Author: Jim McKeeth

Categories
Video podCast

ScreenCast 1 – Adding an Explore Tool

This is basically an experiment with the new Jing tool from TechSmith and creating a screen cast with Delphi 2009. Just so you know up front, there is no editing, so you are getting the raw screen cast (although I did a few takes) so it isn’t as polished as my usual podcast.

You can download the SWF file or use the link above to view it online.  It is really small (5.64 MB) and should stream quickly.  Like I said, this is an experiment, so I would really like your feedback on the process so I can tune future screen casts better.

Thanks!

[Update: I took off the enclosure.  I don’t think most video players can handle the SWF file anyway.]

Categories
Audio podCast

6 – Cast on News

This episode is the first of what I hope to be a recurring feature where I get together with other bloggers and community members to discuss Delphi news.  We talk about Delphi 2009, Stack Overflow and their OpenId Issues, why we use Delphi, and other current events.

Roland Beenhakker is a long time Delphi user since version 1. He started his own company Beensoft Software Engineering. In this company a small team of professionals build software and webapplications to customer’s specifications, using Delphi and other tools. He is located in Heiloo, Netherlands, which is about 40 kilometers north of Amsterdam. His blog is Delphi Power Unleashed.

Jolyon Smith has been using Delphi since literally before it was realeased, as he has access to the Borland Early Experienec Program through his employeer at the time. Before that he was developing client/server Windows applications before it became fashionable, primarily using Gupta SQLWindows and SQLBase. Apart from software development, he is a rabid movie geek, a devoted family man, a voracious reader and an enthusiastic singer. He lives in Aukland, New Zealand and his blog is Te Waka o Delphi.

marc hoffman is the Chief Software Architect for RemObjects and a Spare-time Photographer. When he is not guest appearing on this podcast he runs a blog at RemObjects.com where he talks about Oxygene and shares some of his photographs. marc lives in Berlin Germany, and prefers his name all lowercase.

Also tune in for the great 20% discount from RemObjects!

Standard Podcast [ 45:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Categories
News

Hidden Features of Delphi

There is a thread on Stack Overflow listing the hidden features of Delphi. Worth checking out. If you don’t see the features you know of then be sure to add them.

Additionally I added a side bar on the left that lists the 10 most recent Stack Overflow questions related to Delphi.

Categories
News

Caused Stack Overflow

There is a new programming community site on the internet today.  It has been in beta for a while, but today it is open to the public.  The site is Stack Overflow and it is the brain child of Jeff Attwood and Joel Spolsky.  If you are software developer who reads blogs then you have most likely heard of them and read their work.  

Think of Stack Overflow as a combination of a Wiki with a Forum.  There is a little bit of Digg / Reddit thrown in and a touch of a blog.  Here is Jeff’s Venn diagram to explain it:

So that little asterisk in the middle.  Everything is tagged, so you can filter for only the Delphi questions.  It is pretty active and sometimes it is good to see how the other side lives.  There is a pretty good community forming already.  

I am trying to keep an eye on the Delphi questions, there are currently 37 of them, but I occasionally check out other topics too.  It doesn’t replace CodeGear’s forums (which now have an accept answer feature) but I like the fact it is much more focused to being on the topic of a question and an answer and less on a discussion.

So far I have seen some past guests on our podcast there including both Nick Hodges and Barry Kelly.  When will I see you out there?  Put a link in the comments.  I’ll be sure to vote up most Delphi questions and good answers too.

Categories
Audio podCast

5 – Oxygene and .NET

Back in episode 2 Nick Hodges told us to learn the latest features of .NET since the future version of Delphi for .NET will have full support of all .NET features.  Instead of learning C# or VB.NET, we can use Oxygene by RemObjects.  In this episode we talk with marc hoffman of RemObjects about Oxygene – the surprisingly complete Object Pascal implementation for .NET.

Also a note about last week’s episode: In addition to all the great information on using generic collections, I also had asked our guest, Julian Bucknall, some questions about the implementation of the TDictionary class.  Julian did not write this class, nor did he heavely research the code.  He did  tell me how he understood it worked.  Well it turns out he a missunderstood some of the implementation details.  Barry Kelly, the author of that class added some comments on the show notes for that show.  Check those comments out for a correction on the implementation of the generic TDictionary in Delphi 2009.

Standard Podcast [ 33:25 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Categories
News

Delphi 2009 ISO Available (Direct Link)

Don’t want to use the ESD to install?  Nick posted that the ISO was available, but the link wasn’t immediately obvious as it pointed to the ESD.  Just swap out .esd_trial.zip to .iso on the FTP or HTTP url and the ISO will download.

For some reason the FTP links fail on Chrome.  Maybe Chrome doesn’t do FTP.  The HTTP links do not work from here (which is why I unlinked them) because it checks your referrer.  Just copy and paste it and it will work.

The ISO is 1,944.67 MB, so you will be downloading for a while.  The advantage of the ESD is it only downloads the languages and the prerequisites you need.  Much smaller download overall.

When you connect to the FTP server you get the following:

WARNING: This is a restricted access system. If you do not have explicit
permission to access this system, please disconnect immediately!

But I am assuming that Nick’s comment that it is available for anyone is explicit permission. I may be wrong.

Check out A first impression review of the Delphi 2009 trial.  Not all roses, but positive overall.

Categories
Audio podCast

4.2 – Julian Bucknall

We continue our discussion with Julian Bucknall, the Chief Technical Officer of DevExpress and the author Tomes of Delphi: Algorythms and Data Structures. We will be talking about the Generic TDictionary that comes with Delphi 2009, and the latest news with DevExpress.

Be sure to read the great additional information from Barry Kelly in the comments!
Standard Podcast [ 26:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Categories
News

RTM: Delphi 2009

It is official, Delphi 2009 has been released to manufacturing, and some lucky individuals are actually receiving downloads.  I had a suspicion of this when I posted my podcast, but wanted to be sure.  Nick Hodges posted a Twitter that he was “Sitting in on our internal company launch call,” which made me suspect it was the Delphi launch, but then Dr. Bob posted that he was sending out ESD licenses to BeNeLux customers, and now Anders has posted that it in fact was RTM at 4 PM on Sunday.

Happy day!  Although I was expecting a press release or something really official looking like they did when they made it available for sale.

Categories
Audio podCast

4.1 – Julian Bucknall

Our guest today is Julian Bucknall, the Chief Technical Officer of DevExpress and the author Tomes of Delphi: Algorythms and Data Structures.  We will be talking about the new generic containers in Delphi 2009 and how to use them.

Winners of the SmartInspect giveaway announced.
Standard Podcast [ 20:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Categories
News

Updated Delphi Logos

I actually wanted a “Built for Delphi” logo so I went to the official Delphi logos page.  I noticed they all still said “From Borland,” and that just won’t work anymore.  I realize the folks at CodeGear are busy getting Delphi 2009 finished up, so I figured I could update at least the Delphi logos. I also created a Built For Delphi button.  

I present the following updated logos for your downloading pleasure:

New:

Or you can download a wide variety of sizes in a single zip file.  If the size you need isn’t in there, then you can resize it as needed.  (Note: I ran all of the images through PNG crush and maintained the rounded corner transparency.)

Keep in mind that these are not official logos.  Since they were provided with no significant restrictions I assume that includes derrivitive works and redistribution (similar to a Creative Commons).  Use them as you would the originals.  

Enjoy, and let me know if you want any other buttons.