Allen Bauer's blog...

Now that Delphi 8.02 is delivered and available, I can go ahead and publish what I'd been hinting at for the last couple of weeks. You can now download from Code Central a zip file containing the nessesary pieces to install the IDE incident reporting package. Included in this zip file are many .jdbg files that contain detailed symbol information for each Win32 binary that we build for the product. This information is used to correlate each entry in the stack trace to a specific line of code in a specific function, or as close as it can be. The exception and stack tracing code is included courtesy of the JEDI Code Library. You can visit them here, http://www.delphi-jedi.org for more information on this code. You'll also notice that several other run-time packages are included as well, dbrtl71.bpl, soaprtl71.bpl, dsnap71.bpl. These are included because this system uses the publically available Quality Central WebService. The WSDL can be found here: http://qc.borland.com/qc/coBugCGI.exe/wsdl/ICDSReportPublicInterface. As a matter of fact, anyone can create a client that talks to this service.

It has also been requested that I provide the source code to this IDE plug-in. I will certainly take that under advisment, however there are several places where this plug-in touches some deep internal pieces of the IDE. These will need to be cleaned up before any publishing can take place. One thing I can say is that this code is now an integral part of the normal Galileo IDE build process (which includes Delphi/Win32, Delphi for .NET, and C#Builder products). What this means is that during both field tests and future product releases there is a very good chance that this functionality will be included as part of the release, or at least provided as a separate install/download.

Now on to the installation of this feature:

Install Delphi 8 Update 2 first: http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_delphi_net.html
Download from this Code Central entry: http://codecentral.borland.com/codecentral/ccWeb.exe/listing?id=21547
Unzip the file into the "bin" directory of the Delphi 8 install. For example: c:\Program Files\Borland\BDS\2.0\Bin
Open RegEdit <normal registry editing warning and disclaimer inserted here>
Add the following value:

[HKCU\Software\Borland\BDS\2.0\Known IDE Packages]
$(BDS)\bin\exceptiondiag71.bpl = "(untitled)"

You can verify that it is installed correctly by opening Help|About. In the list box, there should be an entry called "Borland Quality Insite."

For once, this is a feature I certainly hope you never have to use.

Delphi 8 for .NET update #2 now available

Come and get it!

Michael Swindell, a Director in the Developer Tools Group here at Borland posted this enticing bit of info in the borland.public.delphi.non-techinical newsgroup.

Following up from my earlier message a little over a month ago - Delphi 8
update 2 will be available for download by the end of this week. This 2nd
update improves on the already good quality of Delphi 8 and raises the bar
to our highest quality Delphi in years with over 200 addressed issues. The
complete readme with all the details can be found in Anders' Weblog at
http://homepages.borland.com/aohlsson/blog_beta/archive/2004_03_07_archive#107896273750294654.
In addition, we'll also be making a complete documentation update available
at the same time that improves the Delphi 8 documentation in both in content
and ease of use.

The next update you can expect to see will be for Delphi 7 (Win32). We are
working on a Delphi 7.1 patch that is expected to be released in the second
quarter. This 7.1 update is planned to address a variety of Delphi 7 issues,
particularly in the dbExpress area, and will be available as a free download
to all registered Delphi 7 and Delphi 8 customers. We do recognize that
Win32 support continues to be important for many Delphi developers,
particularly for maintaining existing applications but also for new
application development. As such we also plan to continue supporting and
developing new Delphi Win32 features for the foreseeable future. Our plans
include moving Win32 support into the "Galileo" IDE along side Delphi .NET
in the next major release - which is planned to combine both Win32 and .NET
features into the same IDE. So if you're still on Delphi 3 thru 6 and you've
been waiting to upgrade for news of a v7 update or a Win32 commitment beyond
v7, now is the time to take advantage of the great upgrade value in Delphi 8
http://shop.borland.com/delphi

Though we plan to continue supporting Win32 development, there will be no
slow down in our .NET momentum. We plan to continue supporting more and more
.NET technologies in Delphi - such as Compact Framework, .NET Whidbey, and
Yukon, all the way to Longhorn, WinFX, and beyond. So whether you're a long
time Delphi Win32 developer or a soon to be .NET developer or both - if you
haven't yet upgraded to v7 or v8, I highly recommend the upgrade to Delphi 8
(which includes D7 for Win32 in the box) it's an great value for both Win32
and .NET developers. Either way, .NET or Win32, we'll continue to support
you with quality Delphi releases and updates.

On behalf of the entire Delphi development team, thanks again for using
Delphi 8!

Best regards - Go Delphi!
Michael

Michael Swindell
Director
Developer Tools - Delphi and .NET
Borland Software Corporation

Today, March 11, 2004, may be the day that we go live with the Delphi 8 update, aka. Delphi 8.1. So don't touch that dial!

Delphi 8 Update #2

Looks like Anders Ohlsson has gone ahead and posted the Readme for the upcoming Delphi 8 Update #2. You can see that there were more than just a few issues addressed in this release. Hopefully, I'll be posting some more information about automated IDE incident reporting within the next few days as well.

iTunes song swap helper vanishes from Net | CNET News.com

This just highlights the importance of backing up your system... or at least back up the important data. I'm not nessesarily condoning the use of this software, I am simply using it as an example of a very public "oops!" I hate it when that happens ;-)..

Dan Miser

The vernable Dan Miser has now joined the blogsphere with his own blog. Welcome aboard, Dan!

Play the rumor game

OK, Andrew I suppose I owe you an apology as well. I re-read my post and it seems that the tone of my message may have come across a little harsh. It was my feeble attempt at some humor.

I would like to clarify the reason I made the statement that class helpers have nothing to do with IDisposable. Class helpers were introduced into the language to facilitate easier porting of existing Win32 VCL code to .NET. For instance, TComponent has the properties ComponentCount: Integer; and Components[Index: Integer]: TComponent;. Since TComponent is actually declared as an alias to System.ComponentModel.Component, those properties don't exist. By creating class helpers, we can seemingly add methods to existing classes without using inheritance. This is pure "syntactic sugar." When I mentioned the IDisposable thing in the context of class helpers, I was trying to illustrate that <object instance>.Free; pattern was facilitated by the use of class helpers. I tried to indicate that class helpers were a feature in and of themselves; "Delphi introduces an interesting language construct called "class helpers." There could be a whole tome written about the subject of "class helpers"..."

The IDisposable pattern is actually triggered by the declaration of a destructor override. So if you declare an override to destructor Destroy; override; you are telling the compiler to implement the IDisposable pattern. You must override the Destroy; method in order for the compiler to see this pattern. We would have done this even if we didn't have class helpers. That is why I tried to downplay the relationship between class helpers and the IDisposable pattern. The fact that class helpers eased the programmers use of that pattern was purely serendipitous ;-)