If you've read some of my previous posts you know how much I've struggled to make the paradigm shift from being a top-down, procedural programmer to an OOP programmer. I've purchased several books on OOP. And one book series I thought would hold some promise are "The Object-Oriented Thought Process" books written by Matt Weisfeld. I have four different editions on my book shelf.
I struggle with OOP for several reasons. One very frustrating reason is the lack of Delphi/Pascal examples used by authors. Most of the code examples are written in Java, or C, or C# or some language other than Delphi/Pascal.
The last bullet point on page 3 of Weisfled's fourth edition, listed under the heading of "What's New in the Fourth Edition", states:
- Expanded code examples, for certain chapters, in Java, C# .NET, VB .NET, and Objective-C available online on the publisher's website
No Object Pascal or Delphi examples!
No Object Pascal or Delphi examples. I reached out to Weisfeld asking if he might include Object Pascal examples and received a negative response.
I love Pascal. It's elegant. It's easy to read and understand. I've been using Pascal/Delphi since 1985. (2023-1985=38 years). Besides SQL, it's my main programming language. Ok, I confess, I did Active Server Pages (APS) and VB Script for about 10 years.
I've tried loading Java onto my machine so I could follow along and learn the OOP concepts but I just can't wrap my head around the Java syntax.
Today, I discovered the answer that works for me. ChatGPT!
I asked ChatGPT to convert the following Java code from page 24 of "The Object-Oriented Thought Process" to Delphi and the results were very hopeful.
public class IntSquare {
// private attribute
private int squareValue;
//public interface
public in getSquare (int value) {
squareValue = calculateSquare(value);
return SquareValue
}
//private implementation
private int calculation (int value) {
return Math.pow(value,2);
}
}
Here are the results returned from ChatGPT:
type
TIntSquare = class
private
FSquareValue: Integer;
function CalculateSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
public
function GetSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
end;
implementation
function TIntSquare.CalculateSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
begin
Result := value * value;
end;
function TIntSquare.GetSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
begin
FSquareValue := CalculateSquare(value);
Result := FSquareValue;
end;
end.
I know the results are not the indented and formatted code you would get from inside the IDE. This was my first attempt at using ChatGPT. I took several screen shots of my interaction with ChatGPT so I can show you what happened.
Here is my entire ChatGPT session:
Here is the final output from ChatGPT.
uses
System.Math;
type
TIntSquare = class
private
FSquareValue: Integer;
function GetSquareValue: Integer;
procedure SetSquareValue(const Value: Integer);
function CalculateSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
public
property SquareValue: Integer read GetSquareValue write SetSquareValue;
function GetSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
end;
implementation
function TIntSquare.CalculateSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
begin
Result := Round(Power(value, 2));
end;
function TIntSquare.GetSquare(value: Integer): Integer;
begin
SquareValue := CalculateSquare(value);
Result := SquareValue;
end;
function TIntSquare.GetSquareValue: Integer;
begin
Result := FSquareValue;
end;
procedure TIntSquare.SetSquareValue(const Value: Integer);
begin
FSquareValue := Value;
end;
end.
This looks very promising! Give ChatGPT a try converting code.
https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
Enjoy!
Semper Fi
Gunny Mike
https://zilchworks.com
