Older Delphi Instructional Materials [closed]

Question

There's a lot of old Delphi books available inexpensively. As a self-taught (advanced) beginner, it is difficult for me to know which ideas are still relevant and up-to-date, and which have become outdated. I'm hoping for a little guidance. For example, would it be outmoded to learn about databases powered by BDE? Is COM no longer a commonly used model? (note: I may be off in how I'm using these terms ... I don't know much about them.)

Thanks for your thoughts!

Answer 1

A lot of the Delphi concepts (and code), even from older versions, apply equally well to newer ones. Certain components aren't around any more (NetMasters, etc), some are frozen and shouldn't be used for new development (BDE), and there are a HUGE number of new features to catch up on.

As for COM. In the immortal words of Lino Tadros (the guy largely responsible for getting COM support into Delphi):

COM is like SMOKING: If you have not started, you should not start now, if you are already doing it, it is time to stop.

Answer 2

BDE is dead, but it may be used somewhere, and you may find BDE enthusiasts. BDE was tricky to install, and there were some legal problems as well. COM is also dead, but it is still available and widely used in legacy applications. Most people use free libraries like JEDI or Zeos - or commercial, DevExpress or TMS. I think learning basic VCL and some free libraries will be good to start. Also knowing exactly how objects and classes work in Delphi will be a great aid for your career development.

Answer 3

Death of a coding practice is a very relative thing. I still know of COBOL applications that are still running... mainly because they still work and don't deal with dates so it was more than ok to just let them run. Sometimes it might not be the best "new way" of doing things, but if it works without any changes... why mess with it.

The concept of COM hasn't really died... its evolving, and knowing how to use it can help you understand and apply the latest evolution. Do you need to know assembly to be a good Delphi programmer? Absolutely not, but it is knowledge that can be helpful in understanding how to better optimize your routines.

In Delphi, COM isn't just about the object model. Its also about interfaces. Interfaces can still be a very useful tool in the bag and if you know COM development in Delphi you know how interfaces work.

As for the legacy books... I say keep them on the shelf and glance at them from time to time. Sometimes looking back might help you leap forward. Its why I have a copy of Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs on my shelf. Funny thing, most of the code in the book still compiles with a few minor changes. Sure the code is not OOP, but the concepts are still ones I use today. You might be amazed at how much a binary tree hasn't changed, and how the best way to optimize it is still the same. How sometimes using a simple old-master new-master routine is faster than loading the data into a SQL Table and then performing an update.

Its not ALWAYS about the cool factor... sometimes its about what works.