The Little Book Of Delphi Programming: Learn To Program with Object Pascal

Description

Learn to Program Delphi and Object Pascal quickly and easily. Huw Collingbourne has programmed in Delphi for over 25 years. For over ten years he was the Delphi columnist for PC Plus Magazine in the UK. In this book, he explains how to design desktop applications and program in Delphi's Object Pascal language. All the source code is available for free download so you can get started with Delphi programming straight away. This book explains... Fundamentals of Delphi The Object Pascal language Object Orientation Variables, Types, Constants Operators and Tests for loops and while loops Procedures and Functions Parameters and Arguments Arrays and Lists String Operations Case Statements User-defined Types Constructors and Methods Creating and Freeing Objects Inheritance and Encapsulation Virtual and Overridden Methods File-handling Text files and Binary files Streaming and Serialization Errors and Exceptions ...and much more The Little Book Of Delphi takes you from the very basics of Object Pascal programming right through to complex topics such saving and loading networks of objects to and from disk’. All the source code is provided as a free download from the publisher's web site. The book explains everything you need to know to get started with productive Delphi development. Huw Collingbourne has been a programmer for more than 30 years. He is an online programming instructor who has taught tens of thousands of students to code in languages such as C, C#, Java, Object Pascal and Ruby. He had written programming columns for numerous computer magazines such as PC Plus and Computer Shopper. He is Technical Director of the independent development company, SapphireSteel Software. He is the author of a number of programming books including The Book Of Ruby, The Little Book Of Pointers and The Little Book of Recursion. The Little Book Of Delphi gives you just the stuff you really need to get straight to the heart of Object Pascal programming without all the fluff and padding. Introduction What is Delphi? Download the Source Code What is in this Book? What is not in this Book Who Should Read this Book? Making Sense of the Text What is Lazarus? About the Author About the Technical Editor Chapter 1 – Getting Started Install Delphi Delphi Overview Your First Program Create a New Project Save the Project Delphi Projects Design the Interface A First Delphi Program What is Object Pascal? Chapter 2 – Fundamentals of Pascal Assignment Using Variables Declaring Variables Variables and Data Types Code Fragment 1 Code Fragment 2 ‘if’ Statements Operators and Tests ‘if…else’ Statements Constants Elements of a Pascal Program Keywords Types Variables Constants Operators Comments Chapter 3 – Procedures and Functions Procedures Procedure Calls Functions Procedure and Function Syntax Summary Function Return Values Passing Arguments Parameter Syntax Var Parameters Value and Variable Parameters Sample Program: Calculating Interest A Programming Exercise Chapter 4 – Types and Operators Types Number Types Strings and Numbers Parameters and Type Checking Global and Local Variables Booleans Mathematical Operators Scope Local Variables Variables on the Holodeck Same Name, Different Scope? Chapter 5 – Loops, Arrays and Strings ‘for’ Loops ASCII Codes and Characters UTF-8 Conversion char/integer Conversion Non-visible Characters ‘case’ Statements ‘while’ and ‘repeat’ Loops ‘for’ Loop ‘repeat’ Loop ‘while’ Loop Loops: Syntax Summary Arrays Array Ranges The Array Start Index Arrays in Delphi Formatting Strings Typed Constants True Constants Local Constants Why Use Constants? Chapter 6 – User Defined Types and File IO Custom Data Types Enumerated Types Ranges Enumerated Type Identifiers Order of Identifiers Type Checking Records Error Handling IO – Input/Output File Handling Saving Fixed Length Strings Random Access Files File IO Summary Text Files ‘Built-in’ File Access Routines Changing Characters in a Text File File IO Routines Chapter 7 – Object Orientation Classes and Objects Methods Why Object Orientation? Inheritance Encapsulation Reusability Define Classes, Create Objects Constructors Freeing Objects Saving Objects Chapter 8 – Class Hierarchies Inheritance Encapsulation Polymorphism Create Constructors Destructors Methods with the same Names Casting Types Testing Object Types Virtual Methods Overriding Methods Properties Visibility Specifiers Reading and Writing Properties Read-only Properties Write-only Properties Method Properties How to add a Method Property Chapter 9 – Errors, Exceptions and Bugs Exceptions Multiple Exception Types Debugging Chapter 10 – The Adventure Continues Using or ‘Importing’ Units Extend the Game Saving Objects Streams Loading Data Game Play Methods Moving Around the Map Play the Game What Next? Appendix Free Pascal and Lazarus Anatomy of a Delphi Unit The Variant Type Constants True Constants Typed Constants Naming Conventions More Sources of Information The Delphi Language Reference Delphi Basics Lazarus and Free Pascal Wiki Object Pascal Video Course Online Adventure Games Bitwise Books and Courses Just One More Thing… Little Books Of …