The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Development’ Category

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Consensus systems (Zookepper, etcd, consul) – what are they?

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/12/06

A while ago,  wrote these very nice G+ posts

The English text is about a year older, but the German text Google Translates pretty well.

The most important points in ot for me were these:

  • Consensus systems are distribute systems, so take at least the P (partitioned) from the CAP theorem.
  • In addidtion, Consensus systems also chose the C (consistent) from the CAP theorem.
  • Since in CAP you can only pick 2 out of 3, the A (available) isn’t guaranteed on Consensus systems.
  • Only three systems get this right: Zookeeper, etcd, Consul. All others shred data eventually.
  • Leader election algorithms Paxos and Raft.
  • Cluster a.k.a. Ensemble provide a consistent view of the data no matter to what member of the Cluster/Ensemble you talk to
  • The (set of) connection(s) from a client to the Cluster/Ensemble is called session
  • Cluster/Ensemble operations are on a tree with nodes that can have atomic operations on them
  • Nodes can be persistent or ephemeral (temporal)
  • All nodes can have data (keep it small enough ~4kilobyte max)
  • Directories in the tree are usually persistent; leaf nodes often ephemeral
  • Useful operations: load balancing, queueing, data availability
  • There are transactions so you can make atomic operations larger. Don’t make them too long.
  • Consistency takes time; expect at max ~1000s of write operations per second
  • Not being available is a feature (it means it still is P and C, just not reachable right now)
  • Clients must cope with the Cluster/Ensemble being temporarily being read-only or unavailable
  • Applications should always re-create any persistent nodes they create (just in case – during non availability – from one consistent phase to another consistent phase) a persistent node is no more.

Some more keywords and links from the article:

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Distributed Computing, Software Development | 2 Comments »

How do I embed multiple sizes in an .ico file? – Super User

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/12/06

Scripts are soooo coool.

I remember doing similar things in Windows, but couldn’t find the batch files any more. There is an example (thanks Rob W for answering, thanks Suchipi for asking) that works in Mac/Linux:

ImageMagick (Windows/Mac/Linux) contains a command-line tool called convert that can be used for many things, including packing multiple images in one icon:

convert 16.png 32.png 48.png 128.png 256.png -colors 256 icon.ico

The previous command takes 5 PNG images, and combines them into a single .ico file.

Unlike the other answers, this method can easily be used in batch scripts to automatically generate several icon files. In one of my projects, I have a single vector image (SVG), and use Inkscape to generate png’s of various sizes, followed by convert to create a icon container. This is a reduced example (in a bash script):

#!/bin/bash
for size in 16 32 48 128 256; do
    inkscape -z -e $size.png -w $size -h $size icon.svg >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
done
convert 16.png 32.png 48.png 128.png 256.png -colors 256 icon.ico

–jeroen

via:

Posted in bash, Development, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

C13/C14 wiring diagram live/neutral/earth

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/12/02

Edit 20220215/20200713: The original wiring description in this article was wrong, thanks Jules Vape and John Cooper for pointing this out in the comments.

This is the correct wiring according to IEC 60320 – Wikipedia: C13/C14_coupler: File:IEC60320 C13.jpg – Wikipedia (rotated for clarity) and Source: File:IEC60320 C14.jpg – Wikimedia Commons.

  • Facing the C13 female side that has holes:
    Position Lead
    Left N Neutral
    Middle ⏚/PE Protective Earth/Ground
    Right L Live
  • Facing the C14 male side that has pins:
    Position Lead
    Left L Live
    Middle ⏚/PE Protective Earth/Ground
    Right N Neutral

The same information from [WayBack] IEC 60320 (IEC 320) Reference Chart – IEC 60320 Connectors & Plugs | StayOnline:

IEC-60320 Plugs and Connectors
Rating
Configuration
Female/Male		 International North America Wires Poles
diagram
C13/C14		 250 Volts
10 Amps		 125/250 Volts
15 Amps		 3 Wires 2 Poles

Wiring colours

If you wire it, the colours depend on where you live. I live in the Netherlands so this shortened table does apply:

IEC (most of Europe) AC power circuit wiring color codes.

Function Label Color, IEC Color, old IEC
Protective earth ⏚/PE Color wire green yellow.svg green/yellow Color wire green yellow.svg green/yellow
Neutral N Color wire light blue.svg blue Color wire light blue.svg blue
Line, single phase L Color wire brown.svg brown Color wire brown.svg brown or Color wire black.svg black

Longer tables and infographics are here:

–jeroen

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Development, Electronics Development, LifeHacker, Power User | 5 Comments »

Adding staged updates to SourceTree | SourceTree Blog

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/12/01

My experience is that early upgrades are very unstable and they take an eternity to fix bugs, I need to find a way to push myself from the early stage to the late stage.

[WayBack] Adding staged updates to SourceTree | SourceTree Blog

–jeroen

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Development, DVCS - Distributed Version Control, git, Mercurial/Hg, Source Code Management, SourceTree | Leave a Comment »

WinSCP can be embedded and scripted as can PSFTP but not FileZilla

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/12/01

In a quest to perform SFTP in Delphi next to FTP, I first researched what I was up against. A tiny voice in the back of my head said “SFTP is totally unlike FTP” and it was right: SFTP means SSH File Transfer Protocol, not Simple File Transfer Protocol nor FTP over SSH nor FTP over SSL aka FTPS – the latter is supported by Indy but the former isn’t.

I decided against SecureBlackBox (providing SFTPBlackbox) and IPWorks (SSH) as I tried both a while ago for S/MIME support and was disappointed about both the lack of features and documentation; in the end I went for wrapping OpenSSL for the “encrypt-then-sign” process and Indy for the SSMTP part. The merger of the SecureBlackBox and IPWorks made me even less happy.

The Chilkat alternative for SFTP isn’t too compelling either: ActiveX or DLL black-box without a lot of insight on how many people do use it.

So when I had to do SFTP and knew there are no free or open source SFTP components for Delphi available I opted for thinking outside the Delphi realm.

My basic idea was to embed either of these:

  1. Filezilla (as Filezilla on Windows is waaaay faster than WinSCP)
  2. WinSCP (a Windows SCP and SFTP client written in C++ Builder)
  3. PSFTP (the Putty SFTP client)

FileZilla

FileZilla internally uses FzSFtp.exe which is based on PSFTP code (but with some buffers making it faster than PSFTP or WinSCP).

According to the author, neither FzSFtp.exe nor FileZilla can be automated:

FileZilla cannot make any automated transfers at all. Neither FileZilla.exe nor fzsftp.exe (is for SFTP) can be used for any batch processing.

Source: run filezilla tzsftp from batch command line – FileZilla Forums

The WinSCP author commented in a similar fashion:

FileZilla does not have any command line arguments (nor any other way) that allow automatic transfer.

Source: windows – Command line option to download file in FileZilla – Stack Overflow

In addition, FileZilla is always a GUI program, so running it as a console app (which I’d prefer) would be impossible.

WinSCP

WinSCP can be automated in two ways:

  1. The WinSCP.exe command-line allows for a /console and /script switch enabling scripting mode that you can use for Scripting and Task Automation :: WinSCP
  2. A wrapper around WinSCP.exe is availble as WinSCP .NET Assembly and COM Library :: WinSCP which requires both .NET to be installed and (from Delphi) calling through COM which I don’t like much

Since I already had good Delphi wrapping code round starting/waiting-for running processes, I’d opt for using WinSCP.com scripting.

There used to be wrapping code around: Use with Delphi :: Support Forum :: WinSCP

PSFTP

These Using PSFTP to transfer files securely links should get me going:

Chapter 6: Using PSFTP to transfer files securely

Practical examples:

Source locations

For my own reference, the open source locations:

Some semi-random Delphi SSL related postss

During the search above I found the below links that will be useful to me one day:

–jeroen

Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Software Development, SSH, TCP | 5 Comments »

String resources and the $TypedAddress Compiler Directive require a PResStringRec typecast

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/12/01

Thanks Alexey for answering and Horácio for asking:

Use type-cast PResStringRec(@SArgumentNil_NilValue_Collection)

–jeroen

via: Hey guys, When I switch on $TypedAddress Compiler Directive, it is no longer…

Posted in Delphi, Delphi 10 Seattle, Delphi 2005, Delphi 2006, Delphi 2007, Delphi 2009, Delphi 2010, Delphi 7, Delphi XE, Delphi XE2, Delphi XE3, Delphi XE4, Delphi XE5, Delphi XE6, Delphi XE7, Delphi XE8, Development, Software Development, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Actual source for DisableAlignPropertyEditor

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/11/30

Since Uwe Schuster only published a screenshot, I NewOCR-ed it and created the accompanying .dproj file (only because it’s an easy way for the DLL to require the designide package so you can use the DesignIntf and ToolsAPI units.

Uwe only posted these:

Anyway, the sources are at gist.github.com/881d4eacbcec2a9e1e6b0181f900fd7a, but the main source is this:

library DisableAlignPropertyEditor;

{
  Originally only as jpg image by Uwe Schuster.

  https://web.archive.org/web/20161117154454/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cxaoi-DXEAAMF03.jpg:large
  https://web.archive.org/web/20161117154450/https:/twitter.com/UScLE/status/799011392703647744
  https://web.archive.org/web/20161117154501/https://plus.google.com/107811538224738992137/posts/hTXUwkCe1TV
}

uses
  System.SysUtils,
  System.TypInfo,
  DesignIntf,
  ToolsAPI;

var
  LastRegisterPropertyEditorProc: TRegisterPropertyEditorProc = nil;

procedure NewRegisterPropertyEditor(PropertyType: PTypeInfo; ComponentClass: TClass; const PropertyName: string; EditorClass: TPropertyEditorClass);
begin
  if Assigned(EditorClass) then
  begin
    if SameText('TAlignProperty', EditorClass.ClassName) then
      Exit;
  end;
  LastRegisterPropertyEditorProc(PropertyType, ComponentClass, PropertyName, EditorClass);
end;

procedure wizardTerminate;
begin
  RegisterPropertyEditorProc := LastRegisterPropertyEditorProc;
end;

function wizardInit(const BorlandIDEServices: IBorlandIDEServices; RegisterProc: TWizardRegisterProc; var Terminate: TWizardTerminateProc): Boolean; stdcall;
begin
  LastRegisterPropertyEditorProc := RegisterPropertyEditorProc;
  RegisterPropertyEditorProc := NewRegisterPropertyEditor;
  Terminate := wizardTerminate;
  Result := True;
end;

exports
  wizardInit name WizardEntryPoint;

begin
end.

–jeroen

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Delphi, Delphi 10.1 Berlin (BigBen), Development, Software Development | 2 Comments »

Unbundling Pokémon Go — Applidium

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/11/30

On the reverse engineering of an early Pokemon Go apk, the protocol it uses and some more interesting findings: Unbundling Pokémon Go — Applidium

–jeroen

Posted in Android, Development, Java, Java Platform, Mobile Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Can some recommend a good tool to build MSI package? I use Inno Setup…

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/11/30

For my G+ Link archive:

Can some recommend a good tool to build MSI package?I use Inno Setup but only to build EXE file.Thanks,  – Chris Z. – Google+

Source: Can some recommend a good tool to build MSI package? I use Inno Setup but only…

Related:

Posted in Delphi, Development, Installer-Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

When AQTime thinks it’s running during install and aborts installation

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/11/29

I had this warning (which is actually an error: you cannot continue as pressing OK would get you the same warning over and over again) during AQTime installation a while ago:

---------------------------
WARNING !
---------------------------
Setup has detected AQtime running on your computer. You must close the application and press OK to continue.

Press Cancel to abort installation.
---------------------------
OK   Cancel
---------------------------

Back then:

  1. I was Administrator
  2. The Installer download was from http://downloads.smartbear.com/AQtime.exe
  3. The embedded version was 8.50.1720
  4. It did successfully extract the AQtime.msi before bailing out

The fix (from SmartBear support) was remarkably simple, so I was surprised I could not find it online:

If your downloaded, saved AQtime installation package is named AQtime.exe, rename it: (ex: AQtime850.exe and you should then be able to complete the installation process.

So basically renaming AQTime.exe into AQTime850.exe allowed it to install.

–jeroen

Posted in Debugging, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

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