Let me know if you have a specific speaker from DelphiLive! you would like interviewed on the podcast, and any specific questiosn you might have. I’ve already contacted a few speakers at random, but I am certainly open to interviewing all the speakers. If you are a speaker then feel free to nominate yourself or just drop me an email.
With each speaker I plan to talk with them a little about their background, what they are up to, and what we can expect from their sessions.
I consider this pretty exciting news. As of today Stack Overflow has awarded it’s first Delphi badge for users who earn 400 upvotes on questions tagged Delphi.
I was actually quite surprised to be the first to receive it. Ever since Stack Overflow started I really wanted to see Delphi listed as one of the top category tags and badges. As of today it is one of twenty specialist badges and the 46th most common tag (not including the 13 variations like VCL, Delphi2009, Delphi-Prism, etc.) with 1,104 questions.
I am very pleased with the wonderful Delphi community that makes it so fun to be a part of the site. I am frequently surprised with how fast someone answers a Delphi question before I get a chance too. I am sure others feel the same way. I look forward to seeing a lot of other community memebers earning their Delphi badge. It is by far my favorite badge. Who could ask for something better to be associated with!
I’ve considered adding a Stack Overflow category to my blog.
BTW, for anyone wondering where this week’s podcast with Nick Hodges is, we were planning to record it on Thursday which happens to be the day the vandals cut the fiber leading to silicon valley. Now Nick is moving from Delphi Product Manager to Delphi R&D Manager. I am still trying to get him on again for a podcast, I am just not sure when or what that will look like yet.
I have been quite surprised at the amount of feedback and suggestions that have been submitted via UserVoice. The way UserVoice works is everyone gets 10 votes to use until the things they voted on are either completed or deleted. I know Nick Hodges has been following it rather closely (and commenting), but thought it would be a good idea to actually go through the list of top requests with him and discuss which ones we might be expecting to see in the future, and delete any that are completely off topic. This will free up more votes and also provides a little feedback on the process. Don’t be expecting any hard dates, features or an official road map though. This is just a two way feedback process.
With the beta of Delphi “Weaver” possibly starting this month, I am sure its feature set is pretty fixed, but we already know there are big changes further down the road.
In addition to talking about UserVoice, as part of our road to DelphiLive! series I will be talking with Nick about his sessions at DelphiLive!, which includes his what’s cooking in the Delphi labs. I’m sure he won’t give away all the details about what he will be sharing then, but I imagine we can get a little sampling.
So if you haven’t yet, head out to UserVoice and make some suggestions and vote for your favorites. If you get them in before we record the podcast on Thursday then we might discuss them on the podcast.
I am sure everyone is excited about the openness with the Delphi road map (and Prism roadmap), and now they have announced their upcoming beta program for Delphi “Weaver”.
What do we know about Weaver? Well, we are expecting it will be released mid2009, and have are guessing the version as 2010. It won’t have the full 64-bit compiler, but it will have a preview I am expecting a command-line only compiler, so no debugger.
It may have the new front end compiler architecture, which sounds like it might get us closer to Delphi Prism syntax compatibility.
So what do you want to see in the new Delphi? New features? Bug fixes? Minor tweaks? You can make your suggestions on the Delphi User Voice page. Then we can all vote on them.
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
- From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, 1594
So what do you call the language we use in the Delphi native IDE?
What is the language used in Delphi native?
Total Voters: 555
Loading ...So far the voting is neck in neck between Delphi and Object Pascal.
In my opinion the history is Pascal evolved into Object Pascal, which evolved into Delphi. It seems to me that Delphi is to Pascal in the same way that C++ is to C. They both add objects and other language extensions as well as a standard library. Sure Object Pascal extends the Pascal language, but Delphi adds even more langauge extensions and also the standard libraries of the RTL and the VCL.
I know every C/C++ programmer I have known is very strict about referring to the language by the appropriate name, be it C or C++. Are we being more specific by referring to it as Delphi, Object Pascal or Pascal?
I used to always called it Object Pascal, but I think Delphi is the way to go now. How about you? Let me know why in the comments.
That which we call Delphi, by any other name would be as productive!
In this episode I talk to RemObjects’ marc hoffman (Chief Architect) and Mike Orriss (General Project Manager) about their product offerings. You can follow them in the RemObjects Blog, or marc and Mike are both on Twitter. You may recognize marc as a fairly regular guest on the podcast, and Mike is actually the keeper of the RemObjects Wiki’s, so you may know him from there.
I was surprised to learn that most all of their products are for both .NET and Delphi native, with some also being available for the Mac (Objective-C). So if you are looking for some cross platform solutions then they appear to be the guys to talk to. In fact, their Hydra is specifically for combining Delphi native and .NET into a single solution.
At the end of the podcast marc wanted to come up with some sort of deal for our listeners. I think the end result is pretty cool, and gives any listener a chance to win their choice of products. All you need to do is download one of their trials and check it out. Then write about your experiences in your blog or on your website and leave a comment here linking to it by the end of February.
Then one entry will be selected at random to receive a free copy of whatever they reviewed. This is a great opportunity to try out their products and possibly get one for free. You can choose from Data Abstract, the RemObjects SDK, AnyDAC and Hydra.
Your experiences should be honest. A positive or negative review will not influence your chances of winning.
On a side note I just love all of RemObjects product icons and art work. I should have asked them who does their art work. Check out their product wallpapers. My favorite is the Delphi Prism one that looks like the Pink Floyd album cover.
Update: RemObjects just published their Software ROadmap 2009 v1.
I guess you could say I am a bit of a Delphi groupie, especially for tours and events . . . . The new Delphi 2009 Productivity Tour reminds me of the Delphi 6 Release Tour.
The nearest tour stop for the Delphi 6 tour was in Salt Lake City, Utah and I lived in Boise, Idaho (I live on the northern Washington coast now.) So a friend of mine and I took the day off of work and left really early to drive down to Salt Lake City (about 5 hours away). We made it in by 10 AM for the start of the presentation.
This was the first time I met Anders Ohlsson. It was extra memorable because the airlines lost his luggage and presentation laptop so he was in sweat pants, a T-shirt and on a laptop that didn’t work right with the projector (couldn’t show on the projector and the screen at the same time, so he had to keep looking over his shoulder.) It was still a great presentation. Of course we couldn’t get enough so we took Anders to lunch and grilled him with some more questions. He ended up helping us with some tough problems we had with our current development and saved us a lot of headaches. As far as I know that company still uses the framework he helped us develop over lunch. It was a good investment. Maybe I should have expensesed it. . . .
We found out Anders was presenting at the users group that night too, so we stuck around for that in hopes we would win a copy of Delphi 6. We didn’t win Delphi, but I was glad I we stuck around anyway since I won a cool Delphi hat that I still own. It says “Delphi does it all, especially Windows.” We decided not to stick around for the after meeting party since we had to work the next day.
My friend was going to trade off on the drive home so I could get some sleep too, but that was when he discovered he couldn’t drive a stick. That ended up being OK because we discovered Mountain Dew Code Red (a new flavor at the time) for the trip home. I believe my friend said it tasted like “Manna from Heaven.” Not sure he had a reliable frame of reference, but it was amusing none the less.
Hopefully the Delphi 2009 Productivity Tour is stoping in a city near you. If not, then it sounds like a good chance for a road trip! Be sure to register for all the events you plan on attending. Remember, the price of airfare is actually down right now, and flying across the country is a great way to support the economy!
Who knows, maybe I will see you there . . . .
I recently discovered the fascinating site Refactor My Code where software developers can collaborate on the evolution of a piece of code. Well, thanks to the work of Marc-André Cournoyer it now has a section for Delphi code refactorings.
They are using Ruby’s Ultraviolet syntax highlighter, which has a Pascal syntax. Based on preliminary tests it appears to work correctly. Let me know if you encounter any thing that doesn’t get highlighted correctly and we can work to correct it.
I’ll be posting code snippits and looking to help refactor yours!
Previous Delphi community member Lino Tadros lives after his heart stopped and came out of a stroke induced comma on Christmas day. He is home and recovering now.
After you read his post and wish him well, tell someone who is special to you that you love them and count your blessings. I know too many people who have lost a loved one in an instant like that before. Count your blessings today, give thanks to God, and remember what is important. As much fun as Delphi development is, take a break and hold your kids, hug your spouse, call your mom, etc. Delphi will only get better why you are away.
The fact the sun rose this morning and I am still breathing is a great miracle. The rest is beyond belief.
I wanted to get Nick on another episode to answer some questions about 64-bit Delphi. I always figure a little straight talk can clear up a lot of confusion. Unfortunately that didn’t work out again. Instead though, you can post your questions for Nick’s interview on Friday for the 47 Hats podcast. Questions you leave here will not be passed on, so be sure you leave them on Facebook. If you don’t have a Facebook account you can leave your question and a request for me to post it for you and I will see what I can do.
