4-5
Arranging the Component palette. . . . . . . 4-5
Creating component templates . . . . . . . . 4-6
Installing component packages . . . . . . . . 4-6
Using frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7
Adding ActiveX controls . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Setting project options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Setting default project options . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Specifying project and form
templates as the default . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8
Adding templates to the
Object Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9
Setting tool preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
Customizing the Form Designer. . . . . . . 4-10
Customizing the Code Editor . . . . . . . . 4-11
Customizing the Code Explorer . . . . . . . 4-11
Index I-1
Contents
