TABLE OF CONTENTS As with all commercial software packages, there are various versions of Delphi. The one we shall refer to here is Delphi 6 Professional, running under Microsoft Windows XP Professional. When Delphi starts up, it presents the user with the standard design interface, known as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), as shown in Figure 3.1.
At the very top of the IDE, we have the main toolbar, which includes the main menu and component palette. The component palette allows us to place components many visual, but not all onto the blank grey form, which is what we see when the program executes. During the design stage, the form is patterned with a grid of dots that helps the programmer position and align objects, so that the final appearance of the program looks tidy and professional. The list on the left of the IDE is called the object inspector, and this allows us to change the properties and actions of components that we add to the program. The code editor, where the Pascal code is written, is here located just behind the form. The code explorer, here positioned behind the object inspector, provides information on the various components, program code structures and hierarchical relationships that are present or exist within your Delphi project. How do we compile and execute our first program, which, as we have said, is going to do nothing at all? Simple: just follows these seven basic...
