Code Faster in Delphi

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.

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 15 The Delphi Code Editor 16 Keyboard Shortcuts 16 CodeInsight 26 Code Templates 27 MultiPaste 31 The Editor Toolbar 32 IDE Insight 33 Structure View 34 The Class Explorer 36 Code History 37 Macros 39 Surround 40 SyncEdit 41 The Delphi Form Designer 42 Keyboard Shortcuts 42 Quick Edits 44 Quick Actions 45 Add Control and Add Component 45 Object Inspector 46 Structure View 47 The Component Palette 49 Editing the Form’s Source 51 Editing the Clipboard 52 Aligning Controls 52 Position 53 Alignment (and Size) 53 VCL Guidelines 56 Windows Magnifier 57 Customising the IDE 58 IDE Layout 58 Unpinning and Undocking 58 Desktop Speedsettings 61 Changing the ToolBar and ToolButtons 63 Welcome to the Dark Side 64 Write Your Own IDE Plugin 66 Further Learning 70 Language Features 71 Interfaces 71 Further Learning 73 Generics 74 Generic Collections 76 Anonymous Methods 77 Variable Capture 80 Anonymous Threads 81 Further Learning 81 Inline Variables and Type Inferencing 82 Know the RTL 84 Measuring Time 84 Generic Collections 86 TDictionary 88 Further Learning 90 Parallel Programming 90 No Parallel Example 91 Background Thread Example 93 Multiple Tasks Example 94 Parallel For Example 97 Further Learning 99 Regular Expressions 99 IP Address Validation 100 IsMatch 101 Match 102 Matches 103 Replace 104 Summary 104 Further Learning 105 Enhanced RTTI 105 Reading Properties 105 Writing Properties 107 Further Learning 108 FireDAC 108 TFDConnection 109 Adding a TFDQuery 111 But There’s More 113 Further Learning 113 Tools and Plugins 114 Third-Party Tools. 114 cnWizards / cnPack 114 Structural Highlighting 114 Tab Order 117 Component Prefix Wizard 119 ModelMaker Code Explorer 120 Live Documentation 121 Class Browser 122 Tip of the Day 124 The MMX Toolbar 124 Navigator 125 Bookmarks 128 CodeSite 129 Further Learning 131 GExperts 131 Clipboard History 131 File Favorites 132 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 141 reFind 143 Mida Converter 145 cnWizards Property Corrector 146 GExperts Replace Components 147 Your Physical Environment 149 Hardware 149 Keyboard 149 Mouse 149 Computer 149 Screens 150 Chair 150 Desk 150 Other Considerations 151 Environmental 151 Interruptions 151 Multitasking 152 Sharpening the Saw 153 Where to go when you are Stuck 153 Google is Your Friend 153 Asking Questions 154 Stack Overflow 154 Recommended Reading 154 Social Networks 155 Facebook 155 LinkedIn 155 Twitter 155 Meetup 155 YouTube 156 StackOverflow 156 Delphi-PRAXiS 156 Becoming Known as an Expert 156 What’s Improved Productivity Worth 157 As an Employer 157 As an Employee 158 Self Employed 158 Diminishing returns on investment 158 Further Learning 159 Final Words and Conclusion 160