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Delphi Flash Mob at PDC

To all Delphi developers (past, present and future) who are attending PDC next week, be sure to stop by CodeGear’s booth to find out about the time of the Delphi Flash Mob. I’ll also post details here and via my Twitter feed.

What is a flash mob?  Think of it as planned improvising.  PDC offers Open Spaces meeting areas for attendees to arrange their own impromptu sessions.  Kind of like Birds of a Feather sessions of old.  So plan on meeting there to discuss Delphi.  Allen Bauer has already volunteered to talk about anything he can and answer questions.  It should be a great opportunity to learn more about Delphi.  So bring your questions, or post them here now and we can be ready to address them there.

Remember: Details at CodeGear’s booth, on this blog, or via Twitter (check the Twitter page for more Delphi Twitterati)

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News

Definitive Delphi Twitter Directory

In a few of our podcasts we have discussed Twitter so I have created the Definitive Delphi Twitter Directory.  If you have JavaScript enabled then you will also get the last 5 twitters by each person on the page.

It currently only has a few people in there.  I tried to choose previous guests, but it is late and I know I missed people.  So let me know if you Twitter about Delphi Programming and I will add you to the directory.  Additionally if there someone who you follow who Twitter’s about Delphi Programming and I will add them to the list.

This uses a modified version of the JavaScript badge provided by Twitter via JSON.  If you know JavaScript and want to tweak the modified script to include photos and their bio let me know.  Just comment bellow and I will email you (leave your email in the field and only I will see it!)

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Audio podCast

11 – More Roundtable

Another round table discussion about latest news and developments.

Our guests today:

Spirit of Delphi Award Winner and definitive Delphi author Marco Cantu. Marco has written close to 15 books on developing with Delphi. From his office in Italy, Marco is also an in demand trainer and consultant. You can follow Marco on his web site and his blog.  He’ll be on twitter soon.  It is only a matter of time. . . .

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 you can also follow him on Twitter.

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.  Follow him on Twitter.

Time is running out for the RemObjects and BeyondCompare discount codes.  I look forward to seeing everyone at PDC next week!

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News

Return of Delphi Man

My friend Jamie sent me a Twitter earlier that he found an original Delphi Man.  Jamie said he has actually had Delphi Man at his side on his desk for quite some time.  He is actually planning to patch him to say CodeGear instead of Borland, although the Borland is fairly discrete now.

So print out Delphi Man and take him with you on all your Delphi Programming adventures as you fight the evil forces of Doctor Deadline and his sinister sidekicks Bug Boy and Feature Creaper.

Does anyone out there have Doctor Deadline pdf?  If I remember correctly Borland released them as a pair, and some lucky developers actually got a inflatable of them!  I actually made up Bug Boy and Feature Creaper, but maybe some one is talented enough to make them. . . . .

For those who don’t know Jamie he was the first Delphi developer I connected with on Twitter and actually encouraged me to start the Podcast, so if you like the podcast send Jamie a big thanks.  He also recently updated his blog to include Delphi Programming on every page.  Way to go Jamie!

Delphi is sure to be language of the year with support like that!

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Audio podCast

10 – Marco Cantù

Episode 10 is an interview with Spirit of Delphi Award Winner and definitive Delphi author Marco Cantu. This interview was recorded October 10th with Marco at his office in Italy.  We talk about Marco’s new book, Delphi 2009 Features, REST application development, Domain Specific Languages, Generics, Anonymous Methods, Delphi Prism, Native Win32 vs. .NET Development and much more.

Marco will be presenting at both the upcoming Ekon 12 conference in Germany, and CodeRage 3 virtual conference.

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News

Torry’s Updates

I remember when I was getting started in Delphi programming (I started late with Delphi 2 as a long time Turbo Pascal developer) and I discovered the huge catalog of mostly free components on Torry.net I thought I was in heaven.

Not only is Torry’s still updating with new components, tools, code samples and applications (see the list of updates in the last 7 days) they just updated their footer to include the following:

The Ultimate Source of Object Pascal and Delphi Programming Knowledge.

That should shift some more of their 19,900 pages about Delphi onto the TPCI.  Previously only 35 pages contained the phrase “Delphi programming”.  That is a boost of up to 19,865 pages (depending on how many Google and other search engines index.)

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News

Delphi could be 2008 Language of the Year

So I have been emailing with Paul Jansen of TIOBE about the Community Programming Index.  He has added Delphi for .NET as part of the grouping for Delphi, but is not adding Lazarus because it is the IDE not the language.  I also told him I was working with the community to make sure we refer to Delphi as “Delphi Programming” and he sent me the following email:

Hi Jim,

Thanks. For your information, I think your action has already some effect. Tonight’s run shows that Delphi is #8 at this moment. There is a realistic chance that Delphi will become “TIOBE’s Language of the Year 2008”. This will be announced the 1st of January 2009.

Regards,

Paul

--
Paul Jansen - TIOBE Software, http://www.tiobe.com
De Zaale 11 Postbus 80 5600 AB Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Phone: +31 40 239 0870 Mobile: +31 617 400 620
*** TIOBE Software - The Coding Standards Company ***

When I asked him to be sure it was ok to share this information he said it was, but that I was clear that it is provisional as there may be other movement that happens before the end of the month that could change its position. I am hopping we just go straight to #7.  It is a very exciting possibility, and great to know that our efforts are paying off already.

Additionally, Neil Moffatt of DelphiBasics.co.uk has updated most every page there to say Delphi Programming and I am working with the Sysops for the Delphi Wiki to get it updated to the Delphi Programming Wiki. The comments on my last couple posts show that a lot of other people are updating their blogs and sites as well.  Keep in mind, as Dr. Bob pointed out, it might take a bit before Google indexes your site again (might be worth setting up a Google site map if you haven’t already) the sooner you update the better!

Where else can we encourage to update to Delphi Programming?  If you have been meaning to start a Delphi Blog now is the time!  Not only do we stand to pass C#, but we could be Language of the Year!

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News

The Many Faces of Delphi

Question for you:

Q: What do Delphi, Kylix, Object Pascal, Free Pascal, Chrome and Oxygene all have in common?

A: They all count towards Delphi’s score on the TIOBE index when you follow them by the word Programming!

I remember when the Delphi IDE used the Object Pascal Programming language, then it changed to the Delphi Programming Language.  After the DevCo broke off from Borland it was referred to as both.  But as far as TPCI (TIOBE Programming Community Index) is concerned, you can call it what you like, as long as you say Programming after it.

Noticably missing:

Soon to come:

And TCPI counts seperately:

I was looking at the grouping and exceptions list at the bottom of the TCPI Definition last night and was surprised at the size of the Delphi group.  I’ve already contacted them about adding Delphi for .NET.  Once Prism is actually announced, then we can get it added too.

A number of bloggers (Gabr, Allen and Malcolm to name a few) have already updated their templates to include Delphi programming on every page of their blog.  That is a great way to make sure your existing Delphi content is counted towards the index.  I am not suggesting we game the system, just that we help TCPI get an accurate count.

As Olaf Monien pointed out, there are a lot of sites with a lot of room for improvement: CodeGear.com being one of them!  In addition to his great list, check out the following:

How does your site measure up?  Update your Delphi related blog or site to say Delphi programming on every page in visible text (update the template).  Stand up and be counted.  You can make a difference!

Once you have updated your site, contact authors of other sites and encourage them to do the same!

UPDATE: Is the TPCI relevant?  There are 12,900 hits in Google where people have refernced them, and an Alexa traffic rank of: 111,776. (Thanks RIF)

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Audio podCast

9 – CodeRage 3 and Delphi Prism

The reason for this special edition is there has been some big news lately and I wanted to go straight to the source to get you the facts on what is going on as soon as possible.

I tracked down Anders Ohlsson and Christine Ellis of Developer Relations at Embarcadero CodeGear to get the facts on CodeRage 3, an upcoming physical conference and the elusive Delphi Prism.  We also discuss plans for a Delphi flash mob at the PDC Open Spaces.

Delphi Twitters at PDC

Post a comment if you will be at PDC and include your Twitter page if you have one.

I will be at CodeRage and PDC.  See you there!

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News

Delphi Keeps Climbing

Last month Delphi was back in the top 10 for the TIOBE Programming Community Index for September. Well the numbers for October are out, and Delphi has kept on moving to position #9.  It bumped JavaScript.

I truly believe we are in the Delphi Renaissance.

The way the TIOBE Index works is it looks for the phrase “Delphi programming” in various searches.  Then compares the numbers for all the languages it indexes.  So be sure you say “Delphi programming” in your pages that are talking about Delphi, instead of some shorthand that doesn’t meet that search criteria.

That is why I have Delphi programming in my subtitle here.  Then I know it is on every page.

Call to Action

  1. Update your blog or web site to say “Delphi programming” on every page.
  2. Contact the authors of other Delphi blogs to remind them to do the same.
  3. Include the phrase Delphi programming in forum posts you might make.
  4. Contact people behind other Delphi related web sites and remind them to do the same.

Together we can take #8 in November! (And in the US you thought November was just about the presidential election!)

Update: If you update your site or blog to say “Delphi programming” on every page, leave a link here, and add a comment to your blog so others will see it and do the same.  If you look, C# is in number 8, and it wasn’t that long ago that Delphi was ahead of C#.