Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/19
Even when not using Visual Live Binding, Delphi generates empty .VLB files in both Delphi XE3 (virtually always) and Delphi XE4 (most of the time).
Visual Live Binding is one way of binding data to UI in FireMonkey and can also be used in VCL, but does not have to (Alister Christie made a nice video ▶ Delphi Training Tutorial #77 – Visual Live Bindings – YouTube about it).
Empty VLB files, and a batch file to delete them
The “empty” VLB files are almost empty, as they are exactly 3 bytes long and contain the byte sequence EF BB BF which is the Unicode BOM (byte order mark) for the UTF-8 encoding. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Delphi, Delphi XE3, Delphi XE4, Delphi XE5, Development, Encoding, QC, Software Development, Unicode, UTF-8, UTF8 | Tagged: Delphi, VLB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/19
Another episode in the Missed Schedule series that was originally scheduled for 20131201:
Until I read the comments at Monitoring the Monitor, I only knew the early days of Matt Pietrek‘s work at NuMega and as co-author of one of the first Undocumented Windows books (another one appeared about the same time).
Now I know Matt was one of the people interviewing Allen Bauer for his first position at Borland.
A bit more search revealed Matt worked at Borland from 1988 until 1992, roughly the era from Turbo Pascal 5 until Borland Pascal 7 (when Borland already had started researching Delphi), but more importantly with Turbo Debugger versions 1-3 that were indispensable when programming using Turbo C / Turbo C++ and Borland C++.
When Borland was working in Delphi 95, and Microsoft on Windows 95, he moved to Nu-Mega (later Acquired by Compuware) doing lots of work in debuggers.
Some interesting links from or involving Matt:
–jeroen
Posted in Borland Pascal, Debugging, Delphi, Delphi 1, Development, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/19
Almost a year ago, a thread on “premature Delphi optimization” came by on G+ about this code:
procedure ExchangeInteger(var AValue1, AValue2: Integer);
begin
AValue1 := AValue1 xor AValue2;
AValue2 := AValue1 xor AValue2;
AValue1 := AValue1 xor AValue2;
end;
I don’t think that was premature optimization, just some code from an old fart that had already been programming in the era where processors had reasons to use it:
Back then, the only efficient way to exchange two variables of the same data type was using the XOR swap algorithm.
Nowadays you have more options, and this is where the fun in that thread began, which I will show in a minute.
First a bit of history
The XOR swap algorithm was widely known in the 80s of last century and before, especially because the 6502 processor (oh the days of LISA Assembler) was vastly popular, as was the Z80. Together, they powered the majority of the home computers in the 70s and 80s.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Borland Pascal, Delphi, Delphi 1, Delphi 2005, Delphi 2006, Delphi 2007, Delphi 2009, Delphi 2010, Delphi 3, Delphi 4, Delphi 5, Delphi 6, Delphi 7, Delphi 8, Delphi x64, Delphi XE, Delphi XE2, Delphi XE3, Development, History, Pascal, Software Development, Turbo Pascal, UCSD Pascal | 7 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/18
Thanks StackOverflow user splattne (Stefan Platnner) for explaining the differences between the various parameters you can pass to Server.MapPath, and giving some very clear examples.
You can also use it with HostingEnvironment.MapPath, which has the added benefit that it doesn’t require HttpContext (for more detail on it, see Working With HttpContext.Current).
–jeroen
via:
Posted in .NET, .NET 1.x, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, ASP.NET, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/17
The Mono.Options single .cs source file seems very well suited for arguments parsing of (especially) console application:
https://github.com/mono/mono/blob/master/mcs/class/Mono.Options/Mono.Options/Options.cs
so it is on my research list, like some other .NET/C# based command line parsing libraries (:
–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, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/16
When Google Chrome keeps coming back with “Install the Hangouts Plugin to get started”, then try this solution:
I solve this problem for my self. Manualy turn on Google Talk Plugin in chrome://plugins/ (one of three plugins was turned off).
–jeroen
via: Issue 162588 – chromium – Google Hangouts requests plugin installation forever – An open-source project to help move the web forward. – Google Project Hosting.
Posted in Chrome, G+: GooglePlus, Google, Power User, SocialMedia | 7 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/16
Thanks DevShed:
ls -l –time-style=full-iso
Emits full ISO 8601 time stamps and it works on:
- SuSE Linux
- Mac OS X
- Cygwin
–jeroen
via: list date with seconds from ls command – Dev Shed.
Posted in *nix, Cygwin, Linux, Power User, SuSE Linux | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/15
Recently I had Windows Update giving me a 13EC error when installing KB2858725: The .NET Framework 4.5.1 that got release lated last November on various virtual machine systems.
It appears that a lot more people suffer from the Windows Update 13EC issue, and most of them have to to with .NET 4, .NET 4.5 and .NET 4.5.1.
Running many virtual machine systems on an SSD based host machine, so I’m always pressed with disk space (hence cleaning the various temporary files directories often). I wasn’t glad with Windows 8 update KB 2821895
Note there are some Microsoft tips to make the size of the C:\Windows\WinSxS smaller, but those still do not remove the Reserve.tmp file.
My conclusion is that various Microsoft updates now require 3 gigabytes of disk space.
This seems to be the case with the .NET Framework 4.5.1 KB 2858725 update, and probably more future updates. I tried installing the KB 2858725 update with slightly less than 3 gigabytes of space (and after the 3 gigabyte reserve.tmp appeared), and I was still getting error 13EC. But with slightly more than 3 gigabyte the update would install.
Like usual, the Windows Update help on Error 13EC is useless, see the below screenshot.
–jeroen
via: The .NET Framework 4.5.1 and its corresponding language packs are available on Windows Update.
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8 | Tagged: .NET Framework, virtual machine systems, Windows Update | 15 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/15
Great move Yahoo (which I only use for Flickr): telling me that Yahoo can improve performance by moving my data to another country without telling which country the data is stored now, and which country Yahoo wants to transfer my data to.
The URL starts with https://edit.europe.yahoo.com, but does that mean to origin or target country is within Europe?
Of course the Yahoo privacy policies don’t tell either: why would they…
So I cannot confirm, nor deny the provided choice. Nice privacy catch-22!
–jeroen
Posted in Flickr, Power User, SocialMedia | Tagged: flickr, Yahoo | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 