Delphi Programming Guide
Delphi Programmer 

Menu  Table of contents

Part I - Foundations
  Chapter 1 – Delphi 7 and Its IDE
  Chapter 2 – The Delphi Programming Language
  Chapter 3 – The Run-Time Library
  Chapter 4 – Core Library classes
  Chapter 5 – Visual Controls
  Chapter 6 – Building the User Interface
  Chapter 7 – Working with Forms
Part II - Delphi Object-Oriented Architectures
  Chapter 8 – The Architecture of Delphi Applications
  Chapter 9 – Writing Delphi Components
  Chapter 10 – Libraries and Packages
  Chapter 11 – Modeling and OOP Programming (with ModelMaker)
  Chapter 12 – From COM to COM+
Part III - Delphi Database-Oriented Architectures
  Chapter 13 – Delphi's Database Architecture
  Chapter 14 – Client/Server with dbExpress
  Chapter 15 – Working with ADO
  Chapter 16 – Multitier DataSnap Applications
  Chapter 17 – Writing Database Components
  Chapter 18 – Reporting with Rave
Part IV - Delphi, the Internet, and a .NET Preview
  Chapter 19 – Internet Programming: Sockets and Indy
  Chapter 20 – Web Programming with WebBroker and WebSnap
  Chapter 21 – Web Programming with IntraWeb
  Chapter 22 – Using XML Technologies
  Chapter 23 – Web Services and SOAP
  Chapter 24 – The Microsoft .NET Architecture from the Delphi Perspective
  Chapter 25 – Delphi for .NET Preview: The Language and the RTL
       
  Appendix A – Extra Delphi Tools by the Author
  Appendix B – Extra Delphi Tools from Other Sources
  Appendix C – Free Companion Books on Delphi
       
  Index    
  List of Figures    
  List of tables    
  List of Listings    
  List of Sidebars  

 
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The RTL Package, VCL, and CLX

Until version 5, Delphi's class library was known as VCL, which stands for Visual Components Library. This is a component library mapped on top of the Windows API. Kylix, the Delphi version for Linux, introduced a new component library, called CLX (Component Library for X-Platform or Cross Platform; the acronym is pronounced "clicks"). Delphi 6 was the first edition to include both the VCL and CLX libraries. For visual components, the two class libraries are alternative one to the other. However, the core classes and the database and Internet portions of the two libraries are basically shared.

VCL was considered as a single large library, although programmers used to refer to different parts of it (components, controls, nonvisual components, data sets, data-aware controls, Internet components, and so on). CLX introduces a distinction in four parts: BaseCLX, VisualCLX, DataCLX, and NetCLX. Only in VisualCLX does the library use a totally different approach between the Windows and Linux platforms; the rest of the code is inherently portable to Linux. In the following section, I discuss these two libraries; the rest of the chapter focuses on the common core classes.

In recent versions of Delphi, this distinction is underlined by the fact that the core non-visual components and classes of the library are part of the new RTL package, which is used by both VCL and CLX. Moreover, using this package in non-visual applications (for example, web server programs) allows you to reduce considerably the size of the files to deploy and load in memory.

Traditional Sections of VCL

Delphi programmers used to refer to the sections of the VCL with names Borland originally suggested in its documentation—names that became common afterward for different groups of components. Technically, components are subclasses of the TComponent class, which is one of the root classes of the hierarchy, as you can see in Figure 4.1. The TComponent class inherits from the TPersistent class; the role of these two classes will be explained in the next section.

Click To expand
Figure 4.1: A graphical representation of the main groups of VCL components

In addition to components, the library includes classes that inherit directly from TObject and from TPersistent. These classes are collectively known as Objects in portions of the documentation, a rather confusing name. These noncomponent classes are often used for values of properties or as utility classes used in code; not inheriting from TComponent, these classes cannot be used directly in visual programming.

Note 

To be more precise, noncomponent classes cannot be made available in the Component Palette and cannot be dropped directly into a form, but they can be visually managed with the Object Inspector as subproperties of other properties or items of collections of various types. So, even noncomponent classes are often easily used when interacting with the Form Designer.

The component classes can be further divided into two main groups: controls and nonvisual components.

Controls  All the classes that descend from TControl. Controls have a position and a size on the screen and show up in the form at design time in the same position they'll have at run time. Controls have two different subspecifications—window-based or graphical— that I'll discuss in more detail in Chapter 5, "Visual Controls."

Nonvisual Components  All the components that are not controls—all the classes that descend from TComponent but not from TControl. At design time, a nonvisual component appears on the form or data module as an icon, with a caption below it (the caption is optional on forms). At run time, some of these components may be visible (for example, the standard dialog boxes), and others are always invisible (for example, the database table component).

Tip 

You can simply move the mouse cursor over a control or component in the Form Designer to see a Tooltip with its name and class type (and some extended information). You can also use an environment option, Show Component Captions, to see the name of a nonvisual component under its icon.

The traditional subdivision of VCL is very common for Delphi programmers. Even with the introduction of CLX and some new naming schemes, the traditional names will probably survive and merge into Delphi programmers' jargon.

The Structure of CLX

Borland now refers to different portions of the CLX library using one terminology under Linux and a slightly different (and less clear) naming structure in Delphi. This new subdivision of the cross-platform library represents more logical areas than the structure of the class hierarchy:

BaseCLX  The core of the class library: the topmost classes (such as TComponent) and several general utility classes (including lists, containers, collections, and streams). Compared to the corresponding classes of VCL, BaseCLX is largely unchanged and is highly portable between the Windows and Linux platforms. This chapter is largely devoted to exploring BaseCLX and the common VCL core classes.

VisualCLX  The collection of visual components, generally called controls. This is the portion of the library that is more tightly related to the operating system: VisualCLX is implemented on top of the Qt library, available both on Windows and on Linux. Using VisualCLX allows for full portability of the visual portion of your application between Delphi on Windows and Kylix on Linux. However, most of the VisualCLX components have corresponding VCL controls, so you can also easily move your code from one library to the other. I'll discuss VisualCLX and the controls of VCL in Chapter 5.

DataCLX  All the database-related components of the library. DataCLX is the front end of the new dbExpress database engine included in both Delphi and Kylix. Delphi also includes the traditional BDE front end, dbGo, and InterBase Express (IBX). If we consider all these components as part of DataCLX, only the dbExpress front end and IBX are portable between Windows and Linux. In addition, DataCLX includes the ClientDataSet component, now called MyBase, and other related classes. Delphi's data access components are discussed in Part III of the book.

NetCLX  The Internet-related components, from the WebBroker framework to the HTML producer components, from Indy (Internet Direct) to Internet Express, from WebSnap to XML support. This part of the library is, again, highly portable between Windows and Linux. Internet support is discussed in Part IV of the book. (The name is short for Internet CLX, and has nothing to do with the Microsoft .NET technology it predates.)

VCL-Specific Sections of the Library

The preceding areas of the library are available, with the differences I've mentioned, on both Delphi and Kylix. In Delphi, however, other sections of the VCL are for one reason or another specific to Windows only:

  • The Delphi ActiveX (DAX) framework provides support for COM, OLE Automation, ActiveX, and other COM-related technologies. See Chapter 12, "From COM to COM+," for more information on this area of Delphi.

  • The Decision Cube components provide Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) support but have ties with the BDE and haven't been updated recently. Decision Cube is not discussed in the book.

Finally, the default Delphi installation includes some third-party components, such as TeeChart for business graphics, RAVE for reporting and printing, and IntraWeb for Internet development. Some of these components will be discussed in the book, but they are not strictly part of the VCL. RAVE and IntraWeb are also available for Kylix.


 
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