It started yesterday with Boz Elloy then Nick Hodges. Nick went one step further by suggesting all Delphi developers extend thanks to the Delphi R&D;, QA, and Doc teams for creating a great development tool. And now I would like to join in.
I like to give a huge Thanks to the Delphi team at Borland. Delphi has been my favorite development language and tool since the time (9 years ago or so) when I was first introduced to it by my friend Tom. And while I also work with other languages, Delphi remains my tool of choice whenever possible especially for building desktop applications.
By the way for those interested in a good article on VCL.NET versus WinForm, give Craig Stuntz’s article Choosing Between VCL for .NET and WinForms a read.
Back in April I blogged about re-compiling Delphi source code from the 90’s into a .NET managed assembly. Delphi (and possibly C++) is the only language I know of that provides this level of support. While many Classic VB developers are porting legacy code to VB.NET or C#, I continue using Delphi code that has been unchanged for more than 7 years.
One of the next big things coming out of Redmond that will affect Windows developers is Avalon, now called the Windows Presentation Framework Foundation. While I image there will be some migration plan for .NET developers, I’m happy to see Borland has plans to implement VCL for Avalon in 2007.
Based on my experience of moving Delphi code to .NET, I’m confident that Delphi code I write today as well as code I’ve written over the years will require little to no change with I’m ready to adopt the new presentation framework from Microsoft.
Writeboard, a by service from the folks at 37Signals, is live. Looks interesting. Anyone want to try it out with me by collaborating on new text for the White Peak Software web site?
David I has posted the slide with the latest Delphi and C++ Builder road map through 2008.
Check out this combination of Google Maps and live NYC traffic cameras. It’s called NYsee and it’s cool.
SMTP Diagnostics 1.4 Beta 1 is available for download. Click here for more information.
My small refactoring effort on SMTP Diagnostics turned into a much bigger effort but the end result is a much better code base. The exercise led to re-architecting most of the application. The GUI remains untouched but everything else behind the scenes has changed. After an 11 hour marathon session, I finally got a clean compile. I still need to re-wire parts of the GUI to the new object model before I can begin testing. But I did write unit tests (using DUnit) for all of the non-GUI code as part of the refactoring exercise. All of this re-work is definitely going to make it easier to add new features in the future.
Incorporating another New Feature
Speaking of new features, a fellow developer recommended I incorporate RSS feeds as a way to inform users of new releases within the program. I instantly fell in love with this idea mainly because it allows me to share more information with customer beyond just “a new release is available”. By using an RSS feed, I will be able to let users know about new releases, show the list of enhancements and bug fixes, send out tips, and possibly a newsletter some day.
Of course the user will have the option to turn off the feed feature, or to display the feed on demand. But I think this is a great use for RSS that I plan to incorporate in all of our products going forward.
According to EBgames.com, the official street date for the Xbox 360 is November 22, 2005. I pre-ordered my 360 with overnight delivery, but given that the 22nd is only a couple of days before Thanksgiving I should have requested standard ground shipping. Chances are good I will be out of town when the shipment is delivered. Oh well.