* Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Beta 1 includes updated version of many major system components, including:
- Kernel 2.6.8
- gcc 3.4.1
- GNU libc 2.3.3
- GNOME 2.8 release candidate
- OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
- Evolution 1.5.94
- Mozilla 1.7.2, Firefox 0.9.3, and Epiphany 1.3.8
- X.org X11 6.8.0
* This beta release supports a wide range of hardware platforms, including:
- 32-bit x86-compatible (i386/i686)
- 64-bit AMD64 and Intel EM64T (x86_64)
- 64-bit Intel Itanium2 (ia64)
- 64-bit IBM eServer iSeries and pSeries and POWER (ppc64)
- 31-bit IBM S/390 (s390)
- 64-bit IBM eServer zSeries (s390x)
LinuxCompatible
P.S. I am still on SuSE ;)
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Beta 1 has been released
MantisConnect 1.0a2 Released
MantisConnect is a C# webservice client connecting to a PHP webservice. The C# webservice client is CLS compliant and hence it can be used from any .NET language. Also the webservice can be used directly from any language that supports webservices.
The second release of MantisConnect is now available, the main highlights of this release are:
- Retrieving list of stored filters for a specified project.
- Retrieving issues matching a stored filter.
- Add configuration variables for the webservice to control global access level for readonly / readwrite operations.
- Optimisation for returning of datasets from webservice to C#
- Sample Submit Issue application.
- Sample Filtering application.
- Minor bug fixes.
For more details visit http://www.futureware.biz/mantisconnect/
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
IBEasy+ V1.2 is now available for download.
IBEasy+ is a freeware which can be used by beginners as well as by specialists. It allows the easy design and use of relational databases. This software contains:
- An integrated help module for database design which deals with all the stages necessary to build an "optimal" database
- Analysing of the documents.
- Building of the data dictionary with help to determine the category of semantic attachment for each field of the document.
- Relationships between categories.
- Creation of the conceptual diagram of data and generation of the associated tables.
- A visual database designer module allowing to:
-Visualize and update the diagram of an existing database. You can see the structure of the various tables and the referential integrity constraints linking them.
-Visually create a database: insert tables and referential integrity constraints.
- An easy, and user friendly, access to Interbase/FireBird main functionalities, both in user mode and in administrator mode, whith a set of specialized tools:
-Specialized editors for: Tables, Views, Domains, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Indexes, Generators, Exceptions.
-SQL: Expert mode (with history), visual mode (QBE: Query By Example),
-Backup, restore, shut down, and restart functionalities
-Grant manager
-Interbase/Firebird messages localization
-Export to Word, RTF, TXT, Excel, CSV, SYLK, DIF, HTML, MS Access, SQL
-Export of Interbase/Firebird databases to MS Access: tables, records, referential integrity constraints
-Import of MS Access databases: tables, records, referential integrity constraints
-Export/Import of FireBird databases to SQL with Blob support
-Import of Excel files to Firebird tables
-Expression generator and parser for calculated fields in QBE queries
-Form model designer to enter data in record mode
-Management of auto-increment fields and default values
-BLOB's viewers and editors. Specialized editors for text, image sound and video BLOBs. Hexadecimal editor for other types of BLOBs.
-...
- A multilingual interface (French, English, Spanish, Portuguese Brazil, Dutch, German) and documentation available, "on a click", in French and English.
Download.
Monday, September 27, 2004
Fyracle on slashdot!!!
In developer area
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/26/1845230&tid=221&tid=198&tid=8
" Compiere is an open-source implementation of an ERP+CRM system, the catch is that it requires expensive Oracle databases (as much of the functionality has been encoded using Oracle SPs and such). There have been lots of talk about migrating it to other databases like PostgreSQL and donations were even seeked but not much have progressed... until now.
Firebird (not to be confused with the Firefox browser) is another open source database based on Borland/Inprise InterBase - much improved now of course. Last I checked half a year ago, it has full ACID, distributed transactions *with savepoints* (postgreSQL can't), external/internal stored procs, triggers, subselects, referential integrity, ANSI compliant SQL, SMP support, ODBC/JDBC, triggers, up to 64Tb Databases, embedded build, native WIN32 build
Anyway, it seems to me that the crux of Fyracle is not that they rewritten Compiere to run on Firebird. It seems like they engineered a layer to implement all Oracle-like features on Firebird. Anything written natively for Oracle should be able to run off it! If they can pull it off, you can just rip out Oracle and place Firebird in.
However, direct compatibility may not mean the ported application will run with the same performance and integrity as on an Oracle DB. But it is a very good step forward."
.NET Interop in Delphi "Diamondback"
From Brian Long:
"Once upon a time I wrote a couple of articles on .NET Interoperability with Win32 code for the Delphi for .NET Preview compiler, for a couple of sessions at various conferences. They cover COM Interop and P/Invoke and Inverse P/Invoke (non-COM bi-directional interoperability) and can be found here.
Eventually, these were updated for Delphi 8 for .NET, which added unmanaged exports (Inverse P/Invoke for Delphi "global" routines) to the product feature set. The COM Interop article is here and the P/Invoke paper is here.
At BorCon 2004 I delivered the same content but updated for Delphi "Diamondback". The articles go into much more detail than I was able to go into during the session, and they include coverage of new features, such as Virtual Library Interfaces, added in the Delphi "Diamondback" preview given away at the conference. The COM Interop paper can be found here and the P/Invoke paper is here.
If you were lucky enough to go to BorCon 2004 these are the updated papers from my Interop session. If not, you can find out about some interesting nerw developments in Delphi "Diamondback"."
Friday, September 24, 2004
Kylix built applications crash running under Kernel 2.6.8+ - temporary Fix
As reported in the Borland Kylix Newsgroups, applications compiled with Kylix will crash on Linux distributions running the 2.6.8 Kernel including the exec-shield patch. Currently this is happening with Red Had Fedora Core 2, but soon other distributions probably will also be affected.
http://crosskylix.untergrund.net/patchelf.html
Fyracle: Oracle-mode Firebird
"You will find that only one open-source database comes close to matching the leading enterprise systems on features: Firebird."
http://www.janus-software.com/fb_fyracle.html
SQLObject 0.6
Long-awaited release of SQLObject 0.6, an object-relational mapper that supports Firebird. Database tables are described as classes, and rows are instances of those classes. SQLObject is meant to be easy to use and quick to get started with. Info and download links at http://sqlobject.org.
Dabo 0.2 release
Dabo 0.2 release is announced, with support for Firebird. Dabo is a true 3-tier Python application design framework, using wxPython cross-platform graphical interface. Tested on Linux, Windows and OS X. Newbies' list: subscribe here.
Linux in Government: Navy Sonar Opens New Opportunities for Linux Clusters and IBM G5 servers
A win in the nuclear submarine cluster market suggests that IBM's POWER architecture is joining the Linux HPC big leagues.
Read More...
PHP 4.3.9 Final
PHP Development Team is proud to announce the immediate release of PHP PHP 4.3.9. This is a maintenance release that in addition to over 50 non-critical bug fixes, addresses a problem with GPC input processing. This release also re-introduces ability to write GIF images via the bundled GD extension. All Users of PHP are encouraged to upgrade to this release as soon as possible.
More Info >> Changelog
Download >> PHP 4.3.9 Final Distributions
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Borland the Arms Dealer
http://www.bsdg.org/
"Last year at BorCon Borland was trying to position themselves as Switzerland. They wanted to be neutral in the platform wars between Java, .NET and Win32. They weren't going to take sides, and they would be there for you irregardless of which battle you are fighting.
This year I didn't hear much talk about Switzerland. Although it wasn't actually said, I kind of get the impression Borland is more of an arms dealer. They sell weapons, tools and supplies to both sides."
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Is Windows Forms Dead?
Mike Harsh writes:
"Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion and view from the trenches. It in no way represents the any official position.
Over the last year, whenever we'd visit customers, the Avalon question always came up. The response we repeated over and over was, "Avalon is the future and only runs on Longhorn. Windows Forms runs on all platforms down to Windows 98 and is *the* story for building managed UI on Windows for the next 5-7 years until Longhorn becomes ubiquitous".
Then came "the announcement" and the title question began to spread. Just what is the future of our team? Will there be another version of Windows Forms? Is it worth it for customers to invest in Windows Forms?
These questions, combined with a few other blog posts about the subject (Dan Appleman, Scoble, and of course Joel Spolsky) got me thinking. We’ve all been ruminating about these issues inside the Windows Forms team and the more I think about it, the future of our technology doesn’t look so bad.
Let’s start with the obvious:
From an innovation perspective, Whidbey is almost certain to be the last full-blown feature version of Windows Forms. Any post-Whidbey release is likely to contain only tactical features, bug fixes and other infrastructure to support the next version of VS that will run on Longhorn.
Is this a bad thing from a developer perspective?
I think it merits further investigation. Far too many times during Whidbey development, we bumped our heads on the glass ceiling of what Win32 can accomplish. A styling engine for controls and arbitrary nesting of controls in other control elements are two examples of features customers asked for but we couldn’t deliver on top of Win32.
As a UI platform, Windows Forms pushes Win32 very close to the limit. So then what would be left to deliver in a future version? Bug fixes? Definitely, but we will still do some of those. A few strategic new controls or new features in existing controls? Perhaps, but these are just refinements that will only yield small benefits to developers.
If the Avalon on XP announcement was never made, and we spent an entire product cycle working on a new version of Windows Forms, the type of features we'd work on would be more infrastructure-y. In Whidbey, we did ClickOnce and configuration. These features aren't specific to a UI platform and can be leveraged by all apps. A next version would bring more of this.
Well, it turns out that there are a set of folks on our team who will still do that type of work. Creating application infrastructure that will make common abstractions easier to integrate and manage. This work will apply to Windows Forms and Avalon and will be easily consumable by both UI models.
So UI library innovation for Windows Forms is finished. Does that make it dead?
Windows Forms obviously won't stop working anytime soon. The entire developer division is committed to compatibility. v1 and v1.1 apps will run on Whidbey and Whidbey apps will run on future versions of the framework. Also, versions of the framework are currently supported for something like 10 years after they are shipped. So if you write an app on top of Whidbey, you'll be able to call PSS about issues until around 2015.
Then the question becomes:
Is it worth investing in Windows Forms?
I still think the answer is yes. But let’s break the question down by timeframe.
Is it worth investing in Windows Forms today? Yes, I still think that VS.NET 2003 provides the most efficient way to create Win32 applications.
Is it worth investing in Windows Forms next year? YES!!! Whidbey rocks. The new controls, the new designer features and the bug fixes (transparency in an ImageList, Hallelujah!) all make for a very compelling feature set from a developer perspective.
Whidbey will make creating a professional looking Win32 app as easy as it was to create hello world with VB6. And Whidbey also provides a slick deployment mechanism with ClickOnce.
Is it worth investing in Windows Forms in 2 years? This is more of a judgment call. If you’re targeting only Windows XP and Longhorn, Avalon is the way to go. But Windows Forms is still the only way to write managed UI that will run on Win 2K and below. Couple this with the ability to detect whether Avalon is available and it becomes possible to write apps that will run on Windows 98 and still look great (via Avalon) on XP and Longhorn.
Will Windows Forms apps be able to integrate Longhorn controls in under 5 lines of code?
Yes
In my opinion, the Windows Forms to Avalon upgrade path is one of the smoothest there's ever been. Since both rely on managed code, there won't be any scary / hairy interop code. It will be as simple as adding a namespace (or a few J), instancing an Avalon element and adding it to a Windows Forms host control.
It all comes down to managed code. Once you've made the commitment to write your app on top of the CLR, switching between different managed APIs has a low overhead. This is true for both the mental model and the code itself. The same two lines of code that show a Windows Forms app today can be put anywhere in an Avalon app and will have the same functionality.
If I invest in a large Windows Forms app today will I have to rewrite it in 3 years for Avalon?
That's an interesting question. First off, lets look at the reasons people ever touch apps once they have been completed.
- To integrate new functionality
- To get a new look and feel
- To start their app from scratch
The plans for an Avalon design experience are far from finalized, but I can't imagine that we wouldn't enable the scenario of opening a Windows Forms Form in the designer, deleting a Windows Forms Button (or TextBox, or ListBox, or Panel, etc) and adding the Avalon equivalent. In my head I just imagine another tab on the toolbox with Avalon controls. I also see having an Avalon window as new project item as a possibility too.
The converse will also be true. Developers will be able to pluck any Windows Forms control off the toolbox and add it to an Avalon page.
Follow up to "Delphi Sucks"
In the interest of fairness, I note that Jens Winter has followed up his “Delphi Sucks “ post with, well, “Follow up to Delphi sucks “.
Exception Handling in Delphi
This paper on Exception Handling in Delphi will be on the Borcon2004 CD.
Monday, September 20, 2004
Firebird ADO.NET Data Provider 1.7 Alpha 3
The Firebird ADO.NET Data Provider 1.7 Alpha 3 is available for download.
Release notes can be found here:
http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?action=view_item&topic=1095581987
Download information can be found here:
http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=files&id=netprovider
CVS Tag: NP_1_7_Alpha3
The reason why Delphi 8 breaks with .NET Framework 1.1 SR1
I have found this remark from Danny Thorpe in the borland.public.delphi.non-technical that explains why Delphi 8 breaks after updating the .NET Framework with SR1. Here is the quote:
Reason: The .NET 1.1 SP1 assemblies (mscorlib, etc) contain new symbols, and the metadata tokens for old symbols have been renumbered. The Delphi compiler uses those tokens in symbol identity calculations that are stored in the .dcpil compiler symbol caches.
Normally, this would not be a problem because an assembly that is modified to contain additional symbols would have a different time/date stamp than the original assembly that the .dcpil file was built from. However, Microsoft service packs do not update the assembly version number or the file date/time stamp even though they change the contents of the assembly.
I openly admit that using the token values in symbol identity calculations was a poor choice on my part. My error was in believing the assembly file timestamp would change if the tokens ever changed. Silly me.
We're working on a solution. It will probably involve either softening the symbol identity calculation to not include CLR tokens at all or changing the version check to tolerate CLR token flutter or some combination of both. I'm hopeful that a solution can be worked out that will not require breaking the D8 DCU format, but I haven't found that solution yet.
I have to give Danny huge compliments for coming forward and admitting that there may have been some design flaws. Even the best developers and architects make decisions that are found to be in error at some later date. We should not condemn them but learn from them. I have full confidence that there will be a fix very soon for Delphi 8. I bet the fix has not come already is due to BorCon happening last week. :)
Friday, September 17, 2004
Code Signing - Free
A great bit of info on how to sign your code. The best part is on how to get a free certificate. This is now on my to-do list.
Without Delphi there would be no .Net
I read Brad Adam's post and I saw this sentence, without Delphi there would be no .Net.
He got some responses with that sentence. It is amusing to see that some people cannot appreciate Delphi. Indeed nothing is new under the sun, but from all modern programming languages which I consider popular, Delphi is one of the first language that has most of the good features (RAD, components, properties, events, single inheritance, the component source code, and the list goes on).
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Delphi 2005 sneak preview
You wasn't be able to attend BorCon, but you want to see some info about upcoming Delphi 2005 (yes, it is now Delphi 2005, I think Borland link say it all) check here
http://info.borland.com/media/shockwave/delphi2005/d2005sneak.html
Nevrona Rave Reports in Diamondback?
Some people have noticed that Nevrona Rave Reports is not in the Borcon Diamondback Preview. Don't worry, Rave is going to be in Diamondback. The preview does not have every feature included or turned on. The preview is very much a beta and some features were not quite ready for public consumption. Starteam integration, for example, is not turned on in the Borcon Preview CD even though it was shown in the preview demo (John Sileski had a *special* build with Starteam enabled). The even better news is that both the VCL Win32 and VCL.NET versions of Rave Reports will be in Diamondback!
ActionBands and DiamondBack
"This week while at BorCon I was asked at the meet the team if ActionBands would be in Diamondback (the next release of Delphi) and unfortunately I wasn't able to immediately answer the question. I've since decided it would be a good idea to follow up here and reply that yes, ActionBands will be supported in both VCL and VCL.NET. The reason I wasn't sure is that there has been a lot of work done on both the VCL and VCL.NET form designers and since I've been working on ASP.NET related features for almost two years I wasn't aware of the progress that had been made on the form designers and unsure if ActionBands were supported. In any case, the answer is yes."
Multi-Process Debugging in Delphi
As many of you know, Borland's annual conference, aka “Borcon” was held this week in San Jose. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Diamondback preview and Delphi Meet the Team event which was held Monday night. During the Diamondback preview, I showed several of the new debugger features that will be a part of Diamondback. I actually had wanted to show a bunch more than I did, but I had to compress my part of the presentation down to 5 minutes (with all the material I wanted to show, which was still not everything that's included in Diamondback, I originally had 14 minutes worth of material).
At any rate, one of the things I did show was the ability to debug both Win32 native processes and .NET managed processes from within the same IDE. The "cool thing" I wanted people to take away from seeing this was the fact that the IDE is now able to host two fairly different debugger subsystems. However, after talking to people during the Meet the Team portion of the event, most people were impressed by the fact that you could debug more than one process at a time. I received several questions from people who asked if it was possible to debug more than one Win32 native process at the same time. After the third such question, I realized that we obviously haven't done a good enough job publicizing this feature, which has been available in Delphi since version 4.
So, I 'd like to discuss a few IDE features that have been in Delphi for several years that allow you to debug more than one process at the same time. While more useful when you want to debug both a client and server at the same time, it can also be useful to debug several unrelated processes simultaneously.
Project Groups
Although not required, using project groups make multi-process debugging much more useful. If you have a project group with more than one project in it, you can start a debug session for each project in the project group. The key here is to make sure that all projects in the project group are up to date. To do this, use the “Compile all Projects” menu item in the Project menu. Once you do that, you are ready to go. Start a debug session on the active project the way you would normally start a debug session (Run, Step Over, Step Into, etc...). Now, go back to the project manager and make a different project active (the easiest way to do this is to double click the project target). The next debugger command you issue will initiate a second debug session -- if you click the green Run arrow toolbar button, the second process will be run. You will now be debugging two processes simultaneously.
Changing the Active Process
When you are debugging more than one process, only one of the processes can be active at a time. All debugger commands (things like Step Over, Pause, Reset, Show Execution Point) operate on the active process. There are several ways to change the active process. One is to use the Project Manager, as described earlier. When you activate a project in the Project Manager, if it is being debugged, it's process will become the active process. Another way is to use the drop down menu connected to the Run toolbar button (the green arrow). When you click the little down arrow next to the button to drop down the menu, it will show a list of processes currently being debugged, as well as any additional projects from the project group that can be debugged. The active process will be shown in a bold font. Choose any other item in the menu to set a new active process.
You can also change the active process using the debugger's Thread Status View. Use the local menu item “Make Current” (or double click) any non-current process to make that process active.
One additional note with regards to the active process. If any non-active process hits a breakpoint, gets notified of an exception or encounters any similar debug event, it will become the active process.
“Multi-Process” vs. “Active-Process” Debugger Views
Several of the debugger views only operate on the active process. The Call Stack view, Watch List view, Local Variables View, CPU view, and FPU view are the views that only operate on the current process. Actually to be precise, they all only operate on the current thread within the current process.
The Breakpoint List view, Thread Status view, Event Log view and the Modules view, on the other hand, are multi-process views. They will show information pertaining to all processes loaded in the debugger, rather than just the active process. For instance, if you have more than one process loaded in the debugger, the Thread Status view will show all threads in all processes. The Modules view will show all the modules that are loaded in each process. The Event Log view will show all debug events generated by all loaded processes.
“Load Process” and “Attach to Process“
In addition to using a Project Group to manage multi-process debugging, you can also use the Run Parameters dialog (or Load Process dialog if you're fortunate enough to be using the Diamondback preview) to load additional processes into the debugger. Simply bring up the dialog and specify a process that you want to debug and click the Load button. Do this more than once and you are debugging multiple processes!
You can also initiate a multi-process debugging session using the Attach to Process dialog. You can use this dialog to attach to as many processes as you like.
Additional Note
One other question I received was “Is there a limit to the number of processes I can debug?“. You'll only be limited by your available system resources. The IDE does nothing to limit the number of processes you can debug, but keep in mind that symbol tables tend to be memory-hogs, so if you have a large project group or lots of processes loaded in the debugger at the same time, you're likely to run into some limitations. FWIW, this is one of the performance issues we hope to improve on before we unleash Diamonback into the wild.
Happy Multi-Process Debugging!
New Open Access Suite for JDO and .NET
Versant Announces New Open Access Suite for JDO and .NET includes support for Firebird and InterBase.
1001 megabytes of free storage!!!
If you need large mail-box, something gmail offers, but without initations, check this out: http://mail.suredid.com/index.php
SureMail is a new web mail application based of the simple fact that we want to offer our users the guarantee that their mail WILL get to them in time and they will never have to remove any messages messages from within their inbox as the storage space will be just enough to suite your needs. We also offer 10 Mb of web drive that can be used to test out some of your new php experiment files OR use it to share files with other SureMail users. The key features are:
-
Share & Test.
Use the SureMail Web Drive to share files with other users OR even test out some of your web applications. -
Don't throw anything away.
1001 megabytes of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message. -
Speed of the new era.
The login, signup and read-mail/remove-mail time has been dramatically decreased. Your new SureMail account is now up to 10 times faster than any other web mail API -
No pop-up ads. No advertising, easy loading.
SureMail is the ONLY 100% customer-satisfaction guaranteed out there! This is NOT for any commercial use and therefore you will see NO ads NO hard-to-load images and NO un-wanted Spam from our sponsors as we are offering this service 100% FREE of charge for our users. - 100% SPAM protection.
As we DO NOT TOLERATE SPAM, we have a unique system built-in this unique web mail API that will prevent all our users from spamming other mail boxes, therefore you will not be spammed from the INSIDE of SureMail and even more than that, we also have enabled the latest Spam Assasin that will keep you well protected from the outer mailing lists at all times !
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Borland to take on Visual Studio with Diamondback?
"LOL. It makes for a catchy headline, but unfortunately this headline doesn't really reflect the article or the interview. The article is about our next Delphi. The headline and quote about going up against Microsoft and "taking on Visual Studio" is just plain... well odd. I should know, it was me the journalist was interviewing. So to be perfectly clear, with Diamondback we aren't trying to "take on" Visual Studio. Microsoft and the Visual Studio team are our friends and partner. The aim of Diamondback is to make the ultimate Windows development solution for our Delphi customers. It's not about one thing versus another, it's about developers, and building great apps for Microsoft Windows.
As a long time veteran of working with industry press it's not the first time I've seen a creative spin, nor will it be the last. Sensational headlines do get more eyes. And this is a good one. Why on earth should Borland "take on" Microsoft or Visual Studio? Microsoft and Borland are close partners in making great development products for Windows and .NET. Are Visual Studio and Delphi both IDEs for Windows? Sure, but we have a common goal - to provide developers with great tools for building applications for Windows. Microsoft is a close Borland partner, a terrific sponsor of our Borland conference, and has sponsored many Delphi events. In fact, just yesterday Rick LaPlante, the General Manager of Visual Studio Team System gave the Borcon Keynote, and included Danny Thorpe a Borland Chief Scientist and Delphi team member on stage in a demo of Delphi and Yukon technologies working together. And you don't have to look far to find Borland products like Starteam, CaliberRM, Together, and others that work with and integrate with Visual Studio to further enhance Windows development.
So then, with Diamondback, what or who are we "taking on"? We're taking on the increasing need to deliver software faster. We're taking on the problem of supporting existing investments and technologies while moving into the future with .NET. We're taking on the need for greater team communication. We're taking on the need for higher quality and more reliable software. The punchline is that the journalist actually got a lot of it, and it was a decent article about Delphi "Diamondback". It's too bad that for whatever reason, the headline on this one missed it. Next."
CBuilder in Diamondback?
Looks like that's the way things are heading from Paul Gustavson's blog
entry--
http://www.simventions.com/gustavson/2004/09/borcon-c-meet-team.html
It would be great if CBuilder can be bundled with Delphi (and
really, with all the other Borland development tools) ala Visual
Studio.
More info:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/09/13/Hndelphidiamondback_1.html
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1645650,00.asp
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Mozilla-Delphi project
The Mozilla-Delphi project provides resources for working with Mozilla technologies in the Borland Delphi and Kylix programming environments.
http://delphi.mozdev.org/index.html
Delphi 8 and SQL Server Yukon
"I'm watching Danny Thorpe and Euan Garden demonstrate writing managed code stored procedures using Delphi 8 and SQL Server Yukon. Since D8 uses the 1.1 version of the .NET framework and Yukon requires 2.0, this may seem unusual. Turns out all you have to do is specify a switch to the dccil command-line compiler indicating which framework version you'd care to target, and it works fine with framework versions which didn't exist when D8 was released.
I'm wondering what, if anything, this might offer in terms of solving the problem people have been having with .NET 1.1 SP 1..."
More .NET Generics Information
I am all geeked about the new features in .NET 2.0 that I am trying to find as much as I can and keep links of it here for as much as me as to spread them around. Here are six questions about Generics and Performance.
Diamondback Preview
They just announced that all attendies will receive a preview copy of Diamondback. I know that after using it I will not be able to use any other development tool again.
Kylix community project.
They just announced the Kylix community project. Teaming up between Borland and community leaders to keep CLX up to date.
Diamondback and JBuilder 2005
JBuilder 2005
Calibur RM (Requirements Management) intgrated client, integrated refactoring that communicates with all developers. Built in support for security audits on the code from fortify - could be run automatically.
Delphi Diamondback
Built in unit testing support. Supports both NUnit and DUnit. Greater functionality for building tests then previously available. Plus many, many new features.
It looks like alll the productivity features previously available in JBuilder are now in Diamondback. Looks like features are being added to both at the same time.
VB in Diamondback
This wasn't demonstrated, but it appears that you can use Diamondback to compile vb.net applications as well. It doesn't have a personality for for vb.net so you cannot create vb.net applications, but you should be able to edit and compile an existing application. I don't know if it is going to support visual form design, but I doubt it will.
I am curious what would be involved to create and install your own personallity into the IDE. . .
Data Explorer
Diamondback has a new Data Explorer which is built into the IDE. It provides a wealth of features for working with Databases. It works with any database and connection type. For example you can create, alter or drop tables. You can drag a table from the explorer onto the design surface to create the connection and the table (dataset) objects. There are so many features to this it is just mind boggling.
Unicode VCL for Win32
External link: http://tnt.ccci.org/delphi_unicode_controls/
If you need VCL controls for Win32 development then you should check out TNT Delphi Unicode Controls. It is free and supports Unicode completely for VCL applications under Win32. If you are doing .NET development using either WinForms or VCL.NET then you already have Unicode support
Beyond CLR
External link: http://www.dow.wau.nl/aew/delforexp.html
John Kaster mentioned this Delphi Code Formater called DelForExp. It provides wholesale formatting of source code to whatever coding standard you might be following.
Diamondback Compiler
Compiler
XML doc support fully surfaced for all compilers. Generated XML file is not required for help insight, but is used if present.
New Delphi syntax features (Win32 and .NET)
- for..in..do enumeration syntax
- Function inlining
- support for compiling Unicode and UTF8 source files
- Multi-unit namespaces
- New wild-card "uses" syntax (a.b.*)
Win32 Only
- Unit initialization consolidation optimization
.NET only
- Compact framework support
- Compile only
- No designer or debugger (Microsoft has not provided the SDK)
- Forward declared record types
Unit Definitions & Requirements
Multi-unit Namespaces
All interfaced symbols in unit "a.b.c" and "a.b.d" and "a.b.*" will be emitted into the namespace "a.b". The unit class that stores global variables and global procedures is named "a.b.Units.c". C# code (for example) would access type TFoo definind in unit "a.b.c" as try a.b.TFoo. If the unit name does not contain dots then the namespace is the unitname along and the unit class is
For..in..do
for Node in NodeList do
begin
ListBox1.Items.Add( Node.InnerText);
end;
Diamondback
John Kaster's session Overview of Delphi (Diamondback) for the Microsoft .NET Framework. The handout for this session is HUGE! A lot of enhancements and new features to cover.
The IDE has multiple personality disorder. It supports C#, Delphi/Win32 & Delphi.NET and the current personality you are using is indicated by the icon. You can have projects of each type combined in the same project group, and can switch between them without closing the IDE.
There is one object inspector and tool palette for all the personallities. Both have improved look and feel and better context management - the contents change based on what you are currently doing.
The welcome page includes an integrated customizable news feed reader. Defaults to BDN content, but additional content can be added.
The IDE supports 3 layout:
- The Default docked layout (as introduced in Delphi 8)
- Classic undocked layout (similar to Delphi 7)
- Debug layout
When debugging your Win32 and .NET debuggers work simultaneously so you can debug both a managed and unmanaged application at the same time. The Debugging .NET code is hosted in a Win32 process.
Can automatically add an exception to the ignore list from the exception break dialog in the IDE. Also given the option to break or continue at an exception.
The breakpoint view supports in-place editing. You can use a checkbox to quickly enable or disable breakpoints.
The CPU view now also shows IL disassembly for managed processes and ASM for win32 processes, both with the souce code integrated in the same view.
Refactoring
Refactoring features supported for all personalities and it knows the langauge and the scope, so all occurances in all files are upated.
- Rename
- Refactoring provides a preview showing all changes over multiple files.
- Extract method
- Create a method out of selected code.
- Looks at variables that need to be passed it.
- Passes by var passed parameters when necessary
- Removes variables that are used only in new method.
- Will create a function or procedure depending on if
- Extract resource string
- Sync Edit
- Imediate editing of multiple occurances of the same identifier.
- Find reference, unit or namespace
- Not just a find text, it knows the scope of the references, so if you have multiple references with the same name it finds the one that you are referring to
- Declare field and variable
- As you need a variable or field it will declare it for you automatically.
- When declaring a visible field it checks your descendant classes for conflicts.
- Verifies that you are making a valid decelaration.
Code insite adds Help Insight, which is similar to the feature in Visual Studio, but significant enhanced.
On demand loading of the tool pallet so only the components you need are loaded.
Debugger
New debuggers can be added to the IDE by 3rd party's
Better connection to IIS
Intelligent mode switching
Better evaluators
Versioning
- Multi-level backups with history view
- Provides difference view
- Provides rollback
- Provides undo for the form designer
- Does not require StarTeam, but will integrate with history in StarTeam
- StarTeam integration
- Enhanced IDE integrated menu items
- StarTeam project managmenet
- Create
- Check in/out
- Folder management
- Embedded client
- External client launching
- Connect to multiple servers
- Project manager
- Project groups
- Manage associations for project groups
- Structure pane
- Items pane files open in IDE
- History view is StartTeam aware
- Locking / unlocking / merging
- Change requests
- File renames are tracked
- History is not broken when a file is renamed.
- Delphi Enterprise and above include a StarTeam license
Miscellaneous IDE
- Persistent bookmakrs
- Error insight
- Expanded real-time error information for source.
- Integration into the structure view.
- Help insight
- Tooltip from XML doc information
- Updated / consolidated new component wizard
- Combines all functions of New VCL component / import AX Type library / control
- Open API
Diamondback
John Kaster's session Overview of Delphi (Diamondback) for the Microsoft .NET Framework. The handout for this session is HUGE! A lot of enhancements and new features to cover.
The IDE has multiple personality disorder. It supports C#, Delphi/Win32 & Delphi.NET and the current personality you are using is indicated by the icon. You can have projects of each type combined in the same project group, and can switch between them without closing the IDE.
There is one object inspector and tool palette for all the personallities. Both have improved look and feel and better context management - the contents change based on what you are currently doing.
The welcome page includes an integrated customizable news feed reader. Defaults to BDN content, but additional content can be added.
The IDE supports 3 layout:
- The Default docked layout (as introduced in Delphi 8)
- Classic undocked layout (similar to Delphi 7)
- Debug layout
When debugging your Win32 and .NET debuggers work simultaneously so you can debug both a managed and unmanaged application at the same time. The Debugging .NET code is hosted in a Win32 process.
Can automatically add an exception to the ignore list from the exception break dialog in the IDE. Also given the option to break or continue at an exception.
The breakpoint view supports in-place editing. You can use a checkbox to quickly enable or disable breakpoints.
The CPU view now also shows IL disassembly for managed processes and ASM for win32 processes, both with the souce code integrated in the same view.
Refactoring
Refactoring features supported for all personalities and it knows the langauge and the scope, so all occurances in all files are upated.
- Rename
- Refactoring provides a preview showing all changes over multiple files.
- Extract method
- Create a method out of selected code.
- Looks at variables that need to be passed it.
- Passes by var passed parameters when necessary
- Removes variables that are used only in new method.
- Will create a function or procedure depending on if
- Extract resource string
- Sync Edit
- Imediate editing of multiple occurances of the same identifier.
- Find reference, unit or namespace
- Not just a find text, it knows the scope of the references, so if you have multiple references with the same name it finds the one that you are referring to
- Declare field and variable
- As you need a variable or field it will declare it for you automatically.
- When declaring a visible field it checks your descendant classes for conflicts.
- Verifies that you are making a valid decelaration.
Code insite adds Help Insight, which is similar to the feature in Visual Studio, but significant enhanced.
On demand loading of the tool pallet so only the components you need are loaded.
Debugger
New debuggers can be added to the IDE by 3rd party's
Better connection to IIS
Intelligent mode switching
Better evaluators
Versioning
- Multi-level backups with history view
- Provides difference view
- Provides rollback
- Provides undo for the form designer
- Does not require StarTeam, but will integrate with history in StarTeam
- StarTeam integration
- Enhanced IDE integrated menu items
- StarTeam project managmenet
- Create
- Check in/out
- Folder management
- Embedded client
- External client launching
- Connect to multiple servers
- Project manager
- Project groups
- Manage associations for project groups
- Structure pane
- Items pane files open in IDE
- History view is StartTeam aware
- Locking / unlocking / merging
- Change requests
- File renames are tracked
- History is not broken when a file is renamed.
- Delphi Enterprise and above include a StarTeam license
Miscellaneous IDE
- Persistent bookmakrs
- Error insight
- Expanded real-time error information for source.
- Integration into the structure view.
- Help insight
- Tooltip from XML doc information
- Updated / consolidated new component wizard
- Combines all functions of New VCL component / import AX Type library / control
- Open API
Yukon
Hosts the CLR in-process for greater control. Your stored procedures will be written in managed code. Must be verified managed code. This means greater flexibility while maintaining security and server stability.
- Takes over CLR memory allocation
- Yukon takes all the memory for caching, and then provides it back to the CLR as needed.
- Takes over CLR exception handling
- Takes over CLR security model
- Takes over thread scheduling
- Runs fibers, not threads, so MS SQL server schedules them.
- Inspects managed code before it is loaded
- There are security overrides to get unmanaged code to load.
- Prefers no static data.
- Aborts/Terminates user code at the slightest provocation
- This includes infinite loops or any process that takes too long.
User defined data types and aggregates will be supported.
MS SQL Server only works with .net 2.0
Borland has a new database that runs completely in process with 100% managed code. It is based on JDataStore. More details on that as they become available. Called NDataStore, runs on the compact framework. Only has a 1 mb assembly, smaller for the compact framework.
Yukon is Microsoft's attempt to enter the enterprise.
What .NET 2.0 Means
What .NET 2.0 mean to You
It will be out soon, so be aware of it! Even if you are not targeting it your end users may have it installed.
When developing with 2.0 you need to re-evaluate your techniques, best practices and debugging because of all the changes. 2.0 is more mature then 1.0 - .Net is out of its adolesence.
The 2.0 framework is actually smaller then the 1.x framework because it uses generics internally.
Avalon will be released on 2.0, but Longhorn might not be here until .net 3.0
What .NET 2.0 mean to Microsoft
Microsoft is betting the server farm on .NET 2.0 with its attempt to move into the Enterprise Computing space with Yukon. Everyone said that they would take .NET seriously when Microsoft integrated it with Office - It is a bigger deal that Yukon will use .net then for Office to support it.
.Net 2.0 Compatibility with .Net 1.0
Very few issues with source compatibility
Binary compatibility
- Requires a side-by-side install with 1.x and 2.0, this is the first time a side by side has been implemented since 1.1 replaced 1.0. Is this the return of dll hell?
- By default a 1.x app will not run on 2.0, unless 1.x is not available (not preferred). A system policy or app.config can "float" a 1.x binary up to a 2.0 framework, but it is user beware.
Delphi 8 can develop for 2.0, but you must rebuild the rtl with 2.0. See Allen Bauer's The Oracle at Delphi
Get Ready for .net 2.0 with Danny Thorpe - Part 2
Borland will hopefully have compact framework support by 2005.
ASP.NET 2.0
"Code Beside" vs. "Code Behind"
In Code Behind the assembly descends from the aspx file. Now with Code Beside they will both be the same class (partial classes).
Declaritive Databinding
Similar to Delphi's data binding, but a source code solution.
Provider Model
Set a modula as the provider of a specific service.
Web Parts
Personalization for building portals. Takes care of the serialization and storage of personalized information.
Master Pages & Themes
Master Pages allow multiple file to start with the same look.
Theme is similar to a style sheet. Can be referred to by the code.
Get Ready for .net 2.0 with Danny Thorpe - Part 1
Danny is breaking down all the details on .net 2.0.
Yukon is the driving force behind 2.0.
At the CLR level there are:
- Generic Types
- Expanded CLR Host (to allow Yukon to host the CLR)
- 64-Bit Platform (not until 2.0)
- Improved Compact Framework (less Hackish)
C# Language changes:
- Generic Types (separate from the CLR Generic Types)
- Partial Classes
- Anonymous Methods
- Iterators (yield)
Generics - The Delphi syntax will be significantly cleaner then C#'s syntax. This is mostly because Delphi is top down while C# is still a 2-pass compiler.
Anonymous methods - Instead of overriding a method you just fill in the blanks - putting in the code that handles it. It automatically creates a sibling method. Used to create a delegate - instead of putting in a method name you just put in the body of the code.
[C#]
{
int localVar = 10;
obj.eventProp = new delegate { return 42 * localVar; localVar = localVar + 1 };
}
Similar feature may or may not be implemented in Delphi since this is a C# syntax feature and not a CLR feature.
Partial Classes - C# syntax that allows a class to be split into multiple source files. Once compiled the class is a single class with no representation of the original split. This will allow one source file with all the machine generated code in one file and then the user generated code in another file and then that can be compiled into a single class. This is to provide the same goal that Delphi had with the DFM and the PAS files separate.
Visual Basic.NET Changes
- Support access to Generics Types, but not define them.
- Partial Classes ("Extends")
- Operator Overloading (Finally)
- XML DocGen
- Debugging: Edit & Continue - cannot edit currently executing code or code that is on the stack
Managed C++ Changes
- More of a Do-Over then a few changes.
- Syntax has been reworked
- All new managed codegen and interoperability
- Profile-Guided Optimizations (POGO) - while testing performance data is collected, and then used with the linker to improve the optimizations.
64-bit Platforms - Currently available in Beta for the AMD 64 instructions, close and Itanian-2, not Itanium-1
- JIT compile IL to native 64 bit instructions
- SizeOf( Pointer ) != SizeOf( Integer )
- IntPtr type will be 64 bits wide - the size of a pointer
- Native int will also be 64 bits (IntPtr)
- P/Invoke will call into unmanaged Win64 code - you cannot use 32 dlls - must crosses processes to access 32-bit
- IL binary portability - if flagged platform agnostic (a feature with 2.0)
VCL for .NET needs to be updated to work on 64-bit code. The 64-bit ready version will warn / error on incompatibility. Has not previously been supported.
Win32 Delphi may get Generics, unlikely to get Partial Classes.
BorCon Blog list
Here is a list of blogs(in alphabetical order)
Chuck Hutchings - http://www.chuckscorner.com/ - pictures
Craig Stuntz - http://blogs.teamb.com/craigstuntz
Dave Nottage - http://blogs.teamb.com/davenottage/category/138.aspx
Dr. Bob's - http://www.drbob42.com/borcon
Jim McKeeth - http://www.bsdg.org/
Joe White - http://excastle.com/blog/
Marco Cantu - http://www.marcocantu.com/
Nick's blog - http://www.lemanix.com/nick/
Paul Gustavson - http://www.simventions.com/gustavson/
Robert Love - http://peakxml.com/
Serge Dosyukov - http://borcon2004.blogspot.com/
Wayne Niddery - http://blogs.teamb.com/wayneniddery
New Borland Product: nDataStore
Notes on what features it has:
- jDataStore Code ported from Java -> C#
- First Class .NET Database
- 100% Managed Code written C#
- Local connection is done In Process
- Remote connection is done remotely.
- Fault Tolerant
- Delphi/C#/VB Stored Procedure.
- On disk structure identical for:
- .net framework
- .net compact framework
- Linux/Solaris (jDataStore)
- 1.1M Deployment for .NET Framework
- 925K Deployment to .NET Compact Framework
My personal thoughts: This is a unique and exciting technology to try. There is only one other database that I know of that supports Managed Code Stored Procedures and that was the SQL Server 2005. However, nDataStore has a smaller footprint, and looks like it will work well as an embeded database.
Microsoft Keynote - from Borcon
Hopefully this is a good session, I have been bored many times in the Keynote sessions, I like technical details and the industry keynotes tend to be a bit higher level.
Marketing Hype so far with nothing much to report :-(
Talked about the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) which I had not heard before it uses an Xml Schema to keep different systems together. I guess I will to search and read about that.
Then the started talking about SQL Server 2005, and how you can write Managed Code Stored Procedures.
Yeah, Danny Thorpe was just welcomed out on stage!!!
Using Delphi 8 with the command line compiler you can specify .NET 2.--clrversion=v2.0.40607
They compiled a Delphi function into an assembly, then loaded it into to SQL Server and then they wrote the same function in TSQL then they used the same function in a performance test. (i.e. Delphi code as a Stored Procedure)
Execution
- TSQL time: ~10,000 ms
- Delphi time: ~110-190 ms
Then the mentioned SQL on 64 Bit Platform, and the same Delphi Managed code will run there with no changes.
Then they wrapped up showing CaliberRM integration with Team Foundation Server and MS Project, which seem quite seamless and easy
What's new in Diamondback - Allen Bauer
Allen Bauer's Presentation will be focused on the IDE specifically.. the room is packed (standing room only)
Multiple personality IDE
- Delphi Win32
- Delphi for .NET
- C#
Debugging
- Win32 & .Net debuggers working simultaneously.
- Debugging .Net code hosting a Win32 process
- AppDomain support in the Module View for managed apps. (App domains show up in the modules panes and in the scope browser pane)
- Soring in the modules view
- Better stack traces in Win32 apps (for frames that don't have Debug Info) (Even after an Exception!)
- Locals view allows for changing frames in Win32
- Exception notification dialog enhancements
- Break/continue buttons
- Ignore Exceptions type check box
- .Net exceptions now show the exception message on dialog
- Unicode enabling view that show program data (watch, locals, inspector, stack, etc...)
- Connect to IIS better
- Better evaluators
- CPU View
Refactoring
- Rename detections naming conflicts
- Extract method
- Extract Resource string
- Sync Edit
- Find unit or namespace
- Declare Field
- Declare Variable
- C# & Delphi (Win32 & .NET)
- Refactoring will cross languages, if you change a C# symbol and it is used in Delphi code the engine will change both!!!
- Will refactor DFM Values as well.
SynEdit
- Select a section of code and press the SynEdit Button or Shift-Ctrl-J
- Then you can tab through common symbols, and change all symbol of the same name at the same time.
- This is COOL!
VCL Designer
- Floating Designer will be supported!!!! Even for VCL for .NET (But not Winform's)
- Drag and Drop from the component palette is now support instead of just click and click. (BTW click and click is still supported)
Structure View
- Similar to Object Tree View
- Shows Errors from Error Insight (see Below)
Error Insight
- Shows Errors by underlining
- Such as undeclared identifiers.
- Does not require a Compile
Component Palette
- Custom Categories allow you to move components for other sections in your own.
- Completely Customizable
- Icon Size
- Show Caption's
- Plus (5-15 More options that I could not record fast enough)
Project Manager
- Has File Management functionality
- Shows Source Tree
- Right Click (Rename)
- Right Click (Add Folders)
File|New Other Dialog
- Much better,tree view down the side instead of all of the tabs.
Help Insight
- If you place your mouse over a symbol
- It will tell you where it is declared and the parameters.
- If an Xml Document is generated for the given symbol it will give that help as well.
- If a parameter has help it you can click on it an see the help for that parameter as well.
History Tab
- Shows all of the changes that you have made to the file.
- Saves X number of changes to your file.
- Easy to revert to a previous copy
- Diff Viewer to see all of the changes.
- Does not require Star Team
- Enhanced if Star Team is installed because you see items in the repository as well.
Then he ran out time, after talking with him he covered <>
64 Bit Changes for the CLR
JIT compile IL to native 64 bit instructions, will be optimized to specific processor type.
Sizeof(Pointer) <> Sizeof(Integer)
IntPtr type 64 bits wide
P/Invoke only works into unmanaged Win64 code.
Delphi note:
Delphi 8 with Winform's work fine with no changes.
Delphi with VCL will need some changes. Specifically because THandle is declared as Cardinal (32bit) in many places and it's size changes. So this needs to be addressed before the VCL will work on 64bit.
Delphi Syntax for Generics
Delphi Syntax for Generic Types will be:
type TFoo
private
data1: T;
public
function SomMethod(param1: INteger; Param2 :T) : Integer;
end;
function TFoo
begin
end;
var
Foo : TFoo
Introduction to MSIL Articles
Kenny Kerr is writing a series of articles on MSIL. It's a good resource if you want a quick overview of CIL in bite-sized chunks.
[Via .NET Languages Weblog]
Nick scooping Danny's .NET 2.0 talk
Nick has been doing a great job of keeping us unfortunates in the loop from BorCon. He has gathered all the topics from Danny Thorpe's talk called "Get Ready for Microsoft .NET 2.0". This was during the preconference gatherings and I expect a lot more from Nick this week.
[Via Live from Danny's Talk ]
NDataStore
I'm listening to Steve Shaughnessey talk about NDataStore, Borland's .NET native DB server. Jens Ole Lauridsen took the front end of a Java compiler, removed the byte code emitter, and converted it to emit C# code. Steve and Jens tweaked the conversion until they could build NDataStore from the JDataStore source code. NDataStore beats MySQL in the benchmarks they've tried. Read the full article for more information.
http://blogs.teamb.com/CraigStuntz/archive/2004/09/13/BorCon2004NDataStore.aspx
VCL unit tests
This post is a bit of speculation.
1. Are there unit tests for the VCL?I have no way of knowing if this is so, but the VCL has to be tested. So why not unit tests, it is an popular way of working. One thing is sure the VCL seems very stable and it has to be tested (whole?) for each new compiler. If I was responsible for the testing I would have screamed for some automation before the third release.
2. Do we want to see the Unit tests.No, because the might not exist (see above) or are not 'presentable'.Yes, well without this it would be a bit of a pointless post. The VCL source is mostly a great source for finding out how a part of the VCL works. The unit tests might be a great way to find out that part of the VCL can/should be used.
German interview of Danny Thorpe
The interview is mainly about daimondback and can be found here:
http://www.delphi-source.de/vermischtes/interviews/dthorpe0904.php
and the google translation:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edelphi%2Dsource%2Ede%2Fvermischtes%2Finterviews%2Fdthorpe0904%2Ephp
FlameRobin version 0.1.3 released
We have put a new release of FlameRobin online. It's a Linux binary, Windows binary and source code on the same page.more >>
Mantis 0.19.0 (stable) Released
This is a stable release that followed a couple of alpha releases + a release candidate. Compared to 0.18.3 this release has over 250 enhancements and fixes. These include some major additions to Mantis including issue relationships, sponsorships, advanced filters, changelog, workflow control, my-view, using ADODB as a database abstraction layer (only MySQL supported at the moment), "forgot password" support, more secure signup with captcha image, security fixes, and various other fixes and enhancements. All users of previous releases are encouraged to upgrade to this release.
- #0003896: [security] Change default value of $g_view_summary_threshold to MANAGER (vboctor)
- #0004478: [upgrade] database upgrade from 0.18.3 problem: upgrade-ID "filters-db1" does not work on mySQL4.1.3b-beta (jlatour)
- #0004435: [other] Auto-preview of attached images is broken (vboctor)
- #0004470: [other] Strange changes of "Resolution" value (thraxisp)
- #0004523: [filters] SYSTEM NOTICE: Undefined variable: t_target_field in view_filters_page.php (vboctor)
- #0004431: [relationships] Relationship removal is always "duplicate of" in history (masc)
- #0004426: [email] Email notifications to users with language set to "auto" causes errors (thraxisp)
- #0004448: [email] Custom severity and status shown in mail as code (thraxisp)
- #0004321: [localization] New german lang strings (bpfennig)
- #0004423: [localization] Parse error in strings_hungarian.txt line 974 (vboctor)
- #0004429: [localization] Slovene national characters not displayed correctly (jlatour)
- #0004445: [localization] New Spanish strings file (Wanderer)
- #0004458: [localization] Small fixes to the French file (Wanderer)
- #0004459: [localization] Typos in German and English strings (Wanderer)
- #0004498: [localization] Swedish translation updated for 0.19.0rc1 (Wanderer)
- #0004509: [localization] Request rather than "Provide Feedback to Issue" (thraxisp)
- #0004519: [localization] Updated the Italian language strings file to 0.19.0rc1 (Wanderer)
- #0004463: [graphs] pie chart of summary graph per category wrong when viewing allprojects) (thraxisp)
- #0004464: [graphs] Pie graphs display as error if no issue exist for a specific project (thraxisp)
- #0004481: [graphs] Query counts are incorrect in graphs (thraxisp)
- #0004507: [graphs] No time-line in the summary for cumulative by days (thraxisp)
- #0004511: [graphs] Summary Graph "Cumulative by Date" is blank (process expires) (thraxisp)
- #0004425: [bugtracker] Action group page exceeds max execution time (vboctor)
- #0004437: [bugtracker] Filenames of uploaded attached files are damaged (thraxisp)
- #0004479: [bugtracker] Reporters can't close or reopen issues they reported (thraxisp)
- #0004495: [bugtracker] Warning in bug_actiongroup_page.php when risolving (thraxisp)
- #0004480: [administration] admin/check.php - Check email failing. (thraxisp)
- Updated Italian, French, Portuguese Brazil, Lithuanian, Korean, Czech, Swedish, Spanish, German and Dutch translations
Regards,
Mantis Team
Advanced Data Generator
Upscene announce a new version of their database developer tool: "Advanced Data Generator" V1.2.0.
Borland's Managed Database Engine
Borland database whizes Steve Shaughnessy and Jens Ole Lauridsen will be giving two talks at BorCon on their managed code database, a pure .NET incarnation of JDataStore. It is an extremely fast database for applications written in managed code languages that let you write database triggers, stored procedures and UDFs using Delphi, C#, or VB.NET. It delivers sophisticated features like automatic crash recovery, fault-tolerant mirroring, row level locking, stored procedures and UDFs and it does it in a footprint of less than 1MB. It runs in process so it delivers terrific performance and reliability and it deploys in a single DLL. It supports the SQL-92 standard for query expressions.
Check out session 1182 Managed Code Database Advantage for the Microsoft .NET Framework Platform on Monday at 2:00 p.m in room J4 And once you've seen that, you'll want to attend session 3236 Writing Applications with a Managed Code Database for .NET on Monday at 5:00 also in room J4.
These two sessions are conveniently on either side of my 3148a session "What's New in the Delphi Compiler" from 3:30 to 4:45 in Exhibit Hall 1. I'm hoping to slip into one or both of them to hear more about the new .NET incarnation of this great database engine that the Java guys have been raving about for years.
Firebird ADO.NET Data Provider 1.6.2 released
The Firebird ADO.NET Data Provider 1.6.2 is available for download.
Release notes can be found here:
http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?action=view_item&topic=1094833402
Download information can be found here:
http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=files&id=netprovider
Friday, September 10, 2004
What's the framework of your choice, VCL.NET of FCL?
From Zarko Gajic:
"Starting a new Windows application? Using Delphi for .NET? What framework to
choose, should it be VCL.NET of FCL (or maybe both)? Many Delphi developers
are in dilemma these days, what path is the right one?
Join the poll:
http://www.delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa082404a.htm"
Maths to bring e-commerce to its knees
As we speak, there is speculation amongst the maths community about one of its most cryptic questions. Why are prime numbers prime numbers? What defines there seemingly random pattern? The question is called the Riemann hypothesis, and a mathematician in France might have found the answer.The Riemann hypothesis explains why a prime is a prime. For non mathematicians, a prime is a number divisible by only itself and one (list of the first 1000 primes). Although primes are interesting mathematical material, they are also key to internet cryptography. They ensure that data is safe when transmitted over the web to online stores like Amazon. Louis de Branges, a French-born mathematician currently working in the US, claims to have proved the hypothesis. However, his colleagues are sceptical. The kicker is that whoever solves the problem wins a prize of a million dollars. Prof du Sautoy told UK paper The Guardian that "The proof he has announced is rather incomprehensible. Now mathematicians are less sure that the million has been won". Be sure that when mathematicians find it tough, the concept is pretty intense stuff.Dr Delvin, when asked whether it had been proved, replied "We don't know. We have good reason to assume it has been and within the next 12 months, in the inner core of experts in differential geometry, which is the field we are speaking about, people will start to say, yes, OK, this looks right. But there is not going to be a golden moment."Stay tuned; the effects could be massive. View: Discussion Guardian Article View: PDF Apology from Louis de Branges
"Very First OpenSource Conference in Japan"
Firebird is also mentioned in this report on the "Very First OpenSource Conference in Japan" by Hirano Kazunari on O'Reilly Developer Weblogs
"IBM seeks to ease database burden"
Firebird is mentioned in the following article, "IBM seeks to ease database burden" By Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com
DUnit for .NET
DUnit for .NET is port of the popular DUnit framework. Dunit is a unit testing tool.
Download from http://codecentral.borland.com/ccweb.exe/listing?id=21036
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Is .NET causing the Big Sucking Sounds around Win32?
http://blogs.slcdug.org/jjacobson/archive/2004/09/07/516.aspx
".NET seems to be draining a lot of good resources down into an abyss that has no short-term gain and increasingly questionable long-term gain. Now instead of spending their time on better Win32 stuff, somebody at Borland now has to address this .NET SP1 issue. Resources at RemObjects that would be devoted to a scripting engine are now eaten up in a language that appears to be no use to Win32 developers such as myself. Countless third-party Win32 component makers are now toiling on .NET components instead. And the list goes on and on. This all represents a serious opportunity cost.And for what? Better threading, cleaner OO under the hood, and language independence, in the long run. I don't think this is worth it, as good as those things might be. The software development industry has lost sight of what is important: user needs. Instead developers are rewriting unbroken applications just so they can use VS.NET or .NET in general. "Software development is fun again!" I heard one developer exclaim in response to .NET. Here's a good challenge for somebody: disabuse me of the belief that there are too many excited lemmings doing software development. Users are not just updating their machines every time MSFT says to either. And even if they do, they still don't get .NET by default. Look at XP SP2 (or is it SP1?). It is being rejected wholesale by the corporate and private world en masse and didn't have .NET in it anyway! Those with a good memory will remember that there was once a time when it was promised that XP would come with .NET installed as part of the operating system. [Young over-excited lemmings of course don't remember that anything ever preceded their beta copies of VS.NET 2005.] Up to this point I've been investing/wasting a lot of time writing and rewriting my newsreader so as to ease the transition to .NET for version 2. Enough is enough. It is time for me to ***t or get off the pot, and that means no more taking out components that look doomed to remain Win32 only or that I won't be able to upgrade when a new version of Delphi comes out. Time for me to practice what I preach. "
Interbase up for sale? ;)
The Cape Verdean Minister of Finance and Planning, João Pinto Serra has put Interbase up for sale, wonder if Borland knows about it?
Only 2 days until BorCon 2004!
http://www.borland.com/conf2004/
The annual Borland Conference is a premier event for technical education and this year’s conference will bring together the software industry's most talented speakers and trainers. Attendees will learn about new Borland products, advance their skills on the latest technologies and gain powerful tools for accelerating the application lifecycle.
Slashdot article - Firebird At 20 Years
mAriuZ writes "From Jim Starkey: "September 4th is the 20th anniversary of what is now Firebird. I quit my job at DEC in August, took a three day end-of-summer holiday, and began work on September 4, 1984 in my new career as a software entrepreneur. As best as I can reconstruct, the first two files were cpre.c and cpre.h (C preprocessor), later changed to gpre.c and gpre.h. The files were created on a loaner DEC Pro/350, a PDP-11 personal computer that went exactly nowhere, running XENIX. Gpre was my first C program, XENIX was my first experience with Unix, and the Pro/350 was my very last (but not lamented) experience with PDP-11s.""
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/06/1239231&tid=221&tid=8
New Delphi Open Tools API Reference
Mustangpeak has a new Delphi OTA page with examples. Very good stuff.
InterBase with Windows XP SP2
This article explains how to configure the Windows XP Service Pack 2 firewall to allow clients to connect to an InterBase server. Not surprisingly, you need to open port 3050.
IBReplicator V1.5.8
IBReplicator V1.5.8 is available for download. This update fixes a problem related to releasing a handle that was allocated by another connection. Therefore generating spurious ErrorNos: 49 and 49b.
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
More on the .Net SP1.1 and D8 Issue - Shotgun fix for .NET 1.1 SP1...
Following up on this post about the update to the .Net Framework 1.1 and it's effect on Delphi 8:
Fikele has a good post on what to do. One of the tricks to do if you update either Delphi 8 or the Framework, is to always delete the *.dc?il files for all of your projects. These files, just as in the Win32 world, are compiler dependent, and they are Framework dependent as well. Of course, since you have source, these all can be reproduced and linked against the proper version of the Framework.
Allen Bauer has more information as well.
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