My 1 cent on the matter: I'm going to give you a list of differences that I know of between Java and Delphi concerning the programming paradigm. Please note those opinions come from someone who's only interest in Java is "academic". I never wrote a Java program and I never intend to. What you'll see in the following list is stuff that I picked up along the way from blogs, articles, magazines, ng posts etc. I truly hope someone will comment on those because I'm interested in the differences myself!
1) All methods in Java are virtual methods. There's a larger selection of methods kinds in Delphi: static, virtual, dynamic. 2) Everything in Java is an object, including what we commonly call "simple/ordinal types" (integer, Boolean). Delphi makes a clear distinction between objects and non-objects. It also has records and pointers. 3) AFAIK Java does not have Interfaces. Delphi does have Interfaces. 4) You can't have "classic" procedures and functions in Java. AFAIK everything needs to go into a class. Delphi does allow one to have global procedures and functions (ie: not included in a "class"). 5) You already mentioned this: Java has garbage collection, Delphi Win32 does not. I don't know how usefull dot net's garbage collection is for Delphi dot net because I never used that. All-in-all I think there are no fundamental incompatibilities between Java and Delphi. Where the two languages intersect stuff works the same way. Unfortunately they do not "intersect" in all aspects of programming. I think any book you'll find on Java will make assumptions about facilities available (or not available) in the Java language. It will also make assumptions about the available libraries, the interpreter, garbage collection. This means you'll be learning Java, not Delphi! I'd like to recommend you a good OOP book on Delphi but unfortunately most books I've seen on Delphi make the assumption you don't like typing and want to drag-and-drop your way into the programming world. That's also misleading and wrong. Also most of the books I've seen are by Romanian authors on Romanian bookshelves. Mabe you'll find better bookshelves somewhere :) > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Alan Colburn > Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 6:33 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Delphi and Java > > [Not sure whether this message is more appropriate for delphi or delphi- > talk > list. Apologies if I chose poorly :) ] > > As a relative newbie, it's hard for me to find Delphi books I really like. > As an educator, I've found better books on the Java shelves of bookstores > than the Delphi shelf. So, to better understand the world of OOP, I'm > going > to try using the Java bookshelf. I've found a couple books that I think > are > well done (Beginning Java Objects and Head First Java, which take rather > different educational approaches). > > I know that Delphi's object model and Java's are quite similar, with the > only major difference (for someone at my level) being that Java offers > garbage collection & Delphi programmers must free objects themselves. I'm > wondering if there are other things I should be aware of or otherwise > thinking about when reading a Java book and trying to translate it to > Delphi? > > Thanks, as always -- Alan C. > > _________________________________________________________________ > On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to > get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement > > _______________________________________________ > Delphi mailing list -> [email protected] > http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi
