Categories
Commentary

Hidden features in the Delphi Object Pascal language

A list of hidden features in Delphi Object Pascal that are great, obscure, best avoided or remarkable.

This was copied from Stack Overflow’s question of the same name which is closed and flagged for deletion. Licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required. I’ve made a few changes, updates and some copy editing. Original question by Johan and others on May 19 2011 at 18:34. Post inspired by Jeroen W. Pluimers’ post.

Categories
News

The Stack Overflow Delphi Badge

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.

Stack Overflow's Delphi badge

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.

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!

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.