README

IPC 2026 — Pascal and Databases

Participant material for the keynote and the course "Designing Databases with Delphi" by Olaf Monien at the International Pascal Congress 2026 (Salamanca).

Language: English.

Material is added here as the event progresses. Each day's code is compiled and, where applicable, test-covered — not pseudocode.

Contents

Keynote

• KeyNote/IPC2026_Keynote_Pascal_and_Databases.pdf — the plenary deck. Arc: simplicity (Wirth → Pascal → Cantù) → Delphi's DB-access history → "queries on TForm1" → FireDAC done right → the ecosystem → an SSOT data layer → VCL + FMX → human- and agent-legible architecture.

Course

• Database/ — the shared demo database used by every day.
  • northwind_current.db — Northwind (SQLite), dates shifted to today (full, ~16k orders).
  • northwind_compact.db — compact variant (93 customers, 200 most-recent orders, ~0.7 MB) for the first exercises.
  • shift_dates.py — reproducible date-shift script.
  • README_Database.md — transformation details.
• Day1/ — Foundations & the right architecture from line 1.
  • Handout_Day1.md, Exercises_Day1.md
  • slides/IPC2026_Day1_Course_Intro.pdf
  • code/ — a console app (no UI by design) plus a DUnitX test project: all DB access in a data module, the schema generated from a single source of truth.
• Day2/ — FireDAC master-detail, the fast designer way.
  • Handout_Day2.md
  • slides/IPC2026_Day2_FireDAC_MasterDetail.pdf
  • code/ — a VCL customers→orders browser wired in the designer; the deliberate counterpoint to Day 1's architecture.
• Day3/ — one data core, two UIs (VCL + FMX), with DX.Data complementing FireDAC.
  • Handout_Day3.md, Exercises_Day3.md
  • slides/IPC2026_Day3_OneCore_TwoUIs.pdf
  • code/ — the Northwind Explorer: search, browse (FireDAC master-detail) and edit customers in both VCL and FMX over one shared, UI-agnostic core. Entities are the schema single source of truth (DX.Data); validation derives from it; FireDAC stays the core and DX.Data fills the gaps. Schema-driven DUnitX tests (8/8). DX.Data and DUnitX are git submodules under code/libs/ — clone with --recurse-submodules.
• Day4/ — server-capable & the AI-supported finish: the same core, now behind HTTP.
  • Handout_Day4.md, Exercises_Day4.md
  • slides/IPC2026_Day4_ServerAndAgent.pdf
  • code/ — the unchanged Day 3 core taken into a stateless REST server (Horse): handlers are pure dispatch through DMCustomers (no SQL, no business logic in routes), with a VCL REST client that reuses the Northwind Explorer UI over HTTP. Plus a scale demo measuring the ORM cost (N+1 vs. one GROUP-BY JOIN) and an agent-supported change that flows through the single source of truth. Full DUnitX suite (DM, schema, validation, sales, server, REST client). DX.Data, DUnitX and Horse are git submodules under code/libs/ — clone with --recurse-submodules.

Quick start

Place the database next to the demo app (or let the demo resolve it from the repo's Database/ folder), include the FireDAC SQLite driver, and inject the database path — don't hardcode it. Each code/ folder ships a build-scripts/DelphiBuildDPROJ.ps1; build with Delphi 12+ (the script auto-detects the newest installed version).

pwsh -File Day2/code/build-scripts/DelphiBuildDPROJ.ps1 -ProjectFile Day2/code/demo/Day2.dproj

Inspecting the data

HeidiSQL (heidisql.com) — free, open source, built with Delphi — opens the SQLite files directly. (It uses its own data-access layer, not FireDAC.)