We've seen many different ways of improving program speed in this book. We've changed algorithms, reduced the number of memory allocations, fine-tuned the code, made parts of programs parallel, and more. Sometimes, however, all of this is not enough. Maybe the problem is too hard and we give up, or maybe the fault lies in Delphi; more specifically, in the compiler.

In such cases, we will look outside the boundary of a local computer or company, and search the internet for a solution. Maybe, somebody has already solved the problem and created a nicely wrapped solution for it. Sometimes, we'll be able to find it. Most of the time, it will not be written with Delphi in mind.

Face it, Delphi programmers (even though there are millions of us) are still a minority in a world of C, Java, and Python. It is much simpler to find a C or C++ solution for hard problems than a Delphi one. This is, however, not a reason to give up. It is always possible—with a bit of hard...