Quick start manual

1-2 Delphi Language Guide
Other sources of information
This manual generally assumes that you are working in the IDE and that you are
building applications that use the Borland Component Library (CLX). Occasionally,
however, Delphi-specific rules are distinguished from rules that apply to Object
Pascal programming.
Typographical conventions
Identifiers—that is, names of constants, variables, types, fields, properties,
procedures, functions, programs, units, libraries, and packages—appear in italics in
the text. Delphi operators, reserved words, and directives are in boldface type.
Example code and text that you would type literally (into a file or at the command
prompt) are in monospaced type.
In displayed program listings, reserved words and directives appear in boldface, just
as they do in the text:
function Calculate(X, Y: Integer): Integer;
begin
ƒ
end;
This is how the Code editor displays reserved words and directives, if you have the
Syntax Highlight option turned on.
Some program listings, like the previous example, contain ellipsis marks (... or
ƒ). The
ellipses represent additional code that would be included in an actual file. They are
not meant to be copied literally.
In syntax descriptions, italics indicate placeholders for which, in real code, you would
substitute syntactically valid constructions. For example, the heading of the previous
function declaration could be represented as
function functionName(argumentList): returnType;
Syntax descriptions can also contain ellipsis marks (...) and subscripts:
function functionName(arg
1
, ..., arg
n
): ReturnType;
Other sources of information
The online Help system for your development tool provides information about the
IDE and user interface as well as the most up-to-date reference material for the CLX
libraries. Many programming topics, such as database development, are covered in
depth in the Developer’s Guide. For an overview of the documentation set, see the
Quick Start manual that came with your software package.