What is the quickest way to learn to support Delphi? [closed]

Question

I have taken over support for some applications written in Delphi. I have programming experience, but none in Delphi, and very little in OOP. In the opinion of experienced Delphi programmers, what is the quickest way to learn how to decipher the original programmer's instruction, and correct some problems in the code?

BTW, the code was written in Delphi 5, and the original programmer is not available to answer questions about his work.

TIA

Answer 1

The Delphi language itself should not be a problem. It's based on Pascal, and designed for easy comprehension - in fact I have often seen what is practically Pascal used as a pseudo-code. Getting OOP is likely to be more of a challenge.

For a good, basic language reference, I'd recommend 'Delphi in a Nutshell' and of course Delphi Basics.

Further than that, it depends on what programming experience you have had, which you have not specified. COBOL? VB? C/C++? LOGO?

And of course there are hundreds of helpful Delphi experts here on Stackoverflow, who will try to pip each other to the post when locating specific bugs in the code if you can find sections where there is a problem - I'm looking at you in particular, @David Heffernan and @Andreas Rejbrand ;-)

Welcome to StackOverflow, BTW.