Books : Delphi 2007 Handbook

Delphi 2007 Handbook

The guide to what's new in Delphi 2007 for Win32

From the best-selling author of the Mastering Delphi series

Author: Marco Cantù
Publisher: Self - Printed and sold on Lulu.com
ISBN: Not Assigned
Published: September 2007
Price: 36.50 USD (about 28 Euros)

Buy Delphi 2007 Handbook on Lulu.com

The book is currently available only on Lulu.com, not on Amazon or other online retailers. If you are interested in buying many copies for training classes, resale, bundle, or any other offer, get in touch with me and I might be able to make a special deal for you.

Buy the Electronic Version

Follow the links to buy the electronic version of Delphi 2007 Handbook.

From the Mastering Series to the Delphi 2007 Handbook

(From the book introduction): After writing 8 Mastering Delphi books, I've come to the decision that the Delphi community needs something different. Rather than writing an all-encompassing book, covering both introductory and advanced material, I think it makes more sense to write a book focused on existing experienced Delphi developers.

As many of these developers have missed the last couple of versions of Delphi, the aim of the book is to bring them up to speed covering the most important features added since Delphi 7. In most cases the material goes into some depth as it is not meant for beginners. Some of the new technologies, though, are only briefly covered as a way of introduction.

In the book there are some references to material in Mastering Delphi 2005 (written by myself and published by Sybex, now an imprint of Wiley), there is a lot from my “Delphi 2006 Update Ebook” (freely available online at my web site), and a clear focus on what's new in Delphi 2007 for Win32, the version of Delphi that this book is focused on.1 This also implies that this book exclusively covers the Delphi Win32 personality as it does. I might as well come up with a specific Delphi for .NET book, but I think that one of the advantages of a smaller publication should be its focus. The focus here is Win32 development for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista, the three platforms Delphi 2007 officially supports.

Table of Contents

The book has 258 pages of technical material, covering (detailed TOC now available, see below):

• The Delphi 2007 IDE (22 pages)
• Code Templates and Refactoring (24 pages)
• Project Management and MSBuild (12 pages)
• The Debugger (4 pages)
• Recent Updates to the Delphi Language (30 pages)
• Core Run-Time Library Changes (10 pages)
• Changes in the VCL (14 pages)
• Memory Management and Robust Applications (28 pages)
• Windows Vista and the VCL (30 pages)
• Database Support and dbExpress 4 (30 pages)
• InstallAware and Other Tools (16 pages)
• Upgrading Existing Projects to Delphi 2007 (14 pages)

You can find the complete book introduction in the Lulu's preview of the book. The detailed table of contents, instead, is on this site: Delphi2007HandbookToc.pdf (67 KB).

Author

Marco Cantù is the author of the best-selling Mastering Delphi book series and is considered a prominent figure in the Delphi community. He was one of the recipients of the “Spirit of Delphi” award in 1999, together with Dutch Delphi guru Bob Swart. His Mastering Delphi books won two "Delphi Magazine Readers' Choice Awards". Marco has spoken at dozens of Borland/CodeGear conferences in the US and Europe, and has offered consulting and training throughout the world

Info from my Blog

My blog is the place to look for background and updated information about the book. This is a list of past blog posts worth reading:

• August 2, 2007: My Delphi 2007 Handbook is Coming
• August 9, 2007: Handbook Cover and Clarifications
• September 14, 2007: Publishing my Handbook on Lulu
• September 17, 2007: Publishing my Handbook on Lulu (Second Part)
• September 19, 2007: Delphi 2007 Handbook Published
• September 20, 2007: Handbook People
• September 21, 2007: Handbook Note 1/113: Eckel and Bucknall
• September 21, 2007: Handbook Note 2/113: Fabrizio Schiavi
• September 23, 2007: Handbook Note 3/113: Wintech Italia
• September 23, 2007: Handbook Note 4/113: Delphi Renaissance
• September 24, 2007: Handbook Note 5/113: Delphi 2007 Udpate 1
• September 25, 2007: Handbook Note 6/113: Piacenza (plus Code and TOC)

Translations

If you are a publisher (or a translator) interested in a partnership for a localized version of the book, feel free to contact me.

Source Code

Release Candidate 1 of the source code download is avaialable. There are still a couple of missing demos and a few useless files, but it is already a worth companion to the book.

Download d2007h_code_rc1.zip (766 KB).

The book source code includes 46 Delphi 2007 for Win32 projects! It is a "release candidate". If you find any omissions, any errors, any unneeded files or missing ones... please let me know of you find any problem. Some of the database file have hardcoded database file paths and missing dbExpress configuration files... (You can reach me on my marco.cantu gmail account).

Use the download files according to the source code licence below.

Source Code License

The author created example code in this publication expressly for the free use by its readers. The source code for this book is copyrighted freeware, distributed via the web site http://www.marcocantu.com. The copyright prevents you from republishing the code in print media without permission. Readers are granted limited permission to use this code in their applications, as long at the code itself is not distributed, sold, or commercially exploited as a stand-alone product. Permission to add limited pieces of code to your application is fine, regardless of the application's license.

Aside from this specific exception concerning source code, no part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, in the original or in a translated language, including but not limited to photocopy, photograph, magnetic, or other record, without the prior agreement and written permission of the publisher.

Examples List (with pages)