The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

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

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Cool 10-thousand piece domino bricks based computer that can add numbers

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/04

Very cool video based on these logic gates made from domino bricks:

The 4-bit calculator worked.

The 5-bit was set-up failed in part. That conclusion is at around 19:00.

A post mortem is at around 20:00: the machine was setup sizing it too small so the timing was too tight and didn’t work out.

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Hardware Development, History | Leave a Comment »

Delphi – Viewing an array in the Watch Windows starting from a non-zero index

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/04

via [WayBack] Is it possible to range an arrays in Watches view to specific index range? Sometimes I work with arrays that contain 100Ks lines, and Watches limit the view to index 131071… – Mike Torrettinni – Google+

Reminder to check how well this works:

Given FInts: array of integer;

you can declare `TIntArray = array of integer;`

(I’m sure it exists somewhere already but couldn’t find it at the moment) and then watch, for example

TIntArray(@FInts[150000])

–jeroen

PS: Uwe Raabe commented on G+:

Uwe Raabe+1

You can add a watch variable like arr[4711] and set the repeat count to a sensible value. Unfortunately this will give you a single line display which is not expandable.
https://quality.embarcadero.com/browse/RSP-19468
“Allow expanding watch variable with repeat count > 1”

Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | 1 Comment »

Two reasons I love Visual Studio Code over Atom.io: built-in markdown support and vscode-markdown; just watch the CHANGELOG.md at master · neilsustc/vscode-markdown · GitHub

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/03

Boy, I love this so much: [WayBack] vscode-markdown/CHANGELOG.md at master · neilsustc/vscode-markdown · GitHub

Just a few of the screen videos:

  • Formula support
  • Table of Contents (ToC) support including leaving out individual headings:
  • On the fly list renumbering:
  • Image reference completion including image preview:

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Lightweight markup language, MarkDown, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Delphi – ModelMaker Code Explorer history lists in the registry

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/03

ModelMaker Code Explorer does not allow you to edit the “most recently used” items in that you can use in various places, but luckily these history lists are all in the registry as keys under this base key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ModelMaker\MideX\#.0\Histories

There # is the major version number of ModelMaker Code Explorer (internally named MideX).

Under the base key, you can find these keys:

  • ExternalSpac  not figured out yet
  • InterfaceSupport not figured out yet
  • Object PascalParameters list limited to 60 individual parameters (“Modifier Name: Type = Default”)
  • Parameters list limited to 60 parameter lists in the “Edit Method” wizard.
  • PascalTypeNames list limited to 60 variable types
  • PascalVarLookup list limited to 60 variables (each of form “Variable: Type”) used in the “Add Explaining Variable” wizard.
  • PropArray array indexes used in the property editor
  • PropDefaultSpec default values of properties in the property editor
  • PropWriteParam write parameters in the property editor
  • RenameLocal not figured out yet
  • ResStrExternalFile not figured out yet
  • Surrounds not figured out yet
  • UsedUnits list limited to 30 entries of the uses list editor

If you made a typo anywhere, then just edit or delete these entries.

–jeroen

Posted in Delphi, Development, ModelMaker Code Explorer, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Delphi – directives are not conditionals

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/03

Directives are commands to the compiler such as {$D+} or {$WARN xxxx OFF}. Compiler defined conditionals are not “directives”, rather they’re used for conditional directives {$IF Defined(xxxx)} or {$IFDEF xxxx}, where xxxx can be NEXTGEN – Allen Bauer

It’s important to describe features right so everyone understands what you mean.

And note that you should end all your IFDEF with IFEND to stay compatible with the broadest set of Delphi versions possible.

–jeroen

Source: [WayBackdelphi – What is the use of NEXTGEN compiler conditional? – Stack Overflow

PS: Note the comment below by Remy Lebeau:

Note, in Delphi XE3 and later, you might also need to use {$LEGACYIFEND ON}  (http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/en/Legacy_IFEND_(Delphi)) in order to use {$IFEND} correctly, particularly if you have nested {$IF} and {$IF(N)DEF} blocks in your code.

A quick search for “LEGACYIFEND” “Delphi” “XE3” revealed this directive was indeed introduced in Delphi XE3, but not documented until XE4:

Brian Long documents how to get around the limitation that Remy commented about:

{$ifdef CONDITIONALEXPRESSIONS}
  {$if CompilerVersion >= 24.0}
    {$LEGACYIFEND ON}
  {$ifend}
{$endif}

It is in fact at the top of [WayBack] indy/IdCompilerDefines.inc at master · graemeg/indy · GitHub, which reminds me that there is now a git mirror of Indy at GitHub:

[WayBack] GitHub – graemeg/indy: Indy (Internet Direct) framework. This is an unofficial mirror repository which gets synced every 15 minutes. It contains the full history from the official Indy 10 SVN repository.

–jeroen

Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | 2 Comments »

Apple Extends Free Repairs of Anti-Reflective Coating on Select MacBook and MacBook Pro Models – Mac Rumors

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/02

I hear stories of people having their replacement screens stain as well, some of them get a renewed free repair. [WayBackApple Extends Free Repairs of Anti-Reflective Coating on Select MacBook and MacBook Pro Models – Mac Rumors.

Affected models for an initial repair:

  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2013)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2013)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2013)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2013)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2014)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2014)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2015)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2015)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017)
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
  • MacBook (12-inch, Early 2015)
  • MacBook (12-inch, Early 2016)
  • MacBook (12-inch, Early 2017)

–jeroen

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Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Just in case I move away from Mikrotik

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/02

Mikrotik has great hardware, great firmware (if you have the right builds), but notoriously bad documentation and a not so great software release and testing process.

So I might consider switching away, so here are some threats that might lead to alternatives:

–jeroen

Vincent Parret commented at https://plus.google.com/+JeroenPluimers/posts/UWZiufmkdK1

 

I use ubnt edgerouters, great bang for buck. My ER Pro-8 has been up for 8 months (no reboots) and hasn’t missed a beat, rock solid ipsec vpn. I looked at microtik, but found the edgerouters slightly easier to configure.

Posted in Internet, MikroTik, Power User, routers | Leave a Comment »

Acer B326HK – not finding a signal when the linux host wakes up out of sleep

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/07/02

Problem:

6 unlabeled buttons: I can not force the input to display port and monitor is searching other ports when host is sleeping. Getting no output when I wake up the host. 😞

Btw, this is for an Acer B326HK monitor. Other than issues with the UI, seems like a decent 4k monitor.

Solution:

my mistake was to use Display Port (Choice was DP or DVI) and the workaround is to disable power state changes on Display Port with something like “xset -dpms

Source: [WayBackThis could have been an April fool’s joke: telepathic monitor controls… – Grant Grundler – Google+

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Delphi: formatting uses lists to each unit is on a separate line

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/06/29

Delphi formatter setting, so I can manually arrange uses lists:

–jeroen

Uwe Raabe commented on G+:

Also available in MMX Code Explorer in the settings dialog: Pascal -Sorting – Format unit uses clauses – “Each unit on a new line”.
If you prefer the standard setting and spare the other for special purpose, there is “Format Uses – Alternate” in the context menu. Perhaps give it a decent shortcut for quick access.

Bernd Ott in the same thread:

Important because scm. Less merge trouble. Only the last semicolon in last row is always stupid.

https://plus.google.com/+JeroenPluimers/posts/RfrCkDAd95G

Posted in Conference Topics, Conferences, Delphi, Development, Event, Software Development | 4 Comments »

VM disk sizes

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/06/29

I forgot to schedule the post below. It is still relevant if you create a machine with lots of Delphi versions on it.

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Posted in .NET, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, Database Development, Delphi, Delphi 2007, Delphi XE, Delphi XE2, Delphi XE3, Delphi XE4, Delphi XE5, Development, Firebird, InterBase, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 8 | 2 Comments »