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This guide has been designed to give advice to those wishing to learn Delphi Object Pascal and also to provide a resource to help them learn. Finding HelpLearning how to do things on your own is a major part of programming. After all why learn to program if you are going to be using other peoples code and get them to create programs for you, especially the hard parts. Finding an answer just requires you to know where to look. Reading
By being spoon-fed answers you won't learn, you need to read and should expect to read. how can you understand something complex like programming without reading about it? People study this subject at university and read roughly 30+ books, not just on the programming language but software design, planning, database architecture, networking protocols, hardware, mathematics, etc Delphi Help Files
All versions of Delphi have some form of help files with them explaining the language syntax, functions, procedures, etc. You name it and it should be there. All you need to do is press F1 when in Delphi or use the menus to navigate to the help files. Once there you can use the index or search. Another benifit of newer versions of Delphi i.e. 2006, Turbo, and 2007 is that you can highlight a word in you code such as 'TStringGrid' press F1 and it will take you to the most relevant section of the on-line help file. Google
If you get an unexpected error which you cannot solve or need to know how to use a specific function or procedure which isn't well documented then use google. Search for the full error message or procedure along with other key words and instead of sifting through thousands of random results add keywords until the search is narrowed down. If you want to know more about using google effectively read this. Learn To Read Delphi Code
Some examples you find will be very helpful though you may not be able to understand the website as it is not in your native language. There are a lot of European and Russian websites with a lot of quality examples on, learn to read the code not the comments. Delphi Websites
There are several well known Delphi websites with a lot of information on. I and many others use these websites a lot to read about things we have never come across before and learn by example. These places are delphi.about.com, delphibasics.co.uk. Codegear Community
At the Codegear website you will find the Codegear Developers Network which has code examples, articles, as well as newsgroups for many specialist areas of Delphi programming. There is also a team of experts called TeamB who are always glad to give you a helping hand with any problems you have, especially if you have perused many other avenues before hand. MSDN
MSDN is the holy bible for Windows programming. Created by Microsoft to support a range of programming languages it gives syntax examples of all Windows system function, procedures, types... and the list goes on. If you need to know something to do with Windows, it will be in here. General PointsSome general points to consider. Writing code so others can read it, understand it, and help you more easily.
If people can read you code and it is presented in a logical and organised way it is easier to spot mistakes, easier to read without debugging in Delphi, and is a general practice you should be doing. If you have come to learn Delphi from another programming language then you should have a good idea of how to layout your code and how to format it but it is still worthwhile reading the guide by Charles Calvert anyway just to brush up. Anyone learning Delphi with no or little programming experience this is a must. You don't need to conform to it fully, there are several small twists to this style that people use but in general almost all code will be presented in a similar fashion so get into good habits now. Object Pascal Style Guide - Charles Calvert Don't Expect the World
To begin with you will not be able to programme a lot of things that you would like to. The truth is it could be years or decades before you can program your own program which you are able to sell, let alone your own operating system. Instead of jumping in a the deep end take your time to learn the basics and work your way up. A solid knowledge of the basics will get you further than you think and in the grand scheme of things it is all relative. General ResourcesA list of resources which will help you learn, help you find answers, and help you code. Good BooksA list of books which I have found useful. You don't need to buy them (unless you want to), the best thing to do would be to get them from your local library, have a read of them a decide if you found them useful enough to buy. - Learning to Program in Pascal and Delphi, ISBN: 978-1904467298
- Delphi in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, ISBN: 978-1565926592
- Tomes Of Delphi: Basic 32-Bit Communications Programming, ISBN: 978-1556227523
- Mastering Borland Delphi 2005, ISBN: 978-0782143423
Helpful ArticlesThis guide will be updated regualrly to reflect and changes and additions. If you have any comments about the content of this guide, or wish to add something feel free to contact me or leave a comment.
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