Borland Delphi is an object-oriented, visual programming environment to develop 32-bit applications for deployment on Windows and Linux. Using Delphi, you can create highly efficient applications with a minimum of manual coding.

Delphi provides a suite of Rapid Application Development (RAD) design tools, including programming wizards and application and form templates, and supports object-oriented programming with a comprehensive class library that includes:

• The Visual Component Library (VCL), which includes objects that encapsulate the Windows API as well as other useful programming techniques (Windows).
• The Borland Component Library for Cross-Platform (CLX), which includes objects that encapsulate the Qt library (Windows or Linux).

When you start Delphi, you are immediately placed within the integrated development environment, also called the IDE. This IDE provides all the tools you need to design, develop, test, debug, and deploy applications, allowing rapid prototyping and a shorter development time.

The IDE includes all the tools necessary to start designing applications, such as the:

• Form Designer, or form, a blank window on which to design the user interface (UI) for your application.
• Component palette for displaying visual and nonvisual components you can use to design your user interface.
• Object Inspector for examining and changing an object’s properties and events.
• Object TreeView for displaying and changing a components’ logical relationships.
• Code editor for writing and editing the underlying program logic.
• Project Manager for managing the files that make up one or more projects.
• Integrated debugger for finding and fixing errors in your code.
• Many other tools such as property editors to change the values for an object’s property.
• Command-line tools including compilers, linkers, and other utilities.
• Extensive class libraries with many reusable objects. Many of the objects provided in the class library are accessible in the IDE from the Component palette. By convention, the names of objects in the class library begin with a T, such as TStatusBar. Names of objects that begin with a Q are based on the Qt library and are used for cross-platform applications.

Some tools may not be included in all editions of the product. A more complete overview of the development environment is presented in the Quick Start manual included with the product. In addition, the online Help system provides help on all menus, dialog boxes, and windows.