Category: Delphi
Delphi XE2 and Manifests
| September 29, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Delphi |
One of the newly discovered features of RAD Studio XE2 is the ability to have a separate manifest for each build platform as well as the ability to more easily include your own custom manifests. In XE, D2010, D2009, D2007, the IDE’s added the ability to check an option to include runtime themes. This created a manifest file that was embeded into the EXE on build. The manifest was primative and mainly dealt with the inclusion of requiring the ComCtrls 6 to leverage the improved appearance of controls. The problem with the manifest is that it did not allow for the inclusion of the necessary items for Vista and Windows 7, such as elevation requirements. The workaround was to disable runtime themes and then create your own manifest file. Then you would create a resource file that included the manifest. Then you would add a $R pointing to the resource file in the project source to load in the manifest. Depending on your tact, you may need to use the MSBUILD options to compile the resource before compiling the application. (Pre event). With XE2′s new ability to build a 32 bit or 64 bit application, this created a problem. The… [Read More]
Embarcadero RAD Studio XE2 Released
| September 29, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Delphi |
I, for one, am excited to see Embarcadero’s new release of their programmer tools recently. Embarcadero released upgrades for Delphi, C++ Builder, Prism (Pascal for .NET) and PHP begining of September. I had the chance to see Anders Ohlsonn at the RAD XE2 World Tour stop in Seattle and was one of many that got to see some pretty cool things. One of the biggest things added to Delphi that has been grumbled about for some time in the community has been lack of native 64 bit support. With XE2, this is now here, being able to cross compile your application for 32 bit or 64 bit. Another new feature is releasing a new framework called Firemonkey. VCL has long been the framework of Delphi and is stable and can do a lot of things. What Firemonkey brings is a whole new world of 3D visual display and a unique presentation layer. While this new framework is young, it was based on work done by KSDev who sold the IP to Embarcadero and helped create something new. The heads of Embarcadero have pledged full backing of Firemonkey and promise frequent updates to resolve issues quickly and to try and grow acceptance… [Read More]
Writing applications in Delphi wont make serious money?
| May 11, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Delphi |
It’s always interesting to sometimes here competitor developers state that Delphi is not a serious programming language. It’s sometimes snickered at as if it was archaic and irrelevant as RPGII is today (no offense to RPGII developers). Surely there is no way that a program developed using Delphi can reap serious financial rewards for developers and companies, right? Early this week, a little company called Skype was recently acquired by a company from Redmond, WA that I don’t think anyone would have trouble guessing who. The price tag… $8.5 Billion dollars. I certainly don’t need my MBA education to tell me that this is some serious money. What’s Skype? For the minority who never heard of Skype, it is video and voice communication product that uses the Internet to carry the signal. It’s used frequently in communication among companies, especially for intercontinental conference calls and such. It’s inexpensive and works very well. It’s almost used a term to communicate, such as “I’ll Skype you tomorrow”, very much as saying “can someone hand me a Klenex”. What’s this have to do with Delphi? Well the Windows based client has long used Delphi as the primary development platform. It’s probably one of… [Read More]
Free TMS Smooth Controls for Delphi XE and C++Builder XE
| April 15, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Components, Delphi |
Embarcadero just announced a new free version of TMS Software’s Smooth Controls Pack special edition is being released to registered users of RAD Studio XE, Delphi XE and C++Builder XE. TMS Smooth Controls Pack allow you to build cool user interfaces with a smooth look and have additional types of controls not included in the base VCL components. While source code is not included, the expanded version with source code is available from TMS Software. Tweet [Read More]
ElevateDB 2.05 Build 6 Released
| April 14, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Components, Delphi |
Elevate Software recently released Version 2.05 Build 6 of their ElevateDB database tool. For those not familiar with ElevateDB, it is a prepackaged database solution that can be directly compiled into Delphi, c++ Builder and Lazarus applications. ElevateDB also run in a client-server mode using a small, but powerful server executable that can be connected by clients using Delphi, c++ Builder, Lazarus as well as though Visual Studio .NET languages via the ElevateDB .NET Data Provider or through additional development platforms using the Elevate ODBC Connector. A newer addition to the ElevateDB family is a PHP extension for Windows based PHP servers. ElevateDB supports a large subset of the SQL-2003 standard, making the transition to integrate this database easy, while still following standards. Support for Elevate Software products is primarily via forum / newsgroup or email. Aside from being a great product, the support provided by the owner/developer Tim Young is outstanding. There is a Team Elevate group that also assists other fellow users. I’d strongly recommend, if you’re in need of a database tool, to check out this product. The pricing is designed to be very fair and reasonable when compared to other commercial products. In fact, I think… [Read More]
Delphi in Depth:ClientDataSets Book released
| April 13, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Delphi |
Cary Jensen just released a great book on the introduction, basic and advance usage of ClientDataSets in Delphi. Some of the topics include: Improve your software using powerful Delphi ClientDataSet features Master the art of cached updates Understand the role of in-memory data Build multi-tier applications using Delphi’s DataSnap Cary is a great technical writer and would strongly recommend this book to database developers using Delphi. Tweet [Read More]
Delphi Developer Days 2011
| April 12, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Delphi |
Check out the podcast by Jim McKeeth at Delphi.org interviewing Marco Cantu and Cary Jensen regarding the upcoming Delphi Developer Days. Tweet [Read More]
Embarcadero teaches Delphi 32×2=64
| April 11, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Delphi |
Embarcadero continues to follow its long term roadmap, by preparing Delphi to enter the world of 64 bit. They have released a sneak preview gives you a first look at the 64-bit compiler in action. They also are providing an opportunity to join their beta test program. http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/64-bit Tweet [Read More]
RADStore introduced by Simon Stuart
| April 10, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Delphi |
Simon Stuart recently announced a new concept in packaging and delivery for Delphi libraries and components, taking the “App Store” approach. This looks to be a unique approach and in particular, could be a great idea for non-commercial components. Commercial library distribution could also be great, depending on each company’s need for protection or license distribution. For more information and updates, read Simon’s blog post at http://tinyurl.com/3mduar9 Tweet [Read More]
Turbopower Orpheus Lives
| April 10, 2011 | Posted by Lance Rasmussen under Components |
Having used Turbopower’s Orpheus grid for several years as a paying customer, the company decided to get out of the tools market and released as open source on SourceForge. Nick Hodges, while working for Embarcadero, took over the administrative duties of the project on SF. The team of Roman Kassebaum, Ben Oram, Sebastian Zierer and Armin Biernaczyk, however, have allowed the Orpheus library continues to thrive, updating the code to be Unicode compatible, for Delphi 2009, Delphi 2010 and the current Delphi XE IDE’s. They’ve also done work to move assembler portions to pure Pascal. While there are many open source projects and developers that are out there, I wanted to take the time to thank these fine developers for their work. To view the project and download the source code, visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/tporpheus/ Tweet [Read More]
I'm a tech enthusiast working in the sports software industry. I enjoy photography to the point of being a serious amateur. I'm also married to a wonderful woman who works as an educational support professional.
