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Delphi articles

On this page you will find an overview of all articles that I have written myself. The more recent articles deal with software development with .NET (C#, Visual Studio, VSTS, Azure, LINQ, Entity Framework, Web services, WPF, Silverlight, ...) in particular. The older articles were often written for the purposes of courses or demonstrations at my computerclub and these articles are mostly about Delphi, PHP, databases, Javascript, Windows, Office, Multimedia applications, Atari, ...

Use the left panel to filter the more than 115 articles by category. These articles can be used freely for personal use. Placing the full articles on other websites is not allowed without the permission of the author.

Documentation Delphi TscExcelExport component

Documentation, release notes and many examples of the Delphi VCL TscExcelExport component (in PDF format). The last version of this component works in Embarcadero Delphi 10 Seattle, 10.1 Berlin, 10.2 Tokyo, 10.3 Rio and 10.4 Sydney and it supports all Excel versions from Office 97 to 2019.

.NET & Delphi - Freeware and open source developer tools

Overview of all kinds of interesting freeware and open source developer tools, plugins and components for Delphi and .NET (GExperts, DDevExtensions, CFBH, MemProof, GPProfiler, FastMM, JEDI, WinSpector, Yapp, SourceMonitor, LINQ for SQL Visualizer, Cache Visualizer, Reflector, Resourcer, Managed Spy, Snippet Compiler, FxCop, NUnit & DUnit, ColorPic, ...)

.NET & Delphi - Change the Recent documents menu

Delphi and C# .NET examples how to add files to the 'recent files' menu or how to clear this part of the Start menu.

Delphi - Developing Pocket PC applications with Delphi 2006

This article 'Developing Pocket PC applications with Delphi 2006' has been published on the CodeGear (Borland) Developer Network website on July 5th 2006. It describes the differences between the .NET and the .NET Compact Framework, how to utilize the Windows Mobile emulators and how using the CFBH tool and the Oosterkamp Class Helpers can make it a lot easier to develop Pocket PC applications with Delphi.

Delphi - Quickstart Guide Delphi .NET Compact Framework, part II

This article describes the preview version of the Borland Delphi for .NET CF compiler. The preview of this compiler can be used by Delphi developers in exploring the world of the .NET Compact Framework on Pocket PC's or Smartphones. A lot of controls and how to use them, the emulators and several tools will be demonstrated.

Delphi - Configure tools menu with VB scripts

This article shows a way of creating handy extensions for the Delphi Tools menu. Most Delphi developers like to add some extra tools like resource editors, database managers, report designers, ... I have created some Visual Basic scripts (VBScripts, VBS) to open a help file or PDF document, open an URL in your web browser, create a zipped backup file, create a list of PAS files, compile your project with the .NET CF compiler, ...

Delphi - Handle SQL Server errors with ADO

This article, which is written in Dutch, describes which exceptions/errors can occur in MS SQL Server and how they can be handled in stored procedures and with ADO components in Delphi. Furthermore this article describes some ideas of how to develop your own error message window to show errors in the language of the end user.

Delphi - Returning data with stored procedures

A comprehensive article about all features in Delphi to use stored procedures to return data to the client. The examples are tested with ADO (ActiveX Data Objects), DBX (dbExpress) and IBX (InterBase Express) components and databases like Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle en Firebird/Interbase.

Delphi - Debugging techniques

Even if you wrote a program in a disciplined, well-structured, careful manner, you will probably still need to debug it to find some bugs. Delphi offers great debugging tools and when you know how to use them, you will surely save a lot of time finding the exact reason of the problem. In this small tutorial I will explain some nice features in Delphi which will help you to debug your programs. Because it is better to avoid bugs, I will also give a few tips to make better programs.

Memproof - Find memory and resource leaks

MemProof is one of the best heap memory and resource 'leaks' debuggers - this means the MemProof will help you find pointers and other various resources that you allocate but forget to free. This article describes how you use MemProof to find memory and resource leaks in your Delphi applications and it gives a few tips of how to avoid these problems.

Delphi - Copy, move, delete and rename files

In the Windows Shell (= Explorer) several Windows API functions are available to copy, move, delete and rename files. Delphi has some older CopyFile, DeleteFile, MkDir, ... functions but the new Shell functions do have several advantages. This article shows all the Delphi examples you need.

Delphi - Programming style, avoid problems and use of IDE

This article gives some tips to write readable and well structured Delphi programs and to avoid bugs and memory leaks. It also gives an overview of the most useful shortcuts for Delphi.

Delphi - Starting external applications

Sometimes you need to start an external application from your own application. In the past this could be done with the WinAPI function WinExec. Nowadays it is better to use the ShellExecute (unit ShellAPI) function. This function can also be used to open an URL, to create an email and to open a file with the application which is linked in the Windows Explorer. This article shows several examples.

Delphi - URLs and emails

In Delphi it is quite easy to open an URL (Universal Resource Location) in your webbrowser by using the WinAPI function ShellExecute (unit ShellAPI). This function is generally used to start applications but it can also be used for calling some internet protocols like MailTo, HyperText Tranfer Protocol (http), File Tranfer Protocol (ftp), News, Telnet, ... This article shows a few examples.

Delphi - Get file information

There is a very nice Shell API function which can be used to retrieve the icon of a file or folder (ShGetFileInfo). In combination with the FindFirst function of Delphi you can create a very useful function which returns all information about a given file. This article shows a detailed example.

Delphi - Splash screen

Almost all Windows applications show a splash screen on startup. Meanwhile other forms will be created. This article demonstrates how you can make your own splash screen in Delphi.

Start programming with Delphi 4.0

In this training course we will gradually get acquainted with the features of the Delphi programming language. We will start with the basic commands and datatypes. Then step by step we will create screens with various components such as buttons, edits, list boxes, checkboxes, ... We will also draw on a canvas and will open images and play videos. This document contains all examples and exercises of the training course.

Delphi - Programming graphics

Delphi offers many features for drawing and painting lines, circles, rectangles, bitmaps, ... and for defining fonts and colors. This article shows several Delphi examples.

Delphi - Drag & drop

It is quite easy to create drag and drop support in run-time. This article shows how to accomplish this in Delphi.

Delphi - Use enter as tab

In forms in which a lot of input is done on the keyboard it can be handy to support the enter key for tabbing to the following input control. This article shows how to do this in Delphi.

A palindrome is a word, phrase, number or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction. Examples are level, 1001, madam, 5445, kayak. This article shows examples in Delphi, C++, Visual Basic, JavaScript and VBScript of how to generate numerical palindromes. Furthermore the performance of these programs will be compared.

Anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as aliasing when representing a high-resolution signal at a lower resolution. Anti-aliasing is used in digital photography, computer graphics, digital audio and many other applications. This article shows how anti- aliasing is calculated and how to use it in Delphi.