Are you ready?!

Are you ready for TPC-C based test results? Are you looking forward to know who is the winner?! Be prepared - 4th issue of IBDeveloper is coming soon!

Want to know who is who? Read IBDeveloper magazine!

JDBStudio - with Firebird and Fyracle support

New Java database administration tool - JDBStudio, that has plugins to support both Firebird and Fyracle functionality. More details, and free download.

Indiana Jones of the Balkans and the mystery of a hidden pyramid

“We’re talking about a huge construction effort here. The size of this pyramid will shock the archaeological world. It’s substantially higher than the Great Pyramid of Egypt,” said Mr Osmanagic, who has spent 15 years researching the pyramids of Central and South America. “We have discovered tunnels linking the pyramid with other hilltops. We have also found a huge entrance plateau, paved with thousands of handmade sandstone plates. Once the world accepts that we have this huge pyramid we will start trying to answer the questions: who? when? how? and why?”

Source

BDS2006 Update #2 - English

Now available for all registered users of BDS 2006. This is a patch that will install on either the initial released version or the C++Builder update version.

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INFORMATION_SCHEMA for Firebird

Lorenzo Alberton writes:

"The SQL 2003 Standard introduced a new schema called INFORMATION_SCHEMA. PostgreSQL, SQL Server and now MySQL have it. ORACLE, DB2, Sybase, Ingres, Informix and other DBMS have something similar, usually called System Tables. The INFORMATION_SCHEMA is meant to be a set of views you can query using regular SELECT statements, for instance if you need to know something about the defined triggers, or the structure of a table to which you have access. Firebird doesn't have it, but you can retrieve pretty much everything you need from the system tables. These are metadata tables, their names start with "RDB$". Let's see how we can retrieve some useful informations from them."

Avalon3D vs Delphi

From Mabster's blog:

"

Something quite funny:

I forwarded a link to Channel9's latest demo of Avalon3D to a co-worker of mine who does a lot of OpenGL/Direct3D stuff in Delphi.

As part of my email, I commented on how impressive it was that they knocked up a 3D scene with an animated camera in only 30-or-so lines of code.

Within a few minutes, Pete sent me back an exe he'd written in Delphi using about 30 lines of code, that did exactly what the demo's application did.

I keep forgetting just how advanced the old dog is, even compared to Microsoft's "next big thing"! :)

"

More eyes on the code = better quality

From Dmitry Yemanov

Adriano dos Santos Fernandes has joined the Firebird code reviewing team (we can now call it a team, since there are now two people involved in this task - Claudio and Adriano). Adriano will be assisted by a grant from the Firebird Foundation.

Warning! Serious GBAK issue!

From Dmitry Yemanov

Running GBAK -C by a non-privileged user (i.e. neither SYSDBA nor database owner) causes an original database to be overwritten instead of the expected “database already exists” message.

This bug seems to be inherited from IB 6.0 and it exists in all FB versions. However, FB 2.0 is not affected due to different default restore rules.

"Oracle Accord Means Business-as-Usual"

from OpenEnterpriseTrends:

"Not taking any chances, however, MySQL is also developing its own transactional storage engine and will extend its transaction support by adding technologies developed by one of the creators of InterBase (which later became core technology for the Open Source Firebird project)."

SQL/e - Microsoft answer to FB Embedded?

From Steve Lasker’s Web Log - “I’m not familiar with the details of Firebird Embedded, so I can’t make a comparison. To capture the essence: SQL/e is a lightweight, in-proc relational database that offers a subset of the data types and TSQL syntax to provide queries over relational stored data with transactional support. The SQL/e data format can be password protected with encryption. SQL/e is based on the proven history of the Microsoft SQL Server Mobile Edition technology.”
Read more here.

To quote the FAQ on website:

Q: Does SQL/e support stored procedures, or views?
A: No. Because SQL/e is targeted at lightweight, in-proc scenarios these features aren’t available. However, these features are typically used to provide multi-user abstraction from the underlying database schema. Because SQL/e runs in-proc with your application these features would typically provide more overhead than value. Because SQL/e runs in-proc with your application, why limit yourself to T-SQL within a stored procedure? By creating a data access layer to your SQL/e database you can use the full power of the .NET Framework.

Q: How big is the SQL/e runtime?
A: For all 7 dlls, the entire runtime is 1.4mb. This is less than a SQL Express .mdf file.

Q: What is the data file size limitation of SQL/e?
A: Both SQL/e and SQL/x share the same 4gig size limitation.

‘Nuff said!

Delphi 2006 and WinForms in .NET 2.0

via Marco Cantu

"

Delphi 2006 can be used to write .NET 2.0 applications... by using the command line compiler.

In a recent blog post, Daniel Wischnewski shows how to compile a Delphi application for .NET 2.0. The trick is to use (from the command line compiler, not from the IDE) the --clrversion flag. He shows that you can compile a .NET 2.0 console application (using a specific 2.0 feature, the console background color) with this command:

dccil -CC
 -NSC:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
 --clrversion:v2.0.50727
 --no-config
 SimpleSampleNET2.dpr

The only extra operation you have to do the first time is to copy to the project folder the source code file Borland.Delphi.System.pas and compile it with the following command:

dccil -CC
 -NSC:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
 --clrversion:v2.0.50727
 --no-config
 -Q -M -y -Z -$D-
 Borland.Delphi.System.pas

   

Now, before you think I'm only quoting his work in my blog post, I've easily replicated Daniel's steps, but gone one step forward. I've used Delphi 2006 to create a new Delphi for .NET WinForms application, added to it code specific to version 2.0 of WInForms, and compiled it with a similar command line call.

In my extra code I've added the flat style to a button and used a new .NET 2.0 control to play a sound. This is my code:

procedure TWinForm3.ButtonClick(sender: TObject; e: System.EventArgs);
var
 sndPlayer: SoundPlayer;
begin
 Button1.FlatStyle := FlatStyle.Flat;

 sndPlayer := SoundPlayer.Create;
 sndPlayer.SoundLocation := 'C:\Program Files\Messenger\type.Wav';
 sndPlayer.LoadAsync;
 if sndPlayer.IsLoadCompleted then
   sndPlayer.Play;
end;

Now you cannot compile this code with the Delphi 2006 IDE, as some of the features are specific to .NET 2.0. But you can compile it with the following command line, similar to the previous ones but with references to the assemblies used:

dccil -CC
 -NSC:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
 --clrversion:v2.0.50727
 --no-config
 projform20.dpr
 -luC:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Data.dll
 -luC:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Windows.Forms.dll

Of course, with no help from the designer, no IDE-based compilation, and no proper Code Insight (although it might be possible to turn these on), building WinForms 2.0 applications in Delphi 2006 is far from a great experience. However, if you want to experiment with some of the new components and properties, while you wait for Highlander (next version of Delphi), and don't care to install Visual Studio, this might be an interesting option. This also speaks in favor of the flexibility of the BDS IDE."

InstantObjects 2.0 Beta 3

via Marco Cantu

"A new beta of InstantObjects was released a few days ago... a very interesting O/R mapping solution for Delphi Win32.

InstantObjects is a powerful object persistence layer based on an object/relational mapping approach for Delphi Win32 VCL applications. In other words, your application code deals with objects in memory and the corresponding data is saved in a standard relational database. InstantObjects was based on the classic approach of Scott Ambler . It has recently been extended to work better in a SQL server world and supports a large set of databases. The architecture of InstantObjects is really very neat, and I find it nicer than many other more popular O/R mapping libraries.

At first, InstantObjects was a commercial product. When it was abandoned by the original developers and released as an open source project, a group of users set up a real and active open source project. Development has been steady and both bug fixing and new features are countless. There is an energetic community of developers and end users that is not only keeping the product alive but really improving it. Sadly this is not true for other Delphi open source projects, like those originating from TurboPower.

By combining this two features (a solid technical foundation, an active community) InstantObjects is a very interesting option as a framework for many different types of development projects. Learning the core features of InstantObjects is relatively easy, as you can find out looking at the classic (even if quite out-of date) presentation video. Its IDE integration helps a lot in defining new classes and their attributes. Its integration with Delphi's TDataSet architectrure lets you work on the user interface as with any other dataset.

I have no space for a full presentation, but I really suggest you evaluate it (the previous beta was also in the Delphi 2006 Companion CD) if you are interested in this kind of architecture. Certainly I'm biased towards it because part of the core group of developers are some Italian friends of mine (which is why the IO home page is hosted on my office server, like this blog) but I woudn't be pushing it if I wasn't sure of its technical merit."

Chess game in ajax - done by morfik team

via Mauricio Longo’s blog

Much had been said about the browser as a platform. It was an idea strongly promoted by, the now gone, Netscape at the start of the Web revolution, but we never got there. Did we? Yes, we did! We just did not notice it!
If you take your browsers to this chess game, you might start to understand what I mean.

< This game has a great interface and is played against you by your own computer. Your moves do not get sent off to a server which comes up with a response and sends a move order back to your browser. The analisys of the play and the decision of the move is entierly done in Javascript, in your own machine, by the browser.

JStar will be MySQL's own egine

Apparently MySQL will use JStar as an alternative to InnoDB. “What we didn’t tell people when we bought Netfrastructure is that we were getting more than just people. We were also getting software,” Mickos said. What else has he left out of his story, to reveal later??

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MS vaguely outlines plans with SQLServer

Paul Flessner says that MS will release a light version of SQLServer called SQLServer Everywhere. Probably similar to Firebird embedded dynamic library, but with fewer features. He also says: "Today the cost of storage continues to be on an amazing trajectory; one could reasonably expect that the cost of a terabyte will be reduced from about $1000 today to $100 in 2007."

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MySQL fills Oracle-consumed hole in database

MySQL fills Oracle-consumed hole in database by Martin LaMonica on ZDNet.

" The storage engine MySQL is working on will be available this year. The engine derives from MySQL's acquisition of Netfrastructure, which employed database luminary Jim Starkey and other engineers.

"What we didn't tell people when we bought Netfrastructure is that we were getting more than just people. We were also getting software," Mickos said.

At the company's customer conference later this month, MySQL executives will further detail its strategy for storage engines.

The company will disclose partners that are writing their own storage engines for MySQL and further detail its "plug-in" architecture for storage engines, said Zack Urlocker, MySQL vice president of marketing."

MySQL to unveil new transaction engine

MySQL to unveil new transaction engine by China Martens on LinuxWorld.

"MySQL is due to unveil a new transaction database engine at its upcoming user conference later this month, according to a company executive. The open-source database vendor will also be showcasing database engines from third parties, Zach Urlocker, vice president of marketing at MySQL, said Thursday.

The new transaction database was developed by Jim Starkey, a noted database software architect who joined MySQL when it acquired his Web application technology company in February, Urlocker said in an interview at the LinuxWorld conference in Boston. When Starkey joined MySQL from Netfrastructure, rumors immediately circulated that he had been hired to develop a new transactional engine for the company."

RedHat acquired JBoss

As predicted by many, JBoss has entered into an agreement to be acquired - by Red Hat, which anticipates accellerating the shift to SOA. According to the press release by Red Hat, they are acquiring JBoss for approximately $350 million in initial consideration, plus approximately $70 million subject to the achievement of certain future performance metrics.

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SourceForge community loves the blue frog

"Of note was Firebird's second place in the database category. This relational database is quietly picking up both in community interest and market share, and could rival PostgreSql and MySql in time. "
Read here

I’m an Open Source project - buy me

via silentpenguin

With an - umm - “interesting” choice in wording, Pentaho announce the acquisition of the Kettle project. Kettle is an Open Source project centered around data integration. Matt Casters’ announcement on the same subject is more along the lines of the project “joining” Pentaho. Pentaho have hired Matt to be a data integrations architect there.