Borland Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
In this article, I'll cover Borland Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework, also known as "Delphi 8 for .NET", the development environment from Borland to build native .NET Framework 1.1 applications.
I'll tell you how to "tweak" the Welcome Page, where to find more information (like some articles I wrote earlier), and refer you to helpful resources like websites, papers, training, and more.
Latest News: Michael Swindell has posted a message on the borland.public.delphi.non-technical newsgroup about Delphi 8 Updates - the first one of which we can expect to be available in the coming days - not weeks!

Welcome Page
When you start Delphi 8 for .NET, the first thing you'll see is the Welcome Page. This page includes links to recently used projects or project groups, training, examples from code central (but not the examples on your own disk), on-line resources, and other Microsoft .NET solutions from Borland.

Note that you cannot remove the projects from the list of recent projects here, but you can manually edit - at your own risk - the list of recent projects in the registry at the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\BDS\2.0\Closed Projects. The five most recent projects are saved in that location.
The actual webpage, images and JavaScript (to retrieve the recent projects) can be found in the BDS\2.0\WelcomePage directory of your Delphi 8 for .NET installation. You can edit the default.htm file, change the d8welcome.gif image, or the JavaScript code.
Talking about changing this code... I personally find it a bit annoying that projects that are no longer on my machine (and hence result in a "File not found" message) are still shown in this list. If you know JavaScript then you can edit the file bdshome.js file - at your own risk - in the WelcomePage directory, and at line 264, change it from:

    for(var rc=1; rc<FRowCnt; rc++) {

    for(var rc=1; rc<FRowCnt; rc++) if (Cells[rc][1] != "File not found") { // BS

I've also heard complaints about the fact that when you place the mouse cursor over the links for the project files, you get "default.htm" in the statusbar, and not the name or path to the project. This is also easy to fix, using the onMouseOver event handler in JavaScript. edit the bdshome.js file again (still at your own risk!), and change line 86 from the original:

    Text = "<a class=\"filename\" href=\"default.htm\" onclick=\"ClickMenu(" + Index + ")\">" + Text + "</A><br>";

    Text = "<a class=\"filename\" href=\"default.htm\" " +
      "onmouseover=\"status='" + Text +  "'; return true;\" " +
      "onclick=\"ClickMenu(" + Index + ")\">" + Text + "</A><br>";

Also feel free to edit the default.htm file, and change line 226 from a single <p> to the following (make it one long line):

  <font face="Arial" size="2">
   <a href="http://www.drbob42.com/d4dn/home.htm">Dr.Bob's Delphi 8 for .NET Clinic</a>
  </font><p>

Delphi 8 for .NET and IBM's DB2
The first Delphi 8 for .NET articles that I wrote were for the special web portal to support the cooperation between IBM's DB2 and Borland's RAD development environments (as announced last year) such as Delphi, C++Builder, Kylix, C#Builder and now also Delphi 8 for .NET.
When Delphi 8 for .NET was (almost) ready, this meant I could cover the new Borland Data Provider for ADO.NET, as a new way to connect to IBM's DB2 Universal Database (although it works the same if you use InterBase, Oracle, SQL Server / MSDE):

• Accessing DB2 Universal Database Tables with Delphi for .NET (Dec 2003)
  In this article, I show how Borland Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework lets you build native .NET applications that connect to IBM DB2 UDB tables, display the data in a DataGrid, and edit, apply, or undo changes in the database tables. As data access technology, I use both dbExpress - a cross-platform data access framework - and the new Borland Data Provider for ADO.NET, both of which contain drivers for DB2 UDB.

• Using Delphi for .NET to work with DB2 database tables in ASP.NET Web pages (Jan 2004)
  This article shows how to use Borland Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework to build ASP.NET Web applications that connect to IBM DB2 Universal Database tables; display the data in a special ASP.NET DataGrid control; and edit, apply, or undo changes in these database tables.

• Using Delphi for .NET to design an object model for a DB2 database (Jan 2004)
  This article demonstrates how to use the Architect edition of Borland Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework, and specifically the functionality found in the Borland Enterprise Core Objects section, to design an Object Model that is made persistent inside the DB2 UDB SAMPLE database.

• DB2 ASP.NET input validation with Delphi for .NET and C#Builder (Feb 2004)
  This article demonstrates several ways to perform data entry input validation in ASP.NET applications which access DB2 UDB database tables, using Borland Delphi 8 for .NET and Borland C#Builder.

• Accessing DB2 Universal Database tables using ASP.NET Web Services written in Delphi 8 for .NET (Feb 2004)
  This article shows how to use Delphi 8 for .NET to build an ASP.NET Web Service application that publishes the data tables from the DB2 UDB SAMPLE database to the outside world.

• Working with DB2 Universal Database tables using ASP.NET Web Services written in Delphi 8 for .NET (March 2004)
  This article shows how to extend an ASP.NET Web Service application (covered in the previous article) to let clients update the database.

• Use Delphi 8 visual controls that bind to DB2 data tables (Apr 2004)
  This article uses Delphi 8 for .NET and the data-aware controls from the Visual Component Library to bind to DB2 UDB tables.

Allen Bauer's weblog
Another interesting resource that you absolutely need to check out is Allen Bauer's blog, with an RSS-feed as well.
Allen Bauer (Borland Delphi and C#Builder IDE Architect) has covered some very interesting and important topics, including the discussion surrounding .NET assemblies made with Delphi libraries or packages. The bottom line is: we should use a package to create a .NET assembly, and use a library only for cross-platform P/Invoke calls. And yes, that means that you also need to deploy the Borland.Delphi.dll assembly with your package assembly.

Brian Long's .NET papers
Brian Long has written a number of in-depth papers about .NET that could be very helpful (to say the least) for anyone using Delphi 8 for .NET on the .NET Framework. On the Borland Developer Network, you can find his paper about Object Destructors and Finalizers in .NET Using C# and Delphi for .NET.
Apart from that article, I can also recommend the following conference session papers from Brian:

• .NET Internals: Profiling .NET Applications (BorCon Europe 2003)
  In this session we look inside .NET applications using the Profiling API to see the rich volume of information made available, which allows you to build flowtrace analysers, hotspot identifiers, exception recorders, coverage analsis tools and so on.
  
• .NET Interoperability With Win32 (BorCon Europe 2003)
  This session shows how .NET managed code can interoperate with unmanaged Win32 code using the PInvoke and Inverse PInvoke mechanisms. Its intention is to address two interoperability options:
  - .NET applications using unmanaged Win32 APIs and entry points exported from your own DLLs (PInvoke)
  - Win32 applications using managed methods exposed from managed .NET assemblies (Inverse PInvoke)
  
• Interoperability Between .NET and COM (BorCon 2003)
  When starting to build new systems that work in the new .NET environment you will not be wanting to throw away all your previous code, so .NET provides the ability for COM and .NET components to communicate almost transparently allowing applications to be developed and extended with COM or .NET. This session shows how .NET managed code can interoperate with unmanaged Win32 code using the PInvoke and Inverse PInvoke mechanisms. Its intention is to address these two interoperability options:
  - .NET client applications using COM objects
  - COM client applications using .NET managed objects
  
• Reverse Engineering To Learn .NET Better (DCon 2003)
  Learning a new programming platform is always an uphill struggle. With .NET there is no lack of help, information and support and around and so this in itself makes the job easier. But there are some who say that the better you know how something works on the inside, the better you can make it work from the outside (the reverse of the implementation hiding principle). This session looks at various tools and resources to find how we can learn more about how .NET works on the inside to try and provide a better understanding of what you work with.

Migrating Delphi apps to .NET with Delphi 8
I have written a white paper for Borland about migrating Borland Delphi (Win32) applications to the Microsoft .NET Framework with Delphi 8. This whitepaper discusses the migration of Delphi Win32 applications to the Microsoft .NET Framework using Delphi 8. The difference between Windows Forms and VCL for .NET is covered, as well as several example migrations from existing Delphi Win32 VCL applications to Delphi 8 native .NET applications.
There's also a Microsoft Win32 to Microsoft .NET Framework API Map that identifies the Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.0 or 1.1 APIs that provide similar functionality to Microsoft Win32 functions (one or more relevant .NET Framework APIs are shown for each Win32 function listed). This is especially helpful for Win32 developers who are creating applications or libraries based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, but anyone looking for a managed counterpart for a Win32 API.

Dr.Bob's Delphi 8 for .NET Clinic - One Day Training Events
Dr.Bob's Delphi Clinic Training Days in The Netherlands are intensive in-depth days that focus on one topic (per day), so you won't have to spend a week away from work. Each day comes with an in-depth courseware manual that contains detailed coverage of the specific topics.