Modern Pascal Programming: Going From Intermediate to Advanced (Computer Programming Languages)
Bailey, John
Synopsis "Modern Pascal Programming: Going From Intermediate to Advanced (Computer Programming Languages)"
You know Pascal. You can write programs that work. Now it is time to learn how to write software that lasts. Modern Pascal Programming: Going From Intermediate to Advanced, Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 leaves off and takes the Pascal programmer into professional software engineering. The emphasis is not on learning more syntax for its own sake, but on learning how to design, build, test, secure, and ship software that remains understandable and maintainable long after the original code was written. You will work with Free Pascal 3.2.2 and Lazarus 4.8 while building a substantial application from the ground up: the Pascal Data Explorer. By the end of the book, you will have built a cross-platform desktop application that indexes file systems, stores metadata in SQLite, supports full-text search, communicates with network services, performs background processing, and includes a complete test suite. Along the way, you will learn: Software engineering principles, decomposition, cohesion, coupling, interfaces, dependency management, and refactoring Advanced Pascal types, enumerations, sets, variant records, pointers, dynamic memory, arrays, and managed types Advanced object-oriented Pascal, including interfaces, abstract classes, composition, factories, dependency injection, and runtime type information Generic programming, generic collections, repositories, algorithms, constraints, and functional patterns SOLID principles, design patterns, layered architecture, and practical application architecture Robust error handling, exception hierarchies, validation, result types, logging, and graceful degradation File systems, streams, binary I/O, JSON, INI configuration, and file-system scanning SQLite database design, parameterized queries, transactions, repositories, search, and maintenance Multithreading, synchronization, thread-safe queues, background indexing, and communication with the main GUI thread Advanced Lazarus GUI programming, including virtual list views, actions, custom components, docking, accessibility, and responsive interfaces HTTP networking, fphttpclient, JSON services, asynchronous calls, retry logic, rate limiting, caching, TLS, and network security Unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, test doubles, debugging, profiling, memory diagnostics, compiler warnings, code review, and safe refactoring Application security, input validation, SQL injection, command injection, path traversal, credentials, API secrets, TLS, least privilege, and secure logging Reliability, fault tolerance, defensive configuration, versioning, cross-platform development, packaging, installers, documentation, and production deployment The book is deliberately practical. Each chapter adds another engineering discipline to the Pascal Data Explorer, and exercises give you the opportunity to apply what you have learned rather than simply read about it. This book assumes that you already know the Pascal fundamentals. You should be comfortable with classes, constructors, destructors, basic inheritance, Lazarus forms, file I/O, and basic SQL. If you are coming directly from the beginning, Modern Pascal Programming: Volume 1 provides the appropriate foundation. By the final chapter, you will not merely have learned more Pascal. You will have learned how to engineer Pascal software. The description reflects the book's stated audience, project, prerequisites, and chapter structure.
