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[ City Zoo |
Announcements |
Articles |
Tips & Tricks |
Bug List |
FAQ |
Sites ]
Note: These pages are out-dated. They are intended for use with Delphi 1.0. There will be no update.
NOTE: If you are not using the Netscape 1.1 browser or another browser that supports HTML tables (proposed for HTML 3.0), it is recommended that you return to the standard version of the Delphi Tips & Tricks.
Below is a list of tips and tricks that I have run across on the various newsgroups relating to Borland Delphi. I have slightly editted these articles to remove unnecessary quoting, etc. However, these tips are untested and may not all work as written.
These tips are now available for download as tips.zip (148K).
The Delphi Tips & Tricks page is now being mirrored at the following locations:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Access* | how to connect your Delphi application to an Access 2.0 database. Lance Leverich |
| AppBlock | how to create a program that blocks the user from accessing
other running programs. The Nomad |
| Assert | a Pascal version of the assert C macro to aid
debugging. Duncan Murdoch, Lester Kovac, Jay Cole |
| ATan2 | the ATan2() function. Nathan Dreon, Terje Mathisen, Jon Jenkins |
| AVISize* | how to determine the playback size of an AVI movie. Hans Hill |
| BasicStr | example code for accessing and using Visual Basic string types. The Nomad |
| BMPIndex* | description of a database indexing technique called Bitmap
Indexing, which can greatly enhance look-up performance. Dan Stevens |
| Canvas* | how to create a TControlCanvas for non-window controls. The Nomad |
| CDTrack* | how to determine which track the current CD is on. Mark Barr |
| ClipBrd | how to put a memory stream onto the clipboard. Mark R. Johnson |
| Cmpnts* | how to access the components a given component owns. Mark Johnson |
| ColorStr* | how to translate a TColor numeric value to a descriptive string
(ie. "clSilver" or "clWindow"). The Nomad |
| Comm | a component for serial communications. Fred Bulback |
| Comm2* | how to solve problems with the TComm component (comm.txt). John Peterson, Carl Mes |
| CPUType | a unit to detect the CPU type, modified from Intel's code. Ray Lischner |
| Cursor* | how to force the mouse cursor shape to update immediately. The Nomad |
| Cursors | how to create and register your own custom cursors. Timothy Barr, Per Bakkendorff |
| Dates* | how to store and manipulate dates and times in Delphi. Martin Liesen |
| DBGrid | a TDBGrid descendant that shows images. Bill Raike |
| DBGrid2* | a component derivative of TDBGrid that exposes Col, Row, and
Canvas properties as well as the CellRect() method. Brian Murray |
| Delay | a Delphi equivalent for the Turbo Pascal Delay() function. Nivaldo Fernandes |
| DelDOS* | how to compile a DOS executable (.EXE) with the Delphi
command line compiler (DCC.EXE). Eric Nielsen, Kevin Smith |
| DLL* | how to prevent multiple instances of DLL objects. David Stidolph |
| DosEnv | example code for accessing DOS environment variables in Delphi. Claude Pellerin, Christopher Fynn |
| DragCtl | how to implement drag and drop of controls. The Nomad, Mark Duncan |
| DropCmbo | how to make a TComboBox drop open. John N. Miller, Luis de la Rosa, Scott Anderson |
| DynArray* | how to declare the size of an array at run-time. Allan Lochert |
| Elastic | how to build a panel that is resizeable at run-time. Dion Kurczek |
| EndSessn* | how to trap the wm_EndSession message and properly shut down
your application when exiting Windows. Hallvard Vassbotn |
| Except | how to implement global exception handling. Cees Binkhorst |
| ExeWait* | how to execute another program and wait for it to complete. Ben Licht |
| ExitWin* | how to force Windows to exit and/or restart. J. Stephen R. Silber, Mike Warot |
| ExpPath | how to expand a path to a TOutlineNode given the index. Christian Feichtner |
| FileCopy | a function for copying a file, preserving its timestamp. David Stidolph |
| FileDate | how to copy a file and set its date & time stamp. Jon Lowe, Ben (benl@panix.com) |
| FileDrag | how to implement file drag & drop from File Manager. Mark R. Johnson, John N. Hodges |
| FindComp* | how to access a component based on a name formed with variables
at run-time. rcram@knoware.nl, Mark R. Johnson |
| Floats | how to use floating point types in components. Sven Lindhardt |
| FloatWin | a unit to make a captionless window moveable -- "floating
windows". |
Anders Ohlsson
| FloatWn2 | a much simpler implementation of floating windows. Steve Teixeira |
| GetClass | how to get to class information dynamically via GetClass(). Marc Palmer |
| GetNext* | how to use the GetNextChild() method of a TOutlineNode. Clifford Stabbert |
| GetText* | how to use the GetText() method to retrieve the full text
buffer of a TStrings property or TMemo control. Mark Johnson |
| GetToken* | code for breaking strings into individual tokens for parsing. Thomas Scheffczyk |
| GphArray | how to quickly copy a 2D array to an image. Paul Sullivan, Stephen Warrior |
| GrabDesk* | how to capture the Windows desktop to a form. Craig Francisco |
| GraphRes | how to use bitmaps stored in a resource file. Mark R. Johnson, Brad Stowers |
| GridClr | how to change the color of a row or column in a grid. Luis de la Rosa |
| HelpSrch* | how to open Windows Help directly to the Search dialog. N.FERNANDES@conservation.org |
| HideApp | how to hide an application from Task Manager. Darnell Cruz |
| HideTtl | methods to hide and show a form's title bar on the fly. Claus Ziegler |
| HScroll* | how to activate the horizontal scrollbar of a listbox. Railton Frith |
| HugeArr | how to allocate a huge (>64KB) array in Delphi. Jon Jenkins, David Stidolph |
| IconUp* | how to force a form's icon to update while minimized. Terence Goggin |
| IncPtr | how to increment pointers (from GetMem and GlobalAlloc/GlobalLock). Marten Larsson |
| IO-Redir | a unit to redirect Input & Output through TCustomEdit derivatives
(TEdit, TMemo, etc.). Kiriakos Vlahos |
| IsDelphi* | how to determine if the Delphi IDE is running. Wade Tatman |
| LoadLib | how to link in a DLL routine at run-time via LoadLibrary. Ben Licht |
| LZCopy* | how to copy and uncompress files using the LZExpand API. J. Stephen R. Silber |
| LZExpand* | how to decompress files using the LZExpand API. Bruce Laurent Laimer |
| MaxSize | code to control the Maximized size of a form. Ben Licht |
| MDITitle | how to kill the title bar of an MDI child. The Nomad, Andy McFarland |
| MemoPos | how to determine the line & column position of the cursor
in a TMemo. xsf@aol.com |
| MenuBmp | how to add a bitmap to a menu item. Kurt Claeys |
| MenuItem | how to respond to a dynamically created menu item. The Nomad |
| Messages* | an example of how window messages can be used when Delphi
events are not enough. Mark R. Johnson |
| Metafile | a unit for displaying and manipulating Windows metafiles. Rene Post |
| MorIcons | how to make more than one icon available for a program. Brad Stowers |
| MultiRes | how to make a form appear consistent at many resolutions. Brien King |
| MultiRs2* | how to make forms appear consistent across multiple
resolution displays. Micheal Novak |
| NbkPages | code to add and delete pages from a TNotebook at run-time. Mark R. Johnson |
| NetInfo* | a unit and several procedures for extracting network user
information from a Novell network. Sajan Thomas |
| Netscape* | how to form a DDE link with a Netscape Web browser. Kerry Podolsky |
| NewWinG* | a unit for accessing the Win-G graphics library that fixes
several Delphi/Win-G problems. Eric Nielsen |
| NextCtl | how to shift focus to the next control in the tab order. Neil Dholakia, Randall Siler |
| NoBeep | how to keep Delphi from beeping on ENTER in a TEdit. Robert Wahler |
| Notebook | how to dynamically add controls to TTabbedNotebook or TNotebook. Mark R. Johnson |
| Palettes | example code for creating logical color palettes. Marten Larsson |
| Palette2* | how to properly respond to the wm_QueryNewPalette and
wm_PaletteChanged window messages. bfschler@cat.syr.edu |
| PChar | an excellent description of how to work with PChars in Delphi. Martin Liesén |
| PrevInst* | a unit for activating the previous instance of an application. Scott May, Anders Ohlsson |
| PrevIns2* | how to switch focus to an existing instance of an application
instead of creating a new instance. Tim Gooch, Marco Cantú |
| ProgMan | how to access Program Manager via DDE. Frantzcy Paisible, Michael Caracena |
| PropInfo | an example of how to dynamically retrieve property values. The Nomad |
| QBF* | a unit showing how to implement Query By Form (QBF) and Search
By Form (SBF) services in Delphi. Rick Rutt |
| RealMode | code to access real mode memory areas. Leopoldo F. Saldanha |
| ScrnSavr | how to make a screen saver with Delphi. Thomas W. Wolf |
| Scroll | how to automate memo/window scrolling. The Nomad |
| Search | a bug fix for the SEARCH.PAS text search function
of the TextDemo project. Pete Royston |
| Segments | a unit for accessing the memory between $A000-$FFFF. Jeremiah Gilbert, Pybe Faber |
| SendKeys | how to do the equivalent of VB's SendKeys. Steve Teixeira |
| SetBound | how to design a new control that catches and/or limits changes to
Left, Top, Width, Height, and BoundsRect. Mark R. Johnson |
| SetTime | how to set the system time & date in Delphi. Khaled Alakhras |
| Share | how to access shared files (i.e. via SHARE.EXE). Mark R. Johnson |
| SlimTab | an example of how to cut down on the resources used by a complex
TTabbedNotebook. Jon Jenkins |
| SplitWin* | how to make a split window with adjustable split. Scott May |
| SrchStr | sample code for string pattern matching. David Stidolph |
| SubClass* | how to subclass an existing window to intercept its window
messages. Lance Leverich |
| SysMenu* | how to add menu items to an application's system menu. jciriell@physiology.uwo.ca |
| TabEnter* | how to make the ENTER key behave like the TAB key in Delphi. Curtis White, Simon Callcott |
| TLine* | some thoughts on how to create a line control and responding
to the cm_HitTest VCL control message. Allen Bauer, The Nomad |
| Toolbar* | how to make a toolbar that does not cause the main form to be
deactivated when a toolbar button is clicked. The Nomad |
| TParser | a description of the TParser VCL object and how it is used. Ray Lischner |
| TransBlt | how to draw bitmaps with transparent areas. Mark R. Johnson |
| Trim | a unit to trim spaces from strings. Bob Swart, Pierre Tourigny |
| Trim2 | another unit to trim spaces from strings. Joseph Bui |
| Trim3 | a third unit to trim spaces from strings -- take your pick. Bob Swart |
| TStream | how to read/write text data to a file using TStream. Michael Vincze |
| TStream2* | how to read/write objects to a file using TStream. Mark R. Johnson |
| TStream3* | how to read/write components to a file using TStream (includessaving a form's layout). Mark R. Johnson |
| VarArgs | a program to demonstrate use of type-safe variable number of
parameters in Delphi. Hallvard Vassbotn |
| VBTypes | where to find functions to deal with Visual Basic types. Steve Teixeira |
| VCSDLL | how to hook into the Delphi IDE's menus & version control. Bryan Slatner |
| Win-G | a WinG
import unit for Borland Pascal. Sean Palmer, Lars Fosdal |
| WrapGrid | a grid component that allows you to use a TStringGrid, but also
wrap the text in a cell. Luis de la Rosa |
NOTE: If you try any of these tips and find mistakes, or an article you wrote appears here that you prefer did not, send e-mail to me at keeper@mindspring.com, and I will take care of it.
![| INDEX ]](../images/bindex.gif)
