Archive for the ‘Delphi’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/12/02
Reading a thread with ramblings on failing to understand that packed records overrides the $ALING directive , I found out that there is also an Undocumented Delphi record alignment directive – Chee Wee’s blog: IT solutions for Singapore and companies worldwide .
David Heffernan mentioned some nice permutations in the first thread.Chee Wee Chua “documents” the second. Both provide great reference material.
Note that both directive require a const expressions evaluating to a power of two. If you don’t, you get the same error: E2573 Illegal value for the ALIGN directive (valid for one of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16) (Delphi) – RAD Studio
–jeroen
via:
Posted in Delphi , Delphi 10 Seattle , Delphi XE5 , Delphi XE6 , Delphi XE7 , Delphi XE8 , Development , Software Development | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/12/02
A small video reference to the work that Peter Sollich did for the Pascal world is at around 38:20 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btGj-PocjeU#t=2298
It is where Allen Bauer talks about his early years at Borland. He talks about a German guy there without naming him. It is Peter Sollich (he names them a few time in the newsgroups though).
Peter Sollich came from Germany where he had written a Turbo Pascal compatible compiler for the Atari ST (it used a m68k Motorola 68000 CPU which is a 32-bit processor on the internal side with a 16-bit wide data bus (transporting 16-bit words) on the outside using a 24-bit address (so it can address 16 mebibyte s of memory) – hence ST for Sixteen/Thirtytwo).
Borland bought the source code which formed the base for the current 32-bit x86 compiler implementations of both Delphi and C++ Builder (they hired him as a contractor to do the port).
Rumour goes that Peter wrote many parts of the x86 code emitter on the flight from Europe to the USA.
Before the ST era there was already a CP/M Modula-2 compiler written by Peter Sollich and Martin Odersky which Borland bought even earlier and was turned into Turbo Modula-2 .
For people interested, here are some links with ore details – where possible I saved them in the WayBack machine as sites tend to Ditch historically important information:
–jeroen
Posted in .NET , Borland Pascal , Delphi , Development , Pascal , Software Development , Turbo Pascal | 4 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/12/01
On the todo list:
Interesting use of an IDE plugin: Copy a string from a “Watch” entry to the clipboard without quotes. – Thomas Mueller (dummzeuch) – Google+
Source: delphi – Can I change the display format for strings in the watch list? – Stack Overflow :
Every now and then I use the watch window to display strings which contain sql statements.Now I select Copy Value from the context menu and get
'SELECT NAME FROM SAMPLE_TABLE WHERE FIRST_NAME = ''George'''#$D#$A
but want
SELECT NAME FROM SAMPLE_TABLE WHERE FIRST_NAME = 'George'
The answer by MartynA has an OTA plugin that could be integrated with something like GExperts.
–jeroen
via: Interesting use of an IDE plugin: Copy a string from a “Watch” entry to the clipboard…
Posted in Delphi , Delphi 10 Seattle , Delphi 2005 , Delphi 2006 , Delphi 2007 , Delphi 2009 , Delphi 2010 , Delphi 7 , Delphi x64 , Delphi XE , Delphi XE2 , Delphi XE3 , Delphi XE4 , Delphi XE5 , Delphi XE6 , Delphi XE7 , Delphi XE8 , Development , Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/11/24
A while ago, I came across a class having (among other members) two methods named like this:
Within one of the other members of the class, I had to (temporarily) Stop processing, then Start it again.
But I couldn’t, as neither Start, nor Stop would make a record of the state it left the instance in.
Always ensure you know the state of an instance.
So I added the state, and tests to ensure a Stop/Start change was indeed not breaking things.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET , .NET 1.x , .NET 2.0 , .NET 3.0 , .NET 3.5 , .NET 4.0 , .NET 4.5 , C# , C# 1.0 , C# 2.0 , C# 3.0 , C# 4.0 , C# 5.0 , C# 6 (Roslyn) , Delphi , Delphi 10 Seattle , Delphi 2007 , Delphi 2009 , Delphi 2010 , Delphi XE , Delphi XE2 , Delphi XE3 , Delphi XE4 , Delphi XE5 , Delphi XE6 , Delphi XE7 , Delphi XE8 , Development , Software Development | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/11/18
I missed when the StackExchange App for Android was finally launched, but I totally agree with Paul Lammertsma :
Exceeds expectations This was a long time coming, but it didn’t disappoint. It’s a great aid for a regular on Stack Overflow like me!
–jeroen
via Stack Exchange – Android Apps on Google Play .
Posted in .NET , Delphi , Development , Pingback , Power User , Software Development , Stackoverflow | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/11/04
From a chat with a co-worker a while ago:
I’m not against properties. Just something against properties properties that are objects with writeable fields.
So even if you expose such a property as read-only, it can still get its writeable fields overwritten.
That is a pain when those are part of the state of the underlying object.
In other words: encapsulate your state changes.
Here we solved it by making
the type of the property immutable
the property writeable
react on state changes during the write
Proper encapsulation.
In this case it was a project mixing C# and Delphi, but you can easily apply the above to any language featuring classes and properties.
Another solution would have been to extend the type of the property so it can expose an event that fires during change. Much more convoluted.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET , C# , C# 1.0 , C# 2.0 , C# 3.0 , C# 4.0 , C# 5.0 , C# 6 (Roslyn) , Delphi , Delphi 10 Seattle , Delphi 2007 , Delphi 2009 , Delphi 2010 , Delphi XE , Delphi XE2 , Delphi XE3 , Delphi XE4 , Delphi XE5 , Delphi XE6 , Delphi XE7 , Delphi XE8 , Development , Software Development | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/10/22
Recently I bumped into it again with one of the more current Delphi XE* versions and Delphi 2007: the IDE changing the DFM files without reason.
This time it was in a multi-team environment with many branches and DFM merge hell.
A few examples of properties and components getting changes:
Warren P suggests to review your DFM changes before committing to version control and I completely agree: it is the only way to ensure they are indeed unwanted changes.
There are some stop-gab things you could try, but these only partially help
–jeroen
via:
Posted in Delphi , Delphi 10 Seattle , Delphi 2005 , Delphi 2006 , Delphi 2007 , Delphi 2009 , Delphi 2010 , Delphi XE , Delphi XE2 , Delphi XE3 , Delphi XE4 , Delphi XE5 , Delphi XE6 , Delphi XE7 , Delphi XE8 , Development , QC , Software Development | 7 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/10/07
A long time ago, there was an interesting discussion here: I was wondering, that what is the closest value to the Zero floating point can have .
Recently I needed to do some calculations on series where getting close to zero could become a problem.
Math seems to have an Epsilon of 1E-12.
Sytem.Types has Epsilon of 1E-30 and Epsilon2 of 1E-40.
XE4+ FMX has IsEssentiallyZero and IsNotEssentiallyZero for Single values.
In practice it depends a lot on what you are doing. Sometimes absolute Epsilons are best, but at other times relative difference is much more applicable.
Then there is also a Machine Epsilon : a way to derive an Epsilon from a data type that works in all languages and platforms.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET , Algorithms , C , C# , C++ , Delphi , Development , Floating point handling , Software Development | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/10/06
Get the path to the most recent msbuild.exe from the registry :
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
@echo off
:: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/328017/path-to-msbuild
:: http://www.csharp411.com/where-to-find-msbuild-exe/
:: http://timrayburn.net/blog/visual-studio-2013-and-msbuild/
:: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2013/07/24/msbuild-is-now-part-of-visual-studio.aspx
setlocal
:vswhereModernTry
:: https://github.com/Microsoft/vswhere/wiki/Find-MSBuild
:: Normal output example of `vswhere -legacy -latest -property installationPath` has no trailing back-slash:
:: `C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\`
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%i in (`vswhere -latest -products * -requires Microsoft.Component.MSBuild -property installationPath`) do (
set InstallDir=%%i
)
:: without ENABLEEXTENSIONS, %InstallDir% is only available outside the above loop.
for %%v in (15.0, 14.0) do (
if exist "%InstallDir%\MSBuild\%%v\Bin\MSBuild.exe" (
set msBuildExe="%InstallDir%\MSBuild\%%v\Bin\MSBuild.exe"
goto :finish
)
)
:manualTry
:: order of the versions is important: get the most recent one
for %%v in (14.0, 12.0, 4.0, 3.5, 2.0) do (
for /f "usebackq tokens=2* delims= " %%c in (`reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSBuild\ToolsVersions\%%v" /v MSBuildToolsPath`) do (
set msBuildExe="%%dMSBuild.exe"
goto :finish
)
)
:vswhereLegacyTry
:: -legacy is not compatible with -products or -requires
:: note there is no Visual Studio 13.0 (just like there is no Office 13.0) likely because USA superstition.
:: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio#History
:: msbuild was introduced in Visual Studio 8.0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSBuild#History
:: Legacy output example of `vswhere -legacy -latest -property installationPath` has trailing back-slash:
:: `C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\`
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%i in (`vswhere -legacy -latest -property installationPath`) do (
set InstallDir=%%i
)
:: without ENABLEEXTENSIONS, %InstallDir% is only available outside the above loop.
for %%v in (14.0, 12.0, 11.0, 10.0, 9.0, 8.0) do (
if exist "%InstallDir%MSBuild\%%v\Bin\MSBuild.exe" (
set msBuildExe="%InstallDir%MSBuild\%%v\Bin\MSBuild.exe"
goto :finish
)
)
:: nothing found
:finish
endlocal & if not [%msBuildExe%]==[] if exist %msBuildExe% ( echo %msBuildExe% )
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%c in (`"%~dp0get-msbuildExe-path.bat"`) do (
call %%c %*
)
With help from:
Note
This needs adoption for Visual Studio 2017 (15.0) and up; see the comments at the above gist :
–jeroen
Posted in .NET , .NET 2.0 , .NET 3.0 , .NET 3.5 , .NET 4.0 , .NET 4.5 , C# , C# 2.0 , C# 3.0 , C# 4.0 , C# 5.0 , C# 6 (Roslyn) , Delphi , Delphi 10 Seattle , Delphi 2007 , Delphi 2009 , Delphi 2010 , Delphi XE , Delphi XE2 , Delphi XE3 , Delphi XE4 , Delphi XE5 , Delphi XE6 , Delphi XE7 , Delphi XE8 , Development , Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2015/09/29
Below are the captions, read the full article as it is very well written.
Why your code is hard to understand
Problem #1, Overly Complex Mental Models
Problem #2, Poor Translation of Semantic Models into Code
Class Structure and Names
Variable, Parameter and Method Names
Single Responsibility Principle (SRP)
Appropriate Comments
Problem #3, Not Enough Chunking
Problem #4, Obscured Usage
Problem #5, No Clear Path Between the Different Models
Problem #6, Inventing Algorithms
–jeroen
via: Why Your Code Is So Hard to Understand – CodeProject .
Posted in .NET , Delphi , Development , Software Development , Web Development | 5 Comments »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
lextm commented on Mar 9, 2017 •
vswhereis now recommended to locate MSBuild 15,https://github.com/Microsoft/vswhere
n9 commented on May 17, 2017
vswhere -products *to get standalone installation of BuildTools. (See Microsoft/vswhere#61.)