2016

TOPICS

This month, we have a couple of topics to cover. The first presentation will cover manipulating meta files, including reading them from a database, displaying them properly on various sized screens, and preparing them for printing. The really cool thing is a metafile permits consistent quality report printing regardless of monitor resolution, aspect ratio, or user selected enlargement (125%, 150%, etc.). They can be used with any report writer that supports a TImage equivalent. Homer Jones will share his experiences with us.

Our second presentation will be a demo of the TeeChart components by Steema Software. You will see how to add charting to your application and see some demos that come with the product. David Cornelius will be talking about this component set.

TOPIC

The official title of this month's meeting is, "An Overview of Quality Management Principles as Applied to Software Development." That's may look like a lot to swallow, but it's important to differentiate Quality Management from Quality Assurance, and this talk will be specifically geared to you, the software developer. Finally, since we only have an hour or two, it'll be just an overview--this topic could consume a large amount of time.

The discussion will cover two main areas:

1. Predictability in Software Development: What does it mean, and how is it achieved?
2. Using "Quality Gates" as a project scheduling and development process improvement tool.

TOPIC

This month, we'll have a general tech session, discussing whatever subjects happen to come up while we eat and catch up on what's been going on over the summer.

TOPIC

This month, we have a short demonstration of SecureBridge, another great product by DevArt. This small set of components makes setting up SSH and SFTP client and server connections a breeze and the latest version supports all the new security-enhanced protocols required by today's increased standards.

DOOR PRIZE!

TOPIC

This month is going to be a "show and tell" with three different applications:

1. an Android application using Delphi and FireMonkey,
2. a insurance management program incorporating compiled resources,
3. a back-end integration using plug-in modules, REST APIs, and UniDAC accessing SQLite and MySQL.

TOPIC

This month we’ll just have a tech gab session, if that’s alright with everyone. We could discuss further last month’s topic, contemplate the meaning of Idera’s purchase of Embarcadero and what to make of their recent announcement to focus exclusively on developer tools, show off a latest gadget you might have, or just brainstorm on what the next killer app might be.

TOPIC

Spring4D is an open-source code library for Delphi 2010 and higher. It consists of a number of different modules that contain a base class library (common types, interface based collection types, reflection extensions) and a dependency injection framework.

We will go over the basics, covering the most useful parts with the broadest appeal, especially concentrating on lists and all the cool things you can do with them. A discussion about the main reason Spring4D came into existence, Inversion of Control, and what Dependency Injection really means will also be addressed. Finally, you'll learn why so many people use service location (hint: it's easy!) and why it's looked on as a bad practice (hint: it's an ANTI-PATTERN!).

PRESENTER

Ron Grove introduced the Spring4D library to product development at Retail Dimensions several years ago. It quickly transformed several libraries used widely throughout the programming department. Ron has been in the IT Services area for many years but has become a superb programmer with a strong interest in a broad spectrum of technologies including Delphi, .NET, and mobile.