Book Image

Mastering Delphi Programming: A Complete Reference Guide

By : Primož Gabrijelčič
Book Image

Mastering Delphi Programming: A Complete Reference Guide

By: Primož Gabrijelčič

Overview of this book

Delphi is a cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports rapid application development for most operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, iOS, and now Linux with RAD Studio 10.2. If you know how to use the features of Delphi, you can easily create scalable applications in no time. This Learning Path begins by explaining how to find performance bottlenecks and apply the correct algorithm to fix them. You'll brush up on tricks, techniques, and best practices to solve common design and architectural challenges. Then, you'll see how to leverage external libraries to write better-performing programs. You'll also learn about the eight most important patterns that'll enable you to develop and improve the interface between items and harmonize shared memories within threads. As you progress, you'll also delve into improving the performance of your code and mastering cross-platform RTL improvements. By the end of this Learning Path, you'll be able to address common design problems and feel confident while building scalable projects. This Learning Path includes content from the following Packt products: Delphi High Performance by Primož Gabrijel?i? Hands-On Design Patterns with Delphi by Primož Gabrijel?i?

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Mastering Delphi Programming: A Complete Reference Guide
Primož Gabrijelčič
Nov, 2019 | 11 hours 14 minutes
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Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
About Performance
About Performance
What is performance?
Algorithm complexity
Don't guess, measure!
Summary
2
Fixing the Algorithm
Fixing the Algorithm
Responsive user interfaces
Caching
Speeding up SlowCode
Summary
3
Fine-Tuning the Code
Fine-Tuning the Code
Delphi compiler settings
Extracting common expressions
The helpful CPU window
Behind the scenes
Optimizing method calls
The magic of pointers
Going the assembler way
Returning to SlowCode
Summary
4
Memory Management
Memory Management
Optimizing strings and array allocations
Memory management functions
Dynamic record allocation
FastMM internals
Memory allocation in a parallel world
Replacing the default memory manager
Fine-tuning SlowCode
Summary
5
Getting Started with the Parallel World
Getting Started with the Parallel World
Processes and threads
When to parallelize the code?
Most common problems
Synchronization
Communication
Third-party libraries
Summary
6
Working with Parallel Tools
Working with Parallel Tools
TThread
Setting up a communication channel
Summary
7
Exploring Parallel Practices
Exploring Parallel Practices
Tasks and patterns
Variable capturing
Tasks
Async/Await
Join
Future
Parallel for
Pipelines
Summary
8
Using External Libraries
Using External Libraries
Using object files
Using C++ libraries
Summary
9
Introduction to Patterns
Introduction to Patterns
Patterns in programming
Patterns are useful
Gang of Four started it all
Pattern taxonomy
Criticism
Anti-patterns
Design principles
Summary
10
Singleton, Dependency Injection, Lazy Initialization, and Object Pool
Singleton, Dependency Injection, Lazy Initialization, and Object Pool
Singleton
Dependency injection
Lazy initialization
Object pool
Summary
11
Factory Method, Abstract Factory, Prototype, and Builder
Factory Method, Abstract Factory, Prototype, and Builder
Factory method
Abstract factory
Prototype
Builder
Summary
12
Composite, Flyweight, Marker Interface, and Bridge
Composite, Flyweight, Marker Interface, and Bridge
Composite
Flyweight
Marker interface
Bridge
Summary
13
Adapter, Proxy, Decorator, and Facade
Adapter, Proxy, Decorator, and Facade
Selecting an appropriate structural pattern
Adapter
Proxy
Decorator
Facade
Summary
14
Nullable Value, Template Method, Command, and State
Nullable Value, Template Method, Command, and State
Null object
Template method
Command
State
Summary
15
Iterator, Visitor, Observer, and Memento
Iterator, Visitor, Observer, and Memento
Iterator
Visitor
Observer
Memento
Summary
16
Locking Patterns
Locking Patterns
Delphi idioms – parallel programming
Lock
Lock striping
Double-checked locking
Optimistic locking
Readers-writer lock
Summary
17
Thread pool, Messaging, Future and Pipeline
Thread pool, Messaging, Future and Pipeline
Thread pool
Messaging
Future
Pipeline
Summary
18
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Responsive user interfaces

A user's first contact with any program is always the user interface. A good UI can make or break a program. Leaving the user interface design aside (as I am not qualified to speak about that), I will focus on just one fact.

Users hate user interfaces that are not responsive.

In other words, every good user interface must react quickly to a user's input, be that a keyboard, mouse, touchpad, or anything else.

What are the tasks that can make a user interface unresponsive? Basically, they all fall into one of two categories:

  1. A program is running a slow piece of code. While it is running, the UI is not responding.
  2. Updating the user interface itself takes a long time.

The problems from the first category fall into two subsets—functions that have non-blocking (asynchronous) alternatives and functions that don't.

Sometimes we can...

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