Posted by jpluimers on 2020/11/04
SetLength can relocate the memory[WayBack] Pointers are dangerous – twm’s blog
Via: [WayBack] Pointers can be really helpful, especially they can improve performance and readability, but they are also dangerous. I spent nearly a day tracking down… – Thomas Mueller (dummzeuch) – Google+
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/29
I totally missed that this has been added in Delphi a long time ago (at least in Delphi 2007 or maybe even before): the {$EXTENSION zzz} or {$E zzz} Delphi directive that sets the file extension of the output: [WayBack] Executable extension (Delphi 2007)
[WayBack] Executable extension (Delphi 10.3 Rio) – RAD Studio explains this is equivalent to using the -TZ
The documentation explains the zzz to be a string, but in practice, using {$EXTENSION yyy.zzz} and {$E yyy.zzz} fail:
[WayBack] Little funny bug… I wanted to quickly make two x86 EXE builds, with 3GB and normal 2GB of available memory. Just to pass it for heavy testing, as 3rd… – Arioch The – Google+ explains how to use this as a trick to have a different extension for 3GB aware compiled 32-bit executables:
{$DEFINE g3} // or obvious {.$DEFINE g3} {$IFDEF g3} {$SetPEFlags IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE} {$EXTENSION 3GB.EXE} {$ENDIF}This kind of work in XE2 but with two funny bugs:
- the IDE ignores it and shows filename.exe in the compile progress dialog
- linker partially ignores it and creates
filename.4gbinstead offilename.3gb.exe
I did know about the various $LIBxxx directives that were introduced in Delphi 2009 when it [WayBack] was released in 2008.
Related:
{$LIBPREFIX 'string'}, {$LIBSUFFIX 'string'}, {$LIBVERSION 'string'}One day, I might create an overview of which directives are valid in what Delphi versions. That would be a big change of List-Delphi-Installed-Packages.ps1, which would need at least these:
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/29
Few people seem to know about the FastMM PushAllocationGroup method.
This search returned almost nothing: fastmm PushAllocationGroup -site:github.com -site:sourceforge.net -site:stackoverflow.com – Google Search.
These results were convoluted:
These posts were interesting though, but most of them did not get any deeper into the topic than “look at the FastMM source”:
There were the only post giving a bit more insight:
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/28
I will limit myself to software that needs Administrative elevation in order to be installed. This is the default use-case for Chocolatey. It is way way easier than installing software all by hand, but there are a few things you need to know, hence these notes.
Since the default use case is installing software that requires Administrative elevation during install, Chocolatey needs to run with Administrative privileges in order to perform these installs.
If you were hoping for a way around this (for instance by having a client/service architecture), then just stop here.
Even though such a structure could technically be created, getting it stable and working it correctly with a truckload of software to be installed (much of which not available as packages during Chocolatey development in the first place) is a task too big.
Think of the size of the Windows Installer team at Microsoft to get installers working in the first place, the extra effort needed by Chocolatey volunteers to get the installers working from the console, then another much more complex layer of getting them running from inside a service and communicating everything back and forth to a non-elevated command prompt would be a nightmare.
I won’t even mention the security steps involved to ensure the non-elevated command prompt has enough rights to send installation instructions to the elevated service.
So the first step is to have an elevated command prompt for Chocolatey.
Being elevated, and Chocolatey needing to download installers requires a local temporary place for them.
By default, that place is %Temp%\chocolatey of the administrative user that elevated the Chocolatey command prompt.
This directory can grow quite big, so dir, so – since there is no choco cleanup yet [WayBack] you need to either:
%ChocolateyInstall%\lib\choco-cleaner\tools\choco-cleaner-manual.batrd /s /q %Temp%\chocolatey% every now and then (cleans less than the above methods).Either the direct one below, or the more secure one (so you can inspect the intermediate [WayBack] install.ps1) at [WayBack] Installation using PowerShell from cmd.exe:
@echo off SET DIR=%~dp0% ::download install.ps1 %systemroot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "((new-object net.webclient).DownloadFile('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1','%DIR%install.ps1'))" ::run installer %systemroot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "& '%DIR%install.ps1' %*"
If you want to get rid of it, use [WayBack] Uninstallation.
Besides the one above and below, there are many more [WayBack] Installation: more install options
Output of direct install as Administrator (disclaimers apply):
C:\WINDOWS\system32>powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "[System.Net.WebRequest]::DefaultWebProxy.Credentials = [System.Net.CredentialCache]::DefaultCredentials; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET PATH="%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin" Getting latest version of the Chocolatey package for download. Getting Chocolatey from https://chocolatey.org/api/v2/package/chocolatey/0.10.11. Downloading 7-Zip commandline tool prior to extraction. Extracting C:\Users\JEROEN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\chocolatey\chocInstall\chocolatey.zip to C:\Users\JEROEN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\chocolatey\chocInstall... Installing chocolatey on this machine Creating ChocolateyInstall as an environment variable (targeting 'Machine') Setting ChocolateyInstall to 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey' WARNING: It's very likely you will need to close and reopen your shell before you can use choco. Restricting write permissions to Administrators We are setting up the Chocolatey package repository. The packages themselves go to 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib' (i.e. C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\yourPackageName). A shim file for the command line goes to 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin' and points to an executable in 'C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\yourPackageName'. Creating Chocolatey folders if they do not already exist. WARNING: You can safely ignore errors related to missing log files when upgrading from a version of Chocolatey less than 0.9.9. 'Batch file could not be found' is also safe to ignore. 'The system cannot find the file specified' - also safe. chocolatey.nupkg file not installed in lib. Attempting to locate it from bootstrapper. PATH environment variable does not have C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin in it. Adding... WARNING: Not setting tab completion: Profile file does not exist at 'C:\Users\jeroenAdministrator\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1'. Chocolatey (choco.exe) is now ready. You can call choco from anywhere, command line or powershell by typing choco. Run choco /? for a list of functions. You may need to shut down and restart powershell and/or consoles first prior to using choco. Ensuring chocolatey commands are on the path Ensuring chocolatey.nupkg is in the lib folder
choco install #packageName#--yes to each install commandrefreshenv in each command-prompt to reflect any changes to the registry
cmd.exe or batch file: [WayBack] choco/RefreshEnv.cmd at master · chocolatey/choco · GitHubIf you run out of SSD or VM disk space, you can try compress using compact /c /s *.* in these directories:
C:\ProgramData\Package CacheC:\ProgramData\Microsoft\VisualStudio\PackagesC:\ProgramData\Microsoft\ClickToRun\ProductReleasesuseRememberedArgumentsForUpgrades: [WayBack] Chocolatey Gallery | Visual Studio Code 1.30.0 how to make /NoContextMenuFolders permanent.–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/28
Reminder to self: write a longer article on Delphi mocking as Spring4D mocking is much better than Delphi Mocks, especially because of code-completion reasons.
Spring4D has a Mock record that can return a Mock<T> on which you can verify using methods like Received.
See:
I got some code that I need to dig up from an old project with many more Spring4D Mock examples.
Note that:
container.AddExtension<TAutoMockExtension>: [WayBack] unit testing – How to Mock Spring4D Events with DUnit – Stack Overflow.For now, these are a start [WayBack] Delphi Unit Testing : Writing a simple spy for the CUT – Stack Overflow:
Sounds like a use case for a mock (I am using the term mock here because most frameworks refer to their various kinds of test doubles as mock)
In the following example I am using DUnit but it should not make any difference for DUnitX. I am also using the mocking feature from Spring4D 1.2 (I did not check if Delphi Mocks supports this)
unit MyClass; interface type TMyClass = class private fCounter: Integer; protected procedure MyProcedure; virtual; public property Counter: Integer read fCounter; end; implementation procedure TMyClass.MyProcedure; begin Inc(fCounter); end; end. program Tests; uses TestFramework, TestInsight.DUnit, Spring.Mocking, MyClass in 'MyClass.pas'; type TMyClass = class(MyClass.TMyClass) public // just to make it accessible for the test procedure MyProcedure; override; end; TMyTest = class(TTestCase) published procedure Test1; end; procedure TMyClass.MyProcedure; begin inherited; end; procedure TMyTest.Test1; var // the mock is getting auto initialized on its first use // and defaults to TMockBehavior.Dynamic which means it lets all calls happen m: Mock<TMyClass>; o: TMyClass; begin // set this to true to actually call the "real" method m.CallBase := True; // do something with o o := m; o.MyProcedure; // check if the expected call actually did happen m.Received(Times.Once).MyProcedure; // to prove that it actually did call the "real" method CheckEquals(1, o.Counter); end; begin RegisterTest(TMyTest.Suite); RunRegisteredTests(); end.Keep in mind though that this only works for virtual methods.
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/21
[WayBack] Top 45 Best Automation Testing Tools Ultimate List • Test Automation Made Easy: Tools, Tips & Training Awesomeness A few notes, partially related to Enable your device for development – UWP app developer | Microsoft Docs.
One research project I had a while ago, was to see how it was possible to use a generic testing tool like Katalon Studio (that can test many platforms), for testing Windows applications.
Katalon uses a Selenium interface that normally is used for web applications through the [WayBack] WebDriver protocol (formerly [WayBack] JsonWireProtocol) that continues to be updated: [WayBack] draft upcoming WebDriver protocol, which is more generic than just web applications:
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/20
I think an:
For future reading:
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/20
From [WayBack] Enable your device for development – UWP app developer | Microsoft Docs:
Run these as administrator on the command prompt to:
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /f /v "AllowAllTrustedApps" /d "1"
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /f /v "AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense" /d "1"
When you run WinAppDriver without it, you get this:
C:\Users>"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Application Driver\WinAppDriver.exe"Failed to initialize: 0x80004005
Various searches for what to pass as parameters to SetCapabilities failed, but the list is right at the README, but without any mention SetCapabilities, so search engines miss it with for instance “SetCapabilities” “WinAppDriver” – Google Search that only returned these links:
newCommandTimeout and directs to [WayBack] Desired Capabilities – AppiumSupported Capabilities
Below are the capabilities that can be used to create Windows Application Driver session.
Capabilities Descriptions Example app Application identifier or executable full path Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge appArguments Application launch arguments https://github.com/Microsoft/WinAppDriver appTopLevelWindow Existing application top level window to attach to 0xB822E2appWorkingDir Application working directory (Classic apps only) C:\TempplatformName Target platform name Windows platformVersion Target platform version 1.0
–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/07
Boy, I wish there was both an Embarcadero sanctioned grammar (see Delphi code completion fail with anonymous methods – Stack Overflow) and a DCU parser.
This might work for DCP files as well, since the PKX0 signature at the start of DCP files is in [WayBack] DCU32INT/DCP.pas at master · rfrezino/DCU32INT · GitHub.
Being able to dump DCP files makes it way easier to create documenting a matrix of all DCP files and units, to their interdependencies and containments become clear (including any unit scopes).
Right now that is only documented from the unit to the package on the page of the unit (see for instance [WayBack] System.SysUtils – RAD Studio API Documentation), not the other way around. This is a pain to select which packages you need in your project when building with packages.
The list at [WayBack] Unit List – RAD Studio API Documentation (which actually is an “Alphabetical list of unit scopes, along with miscellaneous units that have no unit scope.” is only partially helpful, especially as for instance the System unit page at [WayBack] System – RAD Studio API Documentation is 90% about the System unit scope, has the System unit itself about a 3rd down and does not mention it lives in the rtl.dcp package.
The list at [WayBack] Deciding Which Runtime Packages to Use – RAD Studio is even worse than the unit list, as it misses many useful packages (like dsnap)
For my link archive:
Johan wanted to create a compiler symbol table from the binary DCU files (unlike DelphiAST which does it from the Pascal source files).
From the pre-Delphi era, I found back some info from my own archive:
In the Turbo Pascal days, you had TW1UNA and TPUUNA by William L. Peavy, which I think led to INTRFC from Duncan Murdoch (or maybe vice versa) which got updated to Turbo/Borland Pascal 7 format by Milan Dadok (see [Wayback/Archive] http://sources.ru/pascal/hacker/intrfc70.htm). Since the basic format of DCU files is very similar to that, my guess is that DCU32INT built on that.
Later I found [Wayback/Archive] The Programmer’s Corner » TPU60C.ZIP » Pascal Source Code also by William L. Peavy and Wayback/Archive] Duncan Murdoch’s Programs .
www8.pair.com links to murdoch-sutherland.com–jeroen
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Posted by jpluimers on 2020/10/07
I see lots of code using abbreviations. Please avoid those, just like many development stacks urge you to do so.
Two important reasons:
This is not limited to the software development field; for similar reasons, the medical field also limits the use of abbreviations and acronyms:
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The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
$RTTIdirective, you can use a little trick and redefine it in subclass inpublicsection asoverride; abstract;this will cause the RTTI to be generated. – Honza RFeb 5 ’16 at 8:02