object pascal newbie ques
Quote:
>'m just starting in delphi and have found the backend is object pascal.
>does anyone know where i can pick up object pascal?? or download a
>version of it??
>i have tried computer stores and no one seems to have it.
>thanks for any info in advance
Delphi and Object Pascal are nearly synonyms. Find a book on Delphi
and you find a book on Object Pascal. Some of these books go into
detail on the structure and syntax of Object Pascal (but I don't have
any particular recommendations, unfortunately).
Object Pascal is basically suped up Turbo Pascal. If you can find a
book on, say Turbo Pascal 6 or 7 (I think it went up to 7), you'll
have a good foundation on the language. I have "Mastering Turbo Pascal
6" by Tom Swan. It's about 2-1/2 inches thick and is an excellent
reference (but does not cover a significant portion of the new Object
Pascal, of course). It's good for coming to terms with basic language
stuff. You might find a copy in a technical library.
Since the Turbo Pascal (also called Borland Pascal, just to be
confusing) days, there has been Turbo Pascal for Windows (TPW), and
then Delphi (which introduced "Object Pascal"). The main differences
introduced with Delphi's Object Pascal are the object oriented
extensions -- but there are no doubt other differences as well. For
example, in TPW, object programming was done with things called
"objects" (reserved word "object"). Object Pascal still supports this
for backward compatibility only. The new style objects use the
reserved word "class". I don't think this was just a cosmetic change.
I believe Borland did some significant re-working of the OOP
implementation, including the ditching of OWL (which peeved quite a
few people).
If you happen to come across a book on TPW, ignore anything to do with
OWL (Object Windows Library -- similar to Microsoft's MFC, or
"Microsoft Foundation Classes"). Unfortunately, that will probably cut
out 90% of the content of most TPW books you might unearth.
So, to cut a long story short, you're unlikely to find anything on
"Object Pascal" as a subject by itself, because Object Pascal does not
have a separate existence from Delphi.
David Trudgett
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