Delphi 4 Developer's Guide (SAMS Developer's Guide)

The Delphi 4 Developer's Guide is an advanced-level reference showing developers what they need to know most about Delphi 4. The authors deal with developers every day and offer sound skills, advice, and technical knowledge on the most advanced features of Delphi 4. Topics will include: Advanced level components including embedded links, special features and DLLs including creating your own Visual Component Libraries, Advanced OOP and object Pascal. It discusses issues about application design and frameworks concepts for client/server, enterprise and desktop level database apps, along with Delphi's Multi-tier Distributed Applications Services Suite (MIDAS) and how it works with Delphi.

• The most advanced developers' technical reference on Delphi 4
• Steve Teixeira and Xavier Pacheco are the award-winning authors of the Delphi 2 Developer's Guide and key members of Borland's Delphi development team
• The latest information on the best ways to build efficient, usable applications with Delphi 4 including Borland's new enterprise featurse, cross-component compatability, and Internet enabling capabilities
• CD-ROM contains all the author's source code plus an additional 500 pages of text that covers graphics programming, extending the Windows shell, using ActiveX controls with Delphi, printing, multimedia programming, and much more!

This authoritative and comprehensive title covers the basics of Delphi programming in depth, while demonstrating why Delphi 4 is even more powerful than its predecessors. The text begins with a tour of Delphi 4 basics, including improvements since version 1. After observing object-oriented Pascal programming, including advanced language features, the authors turn to the strengths of using the Visual Component Library (VCL) application frameworks. They include several invaluable sections for corporate developers, including a "coding standards" document. Sections on combining VCL with ActiveX controls round out the basic tour.

Advanced topics include graphics programming, building dynamic link-libraries (DLLs), printing, and multithreading. A rich tour of VCL components, including instructions on how to create custom components, and ActiveX internals follows.

The rest of the book examines strategies for creating applications, from traditional two-tiered, client/server database applications to applications that use the Internet to deliver HTML on the fly using server-side Delphi objects. Finally, the authors look at n-tiered applications that make use of Delphi's powerful MIDAS architecture for distributed computing. --Richard Dragan