I have stated repeatedly that the best way to improve code speed is to change the algorithm.  Sometimes, however, this is just not possible because you are already using the best possible algorithm. It may also be completely impractical as changing the algorithm may require rewriting a large part of the program.

If this is the case and the code is still not running fast enough, we have multiple available options. We can start optimizing the program, by which I mean that we can start changing small parts of the program and replacing them with faster code. This is the topic of the chapter that you are currently reading.

Another option would be to rewrite a part of the program in assembler. Delphi offers quite decent support for that and we'll look into that possibility near the end of this chapter. We can also find a library that solves our problem. It could be written in an assembler or created by a compiler that produces faster code than Delphi—typically we...