title: Delphi Per Se
author: Tiglari

The basic idea of Delphi is 'components'.  These are modules
that are installed into the IDE (by a command like
Component|Install), where they appear as icons on as
'component palette'.  Installed components can be clicked on
and dropped into forms, or they can be invoked 'texturally'
just by naming them in the declarings of a module.

There are squillions of components available on the internet,
free, share & commercial.  It seems to work well (about
as smooth as PERL modules, modulo the advantages of the
visual IDE).

As Delphi versions increment, the IDE gets more sophisticated,
but if you start with Delphi v2 (occasionally available for free
from various sources), the shift to v5 (current) is not
daunting.
