Table of Contents - 11

Table Of
Contents

Acknowledgments.........................................................................................5

Introduction..................................................................................................7
From Mastering Delphi to this Handbook..................................................................7
Formatting and Conventions.......................................................................................8
Examples and Source Code.........................................................................................9
Seminars and Consulting.............................................................................................9
About the Author...............................................................................................................9
Contacting the Author................................................................................................10
Looking for Tech Support?........................................................................................10

Table of Contents.........................................................................................11

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1: The Delphi 2007 IDE.................................................................................17

A Short History of the Delphi IDE..................................................................................18
A Single Personality...................................................................................................18
A Non-Breaking Version............................................................................................19
Installing Delphi 2007.....................................................................................................19
The New Folder Structure.........................................................................................20
Running the Delphi IDE..................................................................................................21
A New IDE..................................................................................................................22
A Themed IDE............................................................................................................23
The Welcome Page.....................................................................................................23
The Delphi Editor ...........................................................................................................24
Code Folding and Regions.........................................................................................25
Source Code File Encoding........................................................................................26
Sync Edit.....................................................................................................................27
Editor History.............................................................................................................27
Other (Recent) Editor Features.................................................................................29
The VCL Form Designer.................................................................................................30
Text Baseline for Components Developers................................................................31
Searching in the Tool Palette.....................................................................................32
Making Help Insight Work.............................................................................................32
Generate XML Documentation.................................................................................33
Other Features of the Delphi IDE...................................................................................35
Extended Search Results...........................................................................................35
File Browser View......................................................................................................36
Database Management Tools....................................................................................36
(Limited) ALM Support in the IDE...........................................................................37
The New Help System................................................................................................37

2: Code Templates and Refactoring.............................................................39

Block Completion............................................................................................................40
Live Templates................................................................................................................40
Customizing and Writing Live Templates.................................................................43
Custom Live Templates..............................................................................................47
A Live Template for Help Insight..............................................................................48
Refactoring......................................................................................................................49
Declare Refactoring...................................................................................................50
Extract to Resource String.........................................................................................51
Rename Refactoring...................................................................................................52
Extract Method..........................................................................................................54
Find Unit Refactoring................................................................................................56
Change Parameters....................................................................................................57
Extract Interface and Superclass...............................................................................58
Introduce Field, Introduce Variable, and Inline Variable........................................59
More Together Refactorings......................................................................................60
Find References..........................................................................................................61

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3: Project Management and MSBuild..........................................................63

The .dproj File Format....................................................................................................64
The Build Process............................................................................................................67
Manual Builds............................................................................................................67
Compilation Output...................................................................................................68
Build Events...............................................................................................................69
Custom Targets..........................................................................................................70
Build Configurations..................................................................................................71
The Project Manager.......................................................................................................72
Using Old-Style Build Tools.......................................................................................73

4: The Debugger...........................................................................................75
About Breakpoints...........................................................................................................75
New Stack Breakpoints..............................................................................................76
Fly-by Evaluation.............................................................................................................77
Other Features.................................................................................................................78

5: Recent Updates to the Delphi Language...................................................79

When Private Is Really Private.......................................................................................80
Classes and Inheritance...................................................................................................81
Abstract Classes..........................................................................................................81
Sealed Classes and Final Methods.............................................................................81
Class Data...................................................................................................................82
Class Static Methods..................................................................................................83
Class Properties..........................................................................................................86
Nested Types and Nested Constants.........................................................................86
Exceptions and Constructors....................................................................................88
Class Helpers..............................................................................................................89
The for..in Loop...............................................................................................................92
Inlining............................................................................................................................96
Records on Steroids........................................................................................................99
Records or Classes?..................................................................................................100
Operators Gain New Ground...................................................................................102
The Delphi 2007 Compiler............................................................................................105
Version......................................................................................................................106
Automatic RTTI, or not?..........................................................................................106
DEP, ASLR and NX Support....................................................................................107

6: Core RTL Changes..................................................................................109

FastCode in the RTL......................................................................................................110
New Features for Collections.........................................................................................111
Enumerating Containers (with a Class Helper).......................................................111
Strings and StringLists ............................................................................................114
WideStrings and Unicode..............................................................................................115
WideStringLists.........................................................................................................115

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Other New RTL Features...............................................................................................116

Executable Size under the Microscope....................................................................117

7: Changes in the VCL.................................................................................119

Flexible UI with Margins and Paddings.......................................................................120
Margins.....................................................................................................................120
Padding......................................................................................................................121
Layout Panels: Flow and Grid.......................................................................................121
Align and the Explicit Properties.............................................................................123
ButtonGroup and CategoryButtons..............................................................................124
CategoryButtons Updates in Delphi 2007..............................................................126
Modal Forms and PopupMode.....................................................................................126
Processing Mouse Activation........................................................................................127
Docking Components: DockedTabSet..........................................................................128
The TrayIcon Component........................................................................................130
Assorted New Features..................................................................................................131

8: Memory Management (and Robust Applications)..................................133

FastMM4........................................................................................................................134
Comparing Allocators...............................................................................................135
Tracking Leaks and Other
Global Settings..........................................................................................................141
Memory Status.........................................................................................................143
Buffer Overruns in the Full FastMM4.....................................................................144
Safe Coding Techniques.................................................................................................147
Constructors, Destructors, and Exceptions.............................................................147
Finally blocks............................................................................................................149
Dynamic Type Checking...........................................................................................150
Is this Pointer an Object Reference?........................................................................151
Mixing Objects and Interfaces.................................................................................153
Unit Testing....................................................................................................................154
DUnit.........................................................................................................................155

9: Windows Vista and the VCL....................................................................161

Delphi and Vista: The Basics.........................................................................................162
Windows' Version Checking....................................................................................162
The Segoe UI Font....................................................................................................163
Vista UI Experience.......................................................................................................165
VCL Applications and the TaskBar..........................................................................165
Extending Glass........................................................................................................167
Task Dialogs..............................................................................................................170
New Common Dialogs..............................................................................................176
Themes and Styles.........................................................................................................178
Enabling Themes......................................................................................................179
Themed VCL Controls..............................................................................................179

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The New TreeView Style..........................................................................................180

Windows Resource Protection and User Account Control..........................................181
Windows Resource Protection (WRP).....................................................................181
Virtual Storage..........................................................................................................183
User Account Control...............................................................................................183
Elevation...................................................................................................................184
More Vista Features and Problems...............................................................................187
Built-in Animations..................................................................................................187
Internet Explorer in Protected Mode......................................................................188
PNG Icons.................................................................................................................189
Debug Your OnPaint................................................................................................189
Delphi and Vista, Again.................................................................................................189

10: Database Support and dbExpress 4......................................................191

DB Unicode Support......................................................................................................192
dbExpress in Delphi 2006.............................................................................................194
dbExpress 4 in Delphi 2007..........................................................................................195
Using dbExpress 4 (Upgrading a Program)............................................................197
Using dbExpress 4 (Writing a New Program)........................................................200
A Second Look to dbExpress 4 (Configuration Files)............................................203
dbExpress Drivers....................................................................................................204
Delegate Drivers: Connection Sharing and Tracing...............................................205
dbExpress 4 Internals....................................................................................................212
Using the DBXCommon classes...............................................................................212
Database Explorer for dbExpress.................................................................................218
Other DB-Related Changes...........................................................................................219

11: InstallAware and Other Tools...............................................................221

InstallAware Express.....................................................................................................222
Installing Runtime Packages...................................................................................222
Installing a dbExpress Application.........................................................................226
WSDL Importer and SOAP...........................................................................................227
My Own Delphi Tools....................................................................................................228
CanTools Wizards....................................................................................................228
Object Debugger......................................................................................................230
Memory Snap...........................................................................................................230
Other Relevant Free Tools.............................................................................................231
Indy...........................................................................................................................231
Project JEDI.............................................................................................................232
GExperts...................................................................................................................232
OpenXML and libxml2-pas.....................................................................................233
Former TurboPower Components..........................................................................233
What Else?................................................................................................................235
Professional Components........................................................................................235

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12: Upgrading Projects to Delphi 2007.......................................................237

Managing Source Code Files.........................................................................................238
Backward Compatibility and the Explicit* Properties...........................................238
Variants Troubles..........................................................................................................239
Conflicting Unit Names............................................................................................241
Porting VCL Applications..............................................................................................241
Upgrading Database Projects.......................................................................................242
BDE Upgrade Paths.................................................................................................243
Porting from Indy to Indy 10........................................................................................244
Using Low-Level Sockets.........................................................................................246
Web Development.........................................................................................................250

Postscript...................................................................................................251

Index.........................................................................................................253

Marco Cantù, Delphi 2007 Handbook