Code Faster in Delphi
Last updated on 2020-09-14
About the Book
Don’t touch that mouse! Hands on the keyboard, and eyes front. You’re about to embark on a Bootcamp to tone your coding muscles, sharpen your shortcuts, fix forms faster, and accelerate your career as a Delphi Programmer.
Now drop and give me twenty lines of code and five laps of that while loop.
This book will help you Code Faster in Delphi through a vast array of tips, tricks and hacks to squeeze every bit of productivity out of yourself and the Delphi IDE.
Some ways your coding will be made easier:
By enhancing the IDE with plugins.
You’ll be introduced to powerful language features such as:
- Interfaces
- Generics
- Anonymous Methods
Get started with some of the best parts of the Run-Time Library, including:
- Generic Collections
- Parallel Programming Library
- Regular Expressions
- Enhanced RTTI
- FireDAC
Use Meta-Programming to write and modify code to save you from horribly repetitive tasks.
Improve your physical environment with easy solutions to hardware and station problems.
And of course, once you’ve mastered these, where to go to get even faster and better.
With over one hundred areas of improvement covered, this holistic approach to Coding Faster In Delphi will boost your productivity, and therefore your value to your clients, bosses, and colleagues.
About the Author
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Copyright 1
Dedication 1
Table of Contents 2
Foreword 6
Preface 7
Acknowledgements 8
Introduction 9
Conventions Used in this Book 9
Scope 10
Code Samples 10
Code Faster by Typing Faster 11
Touch Typing 11
Getting Started with Touch Typing 13
Know Thy Keyboard Shortcuts 14
The Delphi Code Editor 16
Keyboard Shortcuts 16
CodeInsight 26
Code Templates 27
MultiPaste 30
The Editor Toolbar 31
IDE Insight 33
Structure View 33
The Class Explorer 35
Code History 36
Macros 38
Surround 39
SyncEdit 40
The Delphi Form Designer 41
Keyboard Shortcuts 41
Quick Edits 43
Quick Actions 44
Add Control and Add Component 45
Object Inspector 45
Structure View 46
The Component Palette 48
Editing the Form’s Source 50
Editing the Clipboard 52
Aligning Controls 52
Position 53
Alignment (and Size) 53
VCL Guidelines 56
Windows Magnifier 56
Customising the IDE 57
IDE Layout 57
Unpinning and Undocking 57
Desktop Speedsettings 60
Changing the ToolBar and ToolButtons 62
Welcome to the Dark Side 63
Write Your Own IDE Plugin 65
Further Learning 69
Language Features 70
Interfaces 70
Further Learning 72
Generics 73
Generic Collections 75
Anonymous Methods 76
Variable Capture 78
Anonymous Threads 79
Further Learning 80
Inline Variables and Type Inferencing 80
Know the RTL 82
Measuring Time 82
Generic Collections 83
TDictionary 85
Further Learning 88
Parallel Programming 88
No Parallel Example 89
Background Thread Example 91
Multiple Tasks Example 92
Parallel For Example 94
Further Learning 97
Regular Expressions 97
IP Address Validation 97
IsMatch 98
Match 99
Matches 100
Replace 101
Summary 102
Further Learning 102
Enhanced RTTI 102
Reading Properties 103
Writing Properties 104
Further Learning 106
FireDAC 106
TFDConnection 106
Adding a TFDQuery 109
But There’s More 110
Further Learning 111
Tools and Plugins 112
Third-Party Tools 112
cnWizards / cnPack 112
Structural Highlighting 112
Tab Order 115
Component Prefix Wizard 117
ModelMaker Code Explorer 119
Live Documentation 120
Class Browser 121
Tip of the Day 123
The MMX Toolbar 123
Navigator 125
Bookmarks 127
CodeSite 129
Further Learning 130
GExperts 130
Clipboard History 131
File Favorites 131
AutoCorrect 132
Backup Project 133
Other Non-Delphi Specific Tools 135
Third-Party Libraries 135
Metaprogramming 136
Case study - BDE Replacement. 136
Find and Replace 137
In the IDE 137
Turbo GREP 137
Delphi AST 140
DFM Parser 142
reFind 143
Mida Converter 145
cnWizards Property Corrector 146
GExperts Replace Components 147
Your Physical Environment 150
Hardware 150
Keyboard 150
Mouse 150
Computer 150
Screens 151
Chair 151
Desk 151
Other Considerations 152
Environmental 152
Interruptions 152
Multitasking 153
Sharpening the Saw 154
Where to go when you are Stuck 154
Google is Your Friend 154
Asking Questions 155
Stack Overflow 155
Recommended Reading 155
Social Networks 156
Facebook 156
LinkedIn 156
Twitter 156
Meetup 156
YouTube 157
StackOverflow 157
Delphi-PRAXiS 157
Becoming Known as an Expert 157
What’s Improved Productivity Worth 158
As an Employer 158
As an Employee 158
Self Employed 159
Diminishing returns on investment 159
Further Learning 159
Final Words and Conclusion 160
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