New custom VCL controls corresponding to some new Windows 10 UI controls, which can also be used on previous version of Windows. New VCL controls: TActivityindicator, TSearchbox, TRelativePanel, TToggleSwitch, TSplitview Modern looking SelectDirectory function Support for Windows 10 Notifications using the notificationcenter component Box2D physics engine. Object Pascal interfaces for the Box2D physics engine Support […]
New in Delphi Seattle (10.0) Read More »
GetLinesEnumerator – New enumerators for reading file content Returns the line-by-line enumerator without loading full file content into the memory. Memory Efficiency: TFile.GetLinesEnumerator reads the file line by line, which is memory-efficient for large files. Unlike TFile.ReadLines (which loads all lines into a list), this method streams the file incrementally. I test it with both
New in Delphi 12 – GetLinesEnumerator for reading text files line by line Read More »
Stack Overflow However, Stack Overflow has a very tough community. It can be quite challenging to post a question there AND get a decent answer and you could easily feel bullied there. The Stack Overflow lords know about it, and they tried to fix it with stricter rules about how people SHOULD behave, but they
Stack Overflow is of the past, Enter AI Read More »
This post is not about databases but against data bases. If you are a big fan of DB, don’t be sad. Maybe you will get a new insight into a different mindset and you will migrate some of your programs that are slowed down by databases to objects and binary files. I will not discuss
Databases – A change in the philosophy Read More »
While trying to communicate with my HTTPS server, I encountered a problem when CDN (Cloudflare) was active. Exception class EIdOSSLUnderlyingCryptoError with message ‘Error connecting with SSL. error:14094438:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes:tlsv1 alert internal error’. error:14077438:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:tlsv1 alert internal error’. I switched to TNetHTTPClient and it worked. Here is the code: // TNetHTTPClient. function GetToken(CONST URL: string; StatusInfo: TCallbackEvent
Serialization is a critical technique in programming, enabling objects to be saved to disk or transmitted over a network. While there’s no universal, automatic way to serialize complex objects in Delphi (due to challenges like private fields), manual serialization is straightforward—and binary serialization, in particular, stands out as the fastest and most efficient method. In
Saving an object to disk/file Read More »
Stuck With Legacy Delphi Code? I Can Modernize It! Are you still working with old Delphi codebases using AnsiStrings, raw pointers in arrays, TStringList misusage, hardcoded typecasts, goto, blocking timers, Application.ProcessMessages, or excessive global variables? Would you like to upgrade it to modern coding standards, ensuring compatibility with Delphi 11.3 and 64-bit environments? I will
I refactor your old code for free! Read More »
After a conversation about the low popularity of the Delphi language—further worsened by the lack of libraries for Delphi—I decided to share my odyssey in the world of bioinformatics, using Delphi as my primary development tool. My toy tool that turned into a commercial product Back in 2007, I wrote a small tool for
My odyssey in the world of bioinformatics, with Delphi Read More »
Even though there are a few tools for porting a project from the VCL (Visual Component Library) to FMX (FireMonkey) the process is not easy especially because not all VCL components have direct FMX equivalents. Some components require substitution, and some functionality must be reimplemented. The problem deepens with 3rd party VCL components. Tools for
Converting VCL code to FMX Read More »
After installing FMX and using it for a while I started getting a weird “ld.exe cannot find shlwapi.dll” message. There was nothing like this to be found on the internet! I posted a question of StackOverflow but people started to point in (as later turned out to be) totally wrong directions. The complete error msg
Delphi Firemonkey – ld.exe cannot find shlwapi.dll: No such file or directory Read More »
You can publish your application on your website. However, the Microsoft Smart Screen will not like it at all if the application is not signed. This is how your application looks like when it is singed and un-signed: Signing your application could cost as much as $800 per year, but if you do some research,
Obtaining cheap EV/OV certificates & singing your application Read More »
This is a chapter from “Delphi in all its glory” book. Preparing for cross-platform An SDK is required for the following platforms: Multi-device applications for the iOS Device – 64-bit platform. Multi-device applications for the Android platform. Multi-device applications for the Linux platform. If you haven’t chouse to install them during Delphi setup, you need
Cross-platform development with Firemonkey – Tool-chain setup Read More »
Rule #1: Always separate your business-logic code from the GUI code. Without this rule, all your code will be a hot mess, where libraries cannot exist. Rule #2: There should be no floating units. A unit should always belong to a project (Dpr or Dpk). Without this, you will fail to properly generate some DCU
The four rules of packages Read More »
When trying to load an RTF file using RichEdit.Lines.LoadFromFile(FileName) and RichEdit.ReadOnly = True the RichEdit removes all images from the RTF file showing an empty placeholder. Solution: The solution is to call these methods in this specific order with these specific parameters: Note that TRichEdit has full support for images from Delphi 11. If you
TRichEdit removes images when TRichEdit.ReadOnly = True Read More »
So, because I built a program that has to resize/scale images up and down, I built this tool to test 13 resizing algorithms for Delphi. Tested algorithms Tests: Two of the above tests include 3rd party algorithms.If you don’t have access to their source code, you will have to switch off the {$3RDPARTY} switch.
Say no to crappy images in your Delphi programs. Finding the best resizing algorithm. Read More »
After so many years, there still is no solution to this problem online. So, I had to try to fix it on my own. Two things worked for me: 1. Manually delete all stuff related to BattleNet from my computer (registry and disk) then try to reinstall: Full of wisdom, Blizzard spreads its crap all
Solution to Battle.Net installer stuck to 45% Read More »
Environment variables are strings defined by the IDE. Each environment variable serves a specific purpose. Some of them are fixed, others are changed dynamically depending on what/how you are compiling your project. For example, they provide dynamic paths that influence where files are stored, define default locations for binaries, define how projects are built, and
Environment variables and macros in Delphi Read More »
For any debugging issue, make sure that the program is compiled under the “Debug” configuration, and that the “Debug” configuration is properly set, as explained in the “Debugger” chapter in my books. Don’t forget to build (instead of compile) after changing any project settings! Also, don’t put yourself in a dreadful situation by using 3rd
Breakpoints – Issues during debugging Read More »
Breakpoints A breakpoint tells the debugger to pause the program’s execution at the location (line of code) where the breakpoint is. We can set source breakpoints in the Code Editor before we run the program, but also while the program is already running. The places where we can place breakpoints are marked by a blue
Delphi breakpoints Read More »
I am still amazed to see how many (even seasoned) Delphi programmer don’t understand exceptions. This post starts from a nice video posted by the Silver Coder. He states that exceptions are not the best idea and the reason mentioned in the short video is that try/except makes the code slow and difficult to read.
Too many programmers don’t understand exceptions. Do you? Read More »
Note: This article is tightly connected to the “Never create a new Delphi project” article. These are my settings for each new project I start and the explanation why they are set like this. Also, I will try to convince you to use Assertions. They are a gemstone ignored by (way too) many
How to correctly set the compiler options Read More »
Note: This article is tightly connected to the “How to correctly set the compiler options” article. Somebody asked how to set the default project options for a new Delphi project. I stopped years ago wasting time with this. Instead I have a folder where I store a “template” project. You can find this Delphi
Never create a new Delphi project – Use templates instead! Read More »
I needed to open PDF files in Delphi. There seems to be a lot of libraries out there, but when my restrictions (read PDF, native Delphi code, cross-platform, acceptable price) started to kick in I realized that there are not so many options. I created therefore this Delphi PDF library comparison table to help me
PDF libraries for Delphi – Roundup Read More »
Note: This page is an excerpt from my “Delphi in all its glory – Libraries” book. $(Auto) is a new environment variable, introduced in Delphi 10.4. Embarcadero didn’t make a big show around it so it went unnoticed by most programmers. But don’t ignore it! It is extremely useful for packages, where it can
$(Auto) – One package to rule them all Read More »
12 years ago I built a PC that worked for… 12 years. The mainboard died recently so I have to build a new one. So, I started to document myself. CPU I am interested in single-core high-frequency CPU because I will use the PC mostly to compile Delphi code. I have found some charts that
Godzilla II – Building a new PC Read More »
Today I ran a test to see which is the best way to compress Delphi projects for backup/archive purposes. The contestants are Zip, WinRAR (v7.01) and 7Zip (v24.08). I expected WinRar to be the winner in all cases (as usual) but for plain text files (PAS), the results were surprising. 7Zip won! TEXT COMPRESSION Original
Best compressor for archiving Delphi code Read More »
I am happy yo announce that all books in the “Delphi in all its glory” series will be available in electronic format. They will be delivered not a PDF but under my own reader (exe file) called Orinoco eReader. Advantages You can read the book from you computer. Smaller price Fair price – With the
Get “Delphi in all its glory” as eBook Read More »
My Experience with Cursor: The Promise and the Reality This week, I had the opportunity (or perhaps the misfortune?) to try out Cursor, a new tool that promises to enhance productivity for programmers. As someone who primarily works in Delphi, I was curious to see how it would stack up. Cursor is an AI-powered
AI plugins for Delphi (a sad story) Read More »
The Delphi in all its glory book shows that at design time the IDE is the host of all visual components on our forms. If a single control misbehaves at design time it might take down the whole IDE. In most cases this happens while we drag and drop such components from Components Palette on
How to debug your VCL components Read More »
“Delphi in all its glory – Delphi for more than mere programmers” (ISBN:9798387412141) was released on time (March 2023) as promised. This is the first book in the series. You can find the printed book on your local Amazon (Amazon.com, Amazon.de, etc) or in electronic format. The source code for the example used in the
News: The “Delphi in all its glory [Part 1]” book Read More »
