The Book

What you get

• 1,200 pages at 7 by 10 inch trim, professionally typeset for long technical reading sessions.
• 81 chapters across 12 parts, sequenced so each part builds on the last.
• 5 reference appendices: language reference, reserved words and directives, useful libraries, migration guide, glossary plus topical index.
• A runnable Delphi 13 project for every code-bearing chapter. Each example folder contains a working .dproj, every named listing as a verbatim Pascal unit, a driver that exercises the listings, and a README. You read the chapter, then press F9.
• Strict, opinionated coding conventions applied consistently across every listing — UPPERCASE control flow, lowercase declarators, properties never bare F-fields, every method body wrapped in TRY/EXCEPT, no Exit, no Inc/Dec on properties, no anonymous methods outside their two narrow carve-outs.
• End-to-end coverage — not just language, but components, cross-platform, web, architecture, databases, and productionising.

Table of contents

• 1 What Programming Actually Is
• 2 Your First Delphi Program
• 3 Reading a Delphi Project

• 4 Variables, Types, Expressions
• 5 Control Flow
• 6 Procedures and Functions
• 7 Records, Arrays, Strings, Sets
• 8 Pointers and the Memory Model
• 9 Exceptions and Error Handling
• 10 Generics

• 11 Classes and Objects
• 12 Inheritance and Polymorphism
• 13 Properties (and Why F-Fields Are Evil)
• 14 Interfaces and Reference Counting
• 15 Advanced Records and Operator Overloading
• 16 RTTI and Attributes

• 17 VCL Windows Applications
• 18 Datasets and Data Binding (intro)
• 19 Anonymous Methods, Lambdas, Callbacks
• 20 Threading Basics
• 21 Parallel Programming
• 22 Logging, Configuration, Command Line

• 23 How a Component Works
• 24 Writing a Non-Visual Component
• 25 Writing a Visual Component (VCL)
• 26 Real-World Composite Component
• 27 Property Editors and Component Editors in Depth
• 28 Building Delphi IDE Wizards (the ToolsAPI)
• 29 Packaging, Distributing, Versioning

• 30 The Cross-Platform Mindset
• 31 FireMonkey Introduction
• 32 Conditional Compilation Done Right
• 33 macOS Development
• 34 iOS Development
• 35 Android Development
• 36 Linux Server Development (no UI)
• 37 Linux Daemons, Signals, and Fork

• 38 How pas2js Works
• 39 Your First Raw pas2js Application
• 40 Building the Framework, Part 1: Application and Form Lifecycle
• 41 Building the Framework, Part 2: Components
• 42 Building the Framework, Part 3: Designer-Friendly Form Definitions
• 43 Building the Framework, Part 4: REST Client and Dataset Layer
• 44 Wrapping JavaScript Libraries
• 45 Routing, State Management, SPA Architecture
• 46 Progressive Web Apps and Offline
• 47 Building, Testing, Deploying a WebPas Application

• 48 Dependency Injection with Spring4D
• 49 Building a Plugin Host
• 50 A Cross-Platform Plugin Host
• 51 Service Contracts via Attributes
• 52 Design Patterns in Practice
• 53 Production Resilience

• 54 Connecting to PostgreSQL
• 55 Datasets, Transactions, Pools
• 56 ORM with Aurelius
• 57 DTOs and JSON Marshalling
• 58 Multi-Tenant Database Patterns

• 59 The Postgres Mental Model
• 60 Designing Schemas
• 61 Functions in PostgreSQL
• 62 Triggers
• 63 Bulk Import Patterns
• 64 Regular Expressions in PostgreSQL
• 65 Advanced PostgreSQL
• 66 Foreign Data Wrappers, Partitioning, Materialised Views
• 67 Indexing Strategy
• 68 Query Optimisation
• 69 Linux postgresql.conf Tuning
• 70 Production Pitfalls

• 71 Delphi for C# Developers
• 72 Delphi for JavaScript Developers
• 73 Using JavaScript Libraries from Delphi
• 74 Python in Delphi (Python4Delphi)
• 75 Calling C and C++ Libraries

• 76 Logging Discipline
• 77 Testing
• 78 Continuous Integration
• 79 Deployment
• 80 Monitoring and Alerting
• 81 Common Production Failures and Fixes

• A Object Pascal Language Reference (compact)
• B Reserved Words and Directives
• C Useful Libraries and Frameworks
• D Migrating from Older Delphi Versions
• E Glossary and Index

Read a sample chapter

Chapter 13 — Properties (and Why F-Fields Are Evil) — is the canonical sample. It shows the book’s voice, the listing density, the rule-card pattern, and the worked-example structure used throughout.

Read Chapter 13 (PDF)

Specifications