                        Welcome to Delphi
                        =================

This README file contains important, last minute information
about Delphi. Make sure you review INSTALL.TXT before you install
Delphi. We thank you in advance for maintaining strict
confidentiality about the existence of and characteristics of
Delphi. Do not discuss Delphi in any public forum. Unless
otherwise indicated, all materials provided in this field test
are copyright (C) 1995 by Borland, Inc.

=================================================================
IMPORTANT: You are not permitted to distribute applications
generated with this pre-release version of Delphi (a commercial
release will be available soon). Also, make sure to back up your
essential data before installing.

=================================================================


TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
 1. How to get help
 2. Minimum system requirements
 3. Installation
 4. If you have a previous release of Delphi
 5. Source code to the run-time and component libraries
 6. Demo programs
 7. VBX controls
 8. Guide to Documentation and Help
 9. Known problems


1. HOW TO GET HELP
------------------
The printed documentation and all online information assume you
have installed Delphi using the default directory structure. If
you have any problems with this product, please read this file,
INSTALL.TXT, the online documentation files in \DELPHI\DOC, the
online help files, and the Delphi manuals. If you are part of the
field test program, refer to your cover letter for instructions
on how to contact Borland.


2. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
------------------------------
Delphi requires Windows 3.1 or later and an 80386 or faster
processor (486 recommended), and 6Mb of system memory (the
Client/Server Edition requires 8Mb). A minimum installaton
requires approximately 27Mb of disk space (a full installation of
the Client/Server Edition requires 65Mb).

DCC.EXE, the DOS command-line compiler available with the
Client/Server Edition, requires at least 1Mb of extended memory.


3. INSTALLATION
---------------
Please refer to the file INSTALL.TXT in the \DELPHI directory on
your CD for installation information. The printed documentation
and the notes in this file assume you have installed Delphi using
the default directory structure. After running the installation
program, make sure to reboot your system so changes made to
AUTOEXEC.BAT will take effect.


4. IF YOU HAVE A PREVIOUS RELEASE OF DELPHI
-------------------------------------------
If you have a previous field test release of Delphi, we suggest
that you archive it and remove it from your system before
installing this new release. Do not install this version into the
same directory tree structure as the previous one. Refer to your
cover letter for information on updating your existing projects
to work with this latest release.


5. SOURCE CODE TO THE RUN-TIME AND COMPONENT LIBRARIES
------------------------------------------------------
Refer to the \DELPHI\SOURCE directory for the complete source
code to the Visual Component Library (VCL) and the standard
run-time libraries (RTL). For legal purposes, the source code to
the tab controls (TABS.PAS and TABNOTBK.PAS) are not provided.


6. DEMO PROGRAMS
----------------
Demo programs are in the \DELPHI\DEMOS directory. Demos from the
printed documentation are in the \DELPHI\DEMOS\DOC directory (for
example, the MASTAPP example from Database Application
Development Guide is in the \DELPHI\DEMOS\DOC\MASTAPP directory).

Other database demos are in the \DELPHI\DEMOS\DB directory. All
sample data is in \DELPHI\DEMOS\DATA. The installation program
creates a Borland Database Engine (BDE) alias named DBDEMOS on
your system which is used by all the database demo programs.


7. VBX CONTROLS
---------------
The following VBX controls are now installed as Delphi components
on the VBX page of the Component palette:

  CHART2FX     - 3D graph and chart control
  GAUGE.VBX    - Gauge control to indicate progress
  SWITCH.VBX   - Sample toggle switch
  PICT.VBX     - Picture control (VBX equivalent to TImage)

We suggest that you copy these VBX files from \DELPHI\BIN to your
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.

Delphi is fully compatible with the Borland Visual Solutions
Pack, version 1.1. This product contains spreadsheet,
communication, and other useful VBX controls.


8. GUIDE TO DOCUMENTATION
-------------------------
This section covers the following topics:

o Overview of Technical Documentation
o Interactive Tutors
o Online Help
o Information not included in this release


Overview of Technical Documentation
===================================
The following information media are included with this release of
Delphi:

  Manuals
  =======
  Delphi Users Guide
  Delphi Database Application Developers Guide
  Delphi Component Writers Guide
  InterBase Users Guide
  InterBase Data Definition Guide
  InterBase Language Reference
  ReportSmith Creating Reports

  SQL Links Users Guide (Client Server Edition Only)

  Interactive tutors
  ==================
  This version of Delphi includes seven interactive tutors
  designed to help you learn how to create applications with
  Delphi. To use these tutors, select Interactive Tutor from the
  Help menu:

    - A Quick Look At Delphi
    - Creating A Simple Application
    - Adding Components To A Form
    - Setting Component Properties
    - Writing Event Handlers
    - Setting up a Table View
    - Querying a Table

  Online Help
  ===========
  In addition to topic search and context sensitive help,
  task-oriented help is available for many topics. For example,
  from the Delphi Help Contents screen, choose Building
  Applications | Building Database Applications | Database
  Applications Tasks.

  Note that online help is still under development for many
  topics. In addition, the final product release will include
  the following:

    - Updated Language Definition
    - VCL Reference for Component Writers
    - Up to date reference and task-oriented material for all
      database components
    - Expanded information on error messages

  Online Documentation
  --------------------
  The \DELPHI\DOC directory contains the interface section of
  each Visual Component Library unit in a separate .INT file. For
  example, the interface section of the FORMS unit can be found
  in \DELPHI\DOC\FORMS.INT.


9. KNOWN PROBLEMS
-----------------
The following is a partial list of known problems and includes
things NOT to do. Some of them may cause GP faults or program
crashes. Please remember that this is beta software. Even though
there have not been any data corruption problems reported, make
sure you have back up copies of your essential data before using
this field test:

Installation
------------
Refer to INSTALL.TXT for a list of known issues. Note that this
is a pre-release version of the install program and many options
are not yet fully implemented. For example, several components
are installed even if you directed SETUP not to install them.
Once installation is complete, remove any files or subdirectories
you do not wish to install. Note that the IDAPI directory is
required in order to load and run the default configuration of
Delphi itself.

Development Environment
-----------------------
o Program Reset - Windows debugging support does not always make
  it possible for Delphi to shutdown a running application and
  recover all system resources that were allocated. When
  possible, terminate your running application normally instead
  of using Debug | Program Reset. This is especially important
  when an exception has occurred in your application. If you do
  use Program Reset, you may be bypassing some of your
  application's shutdown code. You may need to periodically exit
  and then restart Windows to recover resources which were
  allocated but not released.

o Insufficient low memory - Windows requires a minimum amount of
  conventional DOS memory in order to launch an application. If
  available conventional memory is insufficient when you try to
  run or debug an application, a CANNOT CREATE PROCESS error
  message will appear.

  Here's how you can increase the available DOS memory:

    o Exit all BDE client applications (e.g. Delphi), run the BDE
      Configuration utility (BDECFG.EXE), select the SYSTEM page
      and reduce or zero the "LOW MEMORY USAGE LIMIT" setting.

    o Modify your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to eliminate
      DOS TSRs or load them into "high memory".

    o Many Windows applications inadvertently use low memory.
      Closing other Windows applications will often free up a
      significant amount of low memory.

  IMPORTANT: This error should occur on very few systems and is
  generally due to problems with system configuration or other
  Windows software. Please contact Borland (see above) if this
  problem occurs.

o Output Directory - Make sure to specify a fully qualified path
  (e.g. drive + directory) when setting the Output Directory on
  the Options | Project | Directories page. Known problems exist
  when the Output Directory does not begin with a drive
  designation.

o Saving new projects - We recommend that you rename units and
  forms from their defaults (e.g. Form1, Unit1) when you first
  save your project. Selecting FILE|NEW PROJECT will create a
  project named PROJECT1.DPR even if one already exists in the
  same directory.

o Interactive Tutors - We recommend using Delphi's default
  environment options when running an Interactive Tutor. Before
  running an Interactive Tutor, make sure that the Component
  Palette is displayed and that you have not deleted the TEdit,
  TButton, TListBox, TDataSource, TTable, TQuery, and TDBGrid
  components.

Visual Component Library
------------------------
o TForm.OnActivate - When a form has been saved with its Visible
  property set to True, the form's OnActivate event will occur
  before the form's OnCreate event when the form is created at
  run-time. If you have handlers for both, you can ensure correct
  ordering by setting the form's Visible property to False at
  design-time (the main form is always shown when the application
  is run).

o Form Scaling & Large Fonts - There are known problems when a
  form is designed on one system and then moved to another system
  with higher screen resolution and larger fonts. The problem
  occurs when the 2nd system's smallest font is too large for the
  form's scaling factor. All of these issues will be addressed in
  the next release.

Database
--------
o The TTable.CreateTable function does not support the Paradox
  formatted memo field type.

o Queries with BCD Parameters - (Paradox tables only)
  Substitution parameters that are of type BCD should be bound
  using floating point data types (not BCD).

o SQL Stored Procedure Parameters - When using a TStoredProc
  component and specifying input parameters at run time, make
  sure the assignment is made using the correct underlying data
  type. For example, when assigning to an integer field, use the
  .AsInteger property (instead of .AsString). There are also
  known parsing problems when parameter names contain
  non-alphabetic characters (e.g. percent (%), ampersand (&)).

o ODBC Connectivity - There are several known problems when
  working against ODBC data sources. These will be corrected in a
  future release.

o ASCII Tables - Several problems exist when working with ASCII
  data tables. These will be corrected in a future release.

o Dataset Synchronization on SQL Databases - When using views,
  non-indexed Sybase and InterBase tables or updateable queries
  against any SQL database, the following behavior occurs:

  o A newly inserted records "disappears" from the dataset when
    it is no longer the current record.
  o Column data that is changed on the server during an insert
    or update is not reflected in the client's current record.
    Change UpdateMode to upWhereChanged to allow further updates
    against a changed record.

o Object Naming - Synonyms are not supported against Oracle or Informix

o Updateable queries -
  o Case sensitive names must be quoted (and case sensitive
    owner/table combinations must be contained in quotes, e.g.
    "FredSmith.CustTable")
  o Quoted column names must be prefixed with a table alias
  o Tables owned by another user must be qualified by owner name

InterBase
---------
o DLL Unloading - InterBase loads two DLLs, FILEIO.DLL and
  INTL.DLL, which are not unloaded when InterBase is terminated
  normally.

o Known problems exist when a path name includes a mixture of
  forward and back slashes (just use the backslash as is customary
  under DOS and Windows).

o When using WISQL.EXE, do not attempt to connect to ISC4.GDB.

o In this release, SPX protocol is not available and we recommend
  that you do not use Named Pipes.

o A future release will include an InterBase ODBC driver.

Miscellaneous
-------------
o Image Editor - Error handling is still under development. These
  and other problems will be fixed in a future release.

o Pressing Control+Break while running the extended memory
  command line compiler (DCC.EXE) may cause a system crash.

Other operating systems
-----------------------
On Windows NT 3.5, common dialog captions are truncated.
Microsoft is aware of this problem.

*****************************************************************
