News
More updates from the world of Delphi development, including first-look news of a very special event due this autumn which you will not want to miss!

Design Patterns
Hallvard Vassbotn has been checking out the ‘gang of four’ and considering their suggestions for a new approach to software design. In this article he discusses the best approach to implementing design patterns in Delphi, with the Singleton pattern presented as a working example.

Surviving Client/Server: Replicating Server Constraints In The Client
Steve Troxell has observed a constant struggle in client/server development about where and how to enforce data constraints. Here he discusses Delphi’s solution to the problem, the data dictionary included from Delphi 2 up, with tips on using it for real and its drawbacks too.

Algorithms Alfresco: Join The Dots
Julian Bucknall bravely dives head first into the concluding part of his discussion of graph algorithms. Topological sorts, solving the travelling salesmen problem, the algorithms of Prim and Dijkstra, it’s all here so come join the party...

Under Construction: Usenet News Reading
Bob Swart investigates how to write your very own Usenet Newsgroup reader in Delphi, from the ground up, covering the murky world of the NNTP protocol, sockets and more.

Diagramming With Delphi, 2: The Adventure Continues
Jim Cooper enhances the diagramming classes from last month, making  the diagram elements movable and sizeable, adding the capability to store diagrams, and using all this functionality in a use case editor (for all you OO design methodology experts out there!).

Beating the System: Animated Icons And Cursors, 1
Dave Jewell has been delving into the workings of the animated cursor files introduced by Microsoft in Windows NT, but now available in Windows 95 and 98. He presents code to allow you to easily include animated icons and cursors in your Delphi applications, with the minimum of fuss and resource use.

One Last Compile...
The source of all wisdom.

COM Corner: Automation Collections
Steve Teixeira observes that every language and programming method seems to have its approach to creating and using containers, and COM is no exception. This month he explains how to use COM collections to best effect.

The Delphi Clinic
Brian Long with more answers to your queries, including: detecting published properties, creating forms in code, non-editable DBGrids and Win32 system modal windows.