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- From: Don Croyle <croyle@gelemna.ft-wayne.in.us>
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce,comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.misc,comp.lang.pascal.delphi.databases,comp.answers,news.answers
- Subject: Welcome to comp.lang.pascal.delphi.* (FAQ)
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- Date: 9 Nov 1998 20:00:06 GMT
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-
- Archive-name: clpd-welcome.txt
- News-answers-archive-name: pascal/delphi/welcome
- Posting-Frequency: weekly, alternating between
- comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce,comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.misc,
- comp.lang.pascal.delphi.databases,comp.answers,news.answers and
- comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce,comp.lang.pascal.delphi.advocacy,
- comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.usage,
- comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.writing,comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc
- Last-modified: June 25, 1998
-
- Welcome to comp.lang.pascal.delphi.* (FAQ)
-
- Latest changes:
- Update URL for Torry's Delphi Pages.
-
- ========
- Contents
- ========
- 0. Overview
- 1. Newsgroups in the hierarchy
- A. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.advocacy
- B. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce
- C. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.misc
- D. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.usage
- E. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.writing
- F. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.databases
- G. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc
- 2. Other Borland Delphi related newsgroups
- A. comp.sources.delphi
- B. alt.lang.delphi and alt.comp.lang.borland-delphi
- C. borland.*
- D. installshield.*
- E. Groups in regional or language hierarchies
- 3. General MS Windows programming newsgroups
- 4. Newsgroups that don't want to hear about Borland Delphi
- A. alt.online-service.delphi
- B. clari.sports.local.mid-atlantic.pennsylvania.philadelphia and
- clari.web.sports.local.mid-atlantic.pennsylvania.philadelphia
- C. comp.lang.pascal.borland
- 5. Other resources on the Internet
- A. Delphi Archives
- B. FAQ sites
- 6. A few netiquette points
- A. Minimize crossposting
- B. Use a meaningful Subject
- C. Don't expect an immediate answer
- D. Read the newsgroup
- E. Pros and Cons of address mangling
- 7. Disclaimers and Copyright
-
- =====
- 0. Overview
-
- This document deals primarily with the main Usenet hierarchy concerned
- with Borland Delphi, comp.lang.pascal.delphi.*, and secondarily with
- other newsgroups that Delphi programmers may be interested in. A few
- pointers to useful WWW sources have been thrown in as an afterthought.
-
- It doesn't provide any answers to programming questions. Instead it
- will, hopefully, help the reader get such questions answered by using
- the newsgroups in the comp.lang.pascal.delphi.* hierarchy effectively.
-
- =====
- 1. Newsgroups in the hierarchy
-
- A. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.advocacy
-
- Description: Contentious issues related to Delphi.
-
- Charter: This group is for the discussion of Borland Delphi as
- it compares to other products with similar purposes. This
- includes debate over decisions made by Borland in the
- development and marketing of Delphi.
-
- B. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce
-
- Description: Delphi related announcements. (Moderated)
-
- Article submission: clpda@gelemna.ft-wayne.in.us
- Admin contact address: clpda-request@gelemna.ft-wayne.in.us
-
- Posting guidelines:
- http://www.infonex.com/~dacroyle/clpda/clpda-guidelines.txt
- Archive: http://www.infonex.com/~dacroyle/clpda/
-
- Charter: A moderated newsgroup for the posting of announcements
- and information relating to Borland Delphi. This includes
- one-shot announcements such as:
-
- New/revised components, libraries and tools for Delphi
- Publication of books and magazines on using Delphi
- Web and FTP sites devoted to Delphi
- Users-group formation and meetings
-
- In addition periodic postings such as Delphi FAQs, FAQ pointers
- and HOWTOs are encouraged.
-
- Among the types of article not appropriate for posting are
- employment related announcements or articles containing
- binaries or significant amounts of source code. In all cases,
- follow ups are to be directed elsewhere in the
- comp.lang.pascal.delphi.* hierarchy.
-
- The purpose of moderation is to keep the group within its
- fairly narrow charter. Follow ups and other general posts are
- to be rejected with a pointer to a more suitable group. It is
- also the moderator's duty to verify the URLs of Web and FTP
- sites to confirm that they are reachable and contain Delphi
- related material.
-
- C. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.misc
-
- Description: General component issues.
-
- Charter: This group is for general discussion of Delphi
- components, both those supplied by Borland and those available
- from third parties. In particular, attempts to locate
- components for specific tasks and opinions about the relative
- usefulness of available components are directed here.
-
- D. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.usage
-
- Description: Using pre-written components.
-
- Charter: This group is for questions and discussions on how to
- use existing components in the course of writing Delphi
- programs. It covers both Borland supplied and third-party
- components.
-
- E. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.writing
-
- Description: Writing Delphi components.
-
- Charter: This group is devoted to writing components for use
- with Borland Delphi. Writing components (whether original or
- derived), creating property editors and creating Help files for
- them are on topic, usage questions are not.
-
- F. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.databases
-
- Description: Database aspects of Borland Delphi.
-
- Charter: This group would be for discussions related to using
- the database aspects of Delphi. Discussions of Database
- Desktop and Reportsmith would belong here, as would
- discussions of the database aspects of VCL, client-server
- issues, and most other things relating to databases.
-
- G. comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc
-
- Description: General issues with Borland Delphi.
-
- Charter: This would be the catch-all discussion group not
- dealing with the specific technical issues covered in the
- other groups. The name "misc" was chosen to be in line with
- current newsgroup name conventions.
-
- Discussions of how to use the IDE and help system, how to
- install components including VBXs, how to use VCL and Object
- Pascal (except database specific issues)*, how to port code
- from other languages to Delphi, how to create DLLs, bugs and
- workarounds in VCL, announcements of new products**, general
- help in getting started, where to find ftp and www sites
- regarding Delphi, etc. would all be on topic here.
-
- * later moved to comp.lang.pascal.delphi.components.usage
- ** later moved to comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce
-
- =====
- 2. Other Borland Delphi related newsgroups
-
- A. comp.sources.delphi
-
- Description: Delphi and ObjectPascal source code. (Moderated)
-
- Article submission: csd@gelemna.ft-wayne.in.us
- Admin contact address: csd-request@gelemna.ft-wayne.in.us
-
- FAQ: http://www.infonex.com/~dacroyle/clpda/csd-faq.txt
- Posting guidelines:
- http://www.infonex.com/~dacroyle/clpda/csd-guidelines.txt
- Archive: http://www.infonex.com/~dacroyle/csd/
-
- Charter: A moderated newsgroup for the posting of Borland Delphi
- and ObjectPascal sources, specifically source code and
- associated binaries such as .RES or .DCR files. Submissions
- must meet the following criteria:
-
- - Source code and files necessary for compilation _only_.
- Precompiled units and executables will be rejected.
- - You are legally permitted to submit the files for posting.
- - The moderator is legally permitted to post the files.
- - The files contain no viruses or trojans.
- - Binary files should be uuencoded.
- - Small sample data files may be submitted with a project.
-
- The moderator will take all care to ensure that copyrights are
- enforced, but will not be held responsible in the event of a
- mistake in this regard.
-
- Articles which are not acceptable include anything which is not
- required for compilation or an associated sample data file.
-
- The purpose of moderation is to keep the group within its narrow
- charter. Followups and other general posts are to be rejected
- with a pointer to a more suitable group.
-
- B. alt.lang.delphi and alt.comp.lang.borland-delphi
-
- These two newsgroups were created soon after the first version
- of Delphi was released in a futile attempt to get rid of the
- traffic that was then flooding comp.lang.pascal. Despite the
- fact that their creation went against all the guidelines for
- creating alt groups, they've managed to get decent propagation
- and get a reasonable amount of on-topic traffic.
-
- C. borland.*
-
- Inprise has established a private hierarchy that contains a
- number of Delphi related newsgroups. The home of this hierarchy
- is their NNTP server: forums.inprise.com. Some of these
- newsgroups appear to be being propagated to outside servers.
-
- See http://www.inprise.com/newsgroups/ for further information.
-
- D. installshield.*
-
- Installshield appears to have established some private
- hierarchies to support its products, including a group for the
- version that ships with Delphi. The home for these is at
- news.installshield.com. Some of these newsgroups appear to be
- propagating to outside servers.
-
- E. Groups in regional or language hierarchies
-
- This list is based on a quick run through the active file.
- Additions and corrections would be greatly appreciated.
-
- de.comp.lang.pascal.delphi (German)
- es.comp.lenguajes.delphi (Spanish)
- fido7.delphi
- fido7.kharkov.delphi (Russian)
- fido7.ru.delphi (Russian)
- fido7.ru.delphi.db (Russian)
- fido7.ru.delphi.info (Russian)
- it.comp.delphi (Italian)
- pl.comp.lang.delphi (Polish)
- z-netz.sprachen.delphi (German)
-
- =====
- 3. General MS Windows programming newsgroups
-
- If you have a problem with something in the Windows API that isn't
- encapsulated by the VCL, asking questions in a Delphi oriented
- newsgroup may not be overly effective. The answers that you get in a
- more general newsgroup will probably be in C++, rather than Pascal.
- Windows is written in C++ and learning to at least read the language
- is a necessity if you want to go beyond hooking black boxes together.
-
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.controls
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.graphics
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.memory
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.multimedia
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.networks
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.nt.kernal-node
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.ole
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.mfc
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.misc
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.owl
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools.winsock
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.vxd
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32
- comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.winhelp
-
- The microsoft hierarchy was created by Microsoft. It was originally a
- private hierarchy, but is now widely carried. Potentially interesting
- newsgroups include:
-
- microsoft.public.win16.programmer.gdi
- microsoft.public.win16.programmer.kernel
- microsoft.public.win16.programmer.networks
- microsoft.public.win16.programmer.pen
- microsoft.public.win16.programmer.tools
- microsoft.public.win16.programmer.ui
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.gdi
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.installwizard.beta
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.international
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.kernel
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.mapi
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.mmedia
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.networks
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.ole
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.pen
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.tapi
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.tools
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.ui
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.wince
-
- 4. Newsgroups that don't want to hear about Borland Delphi
-
- A. alt.online-service.delphi
-
- This newsgroup deals with the online service Delphi, which
- operates in the US and UK. Their use of the name predates
- Borland's by several years. The regulars on this newsgroup
- sometimes get irate when people ask them programming questions.
-
- B. clari.sports.local.mid-atlantic.pennsylvania.philadelphia and
- clari.web.sports.local.mid-atlantic.pennsylvania.philadelphia
-
- While it should be obvious that these to newsgroups have nothing
- to do with Delphi, they get hit when someone tries to post to
- every newsgroup that has 'delphi' in its name. Both newsgroups
- are moderated.
-
- C. comp.lang.pascal.borland
-
- This newsgroup deals with Turbo/Borland Pascal in all of the
- versions that predate Delphi.
-
- =====
- 5. Other resources on the Internet
-
- Neither of these lists is exhaustive. There are a huge number of
- Delphi related WWW sites. These are merely intended to provide a
- starting point. Additions and corrections welcome.
-
- A. Delphi Archives
-
- Delphi Deli: http://www.delphideli.com
- Delphi EXchange: http://www.delphiexchange.com/
- Delphi Super Page: http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/delphi/
- Torry's Delphi Pages: http://www.torry.ru/
-
- B. FAQ sites
-
- Inprise's Delphi 3.0 FAQ:
- http://www.inprise.com/devsupport/delphi/qanda/index.html
- Delphi FAQ site: http://www.sbrain.syh.fi/delphi/delphi_faq.html
-
- =====
- 6. A few netiquette points
-
- This section is not intended to replace the articles to be found in
- news.announce.newusers. If you're new to Usenet, reading what's
- posted there is an excellent starting point. This section is
- concerned with practices that might help get your questions answered.
-
- A. Minimize crossposting
-
- Very few articles are really on-topic in more than one or two
- newsgroups. While crossposting to every newsgroup that seems
- vaguely related might appear to be a way to reach more people,
- there are several factors that can negate that.
-
- To begin with, many news sites quietly drop articles crossposted
- to more than a certain number of newsgroups. This means that
- your article won't be seen by readers at those sites, or at any
- site that gets net news from them. Individuals often do the
- same thing on a smaller scale by killfiling articles crossposted
- to more than a few newsgroups. Properly designed newsreaders
- only show a given article to a reader once, in the first
- newsgroup that the reader looks at, and many people won't reply
- to an article that seems to be in the wrong place. Finally,
- many people will respond to a crossposted article only in the
- newsgroup where they read it, and you'll miss the reply if you
- aren't actually reading that group.
-
- Don't, however, take this to mean that you should post the same
- article to several newsgroups individually. Crossposting is
- evil, but multi-posting is worse.
-
- B. Use a meaningful Subject
-
- People are more likely to read your article if the Subject line
- gives some indication of the contents. "Please help" or "TEdit
- problem" isn't very helpful. On the other hand, you don't want to try
- to fit the whole contents of the article into one huge line. Try to
- indicate the general problem in 20-40 characters, then be as specific
- as you can in the body.
-
- C. Don't expect an immediate answer
-
- Your article may not get of your home news server for hours, and
- may not reach someone who can and will answer it for weeks (if
- at all). Be patient. Remember that everyone reading the
- newsgroup is a volunteer, and that your problems are not
- necessarily a priority for them.
-
- D. Read the newsgroup
-
- Read before you post. It will give you an idea of what the
- newsgroup is actually about, and you might stumble across
- something useful.
-
- Read after you post. Even if you ask for mail replies, many
- people will only respond in the newsgroup.
-
- E. Pros and cons of address mangling
-
- Some people mangle their e-mail addresses in an effort to stay
- off of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) lists. This can work
- to some extent, especially if you've never used the address
- publicly in news or on a web page.
-
- On the other hand, in some quarters using a mangled address is
- viewed as net abuse in its own right. It violates several
- standards, and makes extra work for the DNS and mail servers.
- It also makes it harder for the people that you do want to send
- you mail to do so.
-
- Mail filtering is a better option. If you have a shell account
- that will let you use procmail, a few simple recipes can work
- wonders. If you only have dial-up access, there are several
- free mail clients that can sort your mail and bury the unwanted
- stuff in a junk folder.
-
- =====
- 7. Disclaimers and Copyright
-
- All trademarks used in this document are the property of their
- respective owners.
-
- The opinions expressed are those of the author, and not those of any
- other organization. The author is not responsible for the content of
- newsgroups or WWW sites referred to. The information provided is
- distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
- WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
- FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
-
- This document is Copyright 1997-1998 by Donald A Croyle. It may be
- used or reproduced freely, under the terms of the GNU General Public
- License, see http://www.fsf.org/copyleft/gpl.html for details.
- --
- Approval for posting does not constitute an endorsement.
- Articles posted to comp.lang.pascal.delphi.announce are archived at:
- WWW Archive: http://www.infonex.com/~dacroyle/clpda/
-