Delphi Coding Practices

Delphi Coding Practices

Application skill for Delphi/Object Pascal style learning (from the archived awesome-guidelines style capsules). Follow Embarcadero baseline; apply DelphiStandards namespace rules when project adopts them.

Core Principle

Delphi quality is PascalCase clarity + unit hierarchy + deterministic cleanup, properties and docs on public surfaces, FreeAndNil in finally blocks.

When to Use / NOT

• Delphi VCL/FMX apps, FireDAC services, Object Pascal libraries.
• Setting up IDE formatter, Pascal analyzer, DUnit/DUnitX tests in CI.

NOT when:

• Free Pascal/Lazarus-only dialect differences, document project baseline.
• Generated form .dfm designer output, validate hand-edited .pas only.

Workflow

1. Layout, indent, begin/end, whitespace (delphi-style-formatting-layout.md).
2. Naming, T/I/E/F/A/L, PascalCase (delphi-style-naming-types.md).
3. Units, hierarchy, uses, structure (delphi-style-units-structure.md).
4. Resources, try/finally, except, docs (delphi-style-resources-errors.md).
5. Verify, compile, formatter, tests on changed units.

Red Flags

• snake_case or underscores (non-API)
• Tab indentation
• Public fields on classes
• .Free without FreeAndNil pattern
• Empty except blocks
• Flat Unit1-style names in large apps
• Missing XML docs on exported API
• Implementation-only units in interface uses
• Heavy with statements

Verification

• Project build (Win32/Win64 target)
• IDE formatter / .editorconfig indent=2
• DUnit/DUnitX or project test runner
• XML documentation compile (if enabled)
• Capsule checklist on new units

References

• awesome-guidelines/references/delphi-style-learning-note.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/delphi-style-formatting-layout.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/delphi-style-naming-types.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/delphi-style-units-structure.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/delphi-style-resources-errors.md