While I was still in vacation (in Denmark), Delphi XE has been released. So this is now old news, but still deserves being blogged about. Given the detailed previews of the past few weeks (with the videos still available on http://www.embarcadero.com/rad-studio-xe-preview), there haven't been many surprises in terms of product features, but I'm sure we'll see more and more blog posts in the coming weeks offering more details and nice hidden features of the product. It is very good that besides new features there has been a large effort to address existing issues, like those related with the generics support of the compiler.

The official press release is here. The product page is at the usual location at http://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio. (If you live in Italy, you can buy Delphi XE on my online shop).

Comments and Comments

OK, what about adding a few comments? First, there are still several features I'm investigating, so this is only a limited point-of-view for now. Certainly, the product delivers less than many developers were hoping or anticipating (64 bit or Mac support). But on the other hand it is a very strong Win32 release, with many bugs fixed, lots of small but relevant features added, some great third-party tools embedded and available for free, significant improvements to the DataSnap and REST support, and the start of "cloud support". So I stand with my previous comments, a new Delphi 7 . In a couple of weeks, I'll probably be able to update my position, having delved more into some of the features.

Beside my personal comments, which are the public ones? Certainly the blog sphere has been very quite, lacking a "grand announcement". The exception is this nice blog post: http://tech.turbu-rpg.com/181/first-look-at-delphi-xe. There are, of course, several other blog posts at http://blogs.embarcadero.com/. Newsgroups reactions? Some are here.

Little Tidbits

Don't want to provide a list of features as I already blogged about some and the official sites have the complete list. Just wanted to point out to a few tidbits:

• Examples are on SourceForge under version control. Nice idea, given the subversion integration. Guess you still get a standard local copy, though.
• There is a demo DataSnap server in the cloud you can try connecting to.
• If you buy Delphi XE, you can also previous versions (from Delphi 7) for free.
• There is a discounted Professional Upgrade price until the end of September.

Events I'll Attend: Paris, Rome, Milan

A world tour of launch events by many speakers is ongoing. I'll be at the event in Paris on September 9th (with David I, who's touring Europe on an impossible schedule), and the two Italian events in Rome and Milan on the 21st and 22nd of September (in Rome there should be also David I, at both events myself, Daniele Teti, and other Bitime speakers). Later on I might also run a class in Piacenza, to offer a more in-depth view of the product.

More to Come, Book Included

That's all for now. As mentioned, I'll delve into it, also because there is a book on Delphi XE new features coming from your truly. In the meanwhile I plan covering a few features on the blog and record some demonstration videos.

 

 

When I started Delphi XE today the first time, I recognized a 6 second delay when it shows “IDE Packages loaded” in the splash screen. On the second start it still shows “IDE Packages loaded” for 5 seconds. Because I wanted to know what the IDE does in those 5 seconds with 100% CPU load (25% on my 4 CPU machine), I debugged the IDE with an empty IDEFixPack for Delphi XE project (sorry no bug fixes yet  ). I pressed the Pause-Button when it reached the delay.

The function that I saw in the call stack was the TStrings.IndexOfName method that was called by TStrings.SetValue. The string list contained about 3000 items. All of them were files in $(BDS)\source. That means that something enumerates all source file names and put them in the string list in the format “filename=path”. Returning from TStrings.SetValue showed me the IDE plugin that is responsible for the startup delay: Beyond Compare. The IDE plugin seems to cache file locations. I don’t know why it needs the location of all source files, but not on my computer. I have removed BC from the “Experts” registry key and now my IDE starts much faster.

BTW: Don’t forget to disable the Component-Toolbar package if you want to switch faster from Code to Design view.

in Advanced Delphi :: Simply speaking, decompilation is the inverse of compilation: translating an executable file into a higher level language. Suppose you lose your Delphi project's source and ...

Read Full Post

in Vigenere Cipher :: A long time Delphi developer, Alan Lloyd had a few comments on the recently published Vigenere Cipher - Delphi Implementation - Fancy Delphi Application Contest Entry #49...

Read Full Post

in ASP.NET :: Mono Software Ltd recently published a new, completely redesigned release of MonoX ASP.NET CMS with full support for Social Networking features.

Inspired by the latest Web technologies and built on top of the Web parts infrastructure, MonoX allows you to design and develop next generation ASP.NET Web portals and applications. It features an intuitive, user-friendly user interface that supports Web parts framework, drag and drop, WYSIWYG interface, content versioning, advanced security model, cross-browser support, advanced templating engine and multi-level personalization.

MonoX comes with everything you need to build fully-featured social environments, including: user profiles, OpenID support, friendship modules, scalable multi-user blog engine with automatic anti-spam protection, photo albums, customizable group architecture with support for public and private groups, discussion boards, file galleries, support for activity streams (event logs), messaging, video conversion and sharing, wall and comments.

Get "MonoXized" on http://monox.mono-software.com!

The next version of Delphi will be called Delphi XE... and there is a third (and last) preview video available online, focused on datasnap and REST support. Specifically, as you can read in the announcement at http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/40768, the new video covers:

• Cloud computing access to Windows Azure services
• Quick deployment to Amazon EC2 cloud servers
• Extended multi-tier development with new wizards, new protocol support, encryption and compression, cloud servers, and PHP/JavaScript clients
• The inclusion of RadPHP XE, IP*Works and IntraWeb, which provide new choices for Web app development

 Here is the video from YouTube (you can find it also at http://www.embarcadero.com/rad-studio-xe-preview):

Plus there is more, probably deserving a separate blog post, but here it goes:

• "Sons of Kahn: The Apocrypha" by Verity Stob is yet another great story about the recent changes to the Delphi road map. It mentions David I, Allen Bauer (#34ed saying "Let he who hath never slipped a project cast the first pointer."), and many others you can recognize. It is very funny as usual. Read it on The Register at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/23/verity_stob_kahn_apocrypha/. The snippet I love best is the song of the Delphi developers:

MS lost its mojo, 

Jobsy mashed up Flash, 

Oracle's strangling Java, 

But Delph will never crash!

• The Delphi Live conference is ongoing. Read http://tech.turbu-rpg.com/174/delphi-live-rad-studio-xe-launch for a first description of the keynote. I won't post about the event simple because I'm not there.
• SD Times has an article on the new RAD Studio at http://www.sdtimes.com/EMBARCADERO_ADDS_PHP_TO_RAD_STUDIO/By_Alex_Handy/About_EMBARCADERO/34576.
• Finally, in the preview page you can sign up for some online seminars, but also attend those that will take place around the world. I'll be in Paris on September 9th and in Rome and Milan later in September.

That's all for this condensed post, I've finished packing, will leave tomorrow early morning for a week in Denmark. Offline. Likely no update to blog, probably no comments approved.

 

 

 

in FDAC :: Vigenere coding is one of the most ancient forms of cryptography. In a Vigenere cipher, messages are encoded by mapping letters to numeric values and adding the ...

Read Full Post

in Delphi TIPS :: Every Delphi application must have a main form. The main form is the first form created in the body of the application. When the main form ...

Read Full Post