Delphi version 1.0 was launched at the Software Development Conference on February 14, 1995. The several thousand developers gave the team a standing ovation during the launch. This year we are celebrating 17 years of continuous innovation for the Delphi language, run-time library, Visual Component Library (VCL), database connectivity, application architectures, IDE, tool chain, and the new FireMonkey next generation business application platform. On our world tour stops for Delphi XE2 last f...

"Ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no valley low enough. Ain't no river wide enough. To keep me from getting to you." The lyrics, from the song written by Ashford and Simpson, keep telling me that there is nothing that can stop advance of computer software, developer tools, and operating platforms. "Climb Every Mountain", the song in the movie, The Sound of Music, tell us to keep going, search everywhere, follow every path, cross every Geoffrey Moore chasm, try every idea, until we find ou...

Julie Andrews, as Mary Poppins, sang "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." The "Spoonful of Sugar" song starts "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap the job's a game".  When I am programming, I am having fun.  Yes, it is also a job, but, creating software is a job, a game, and total fun.  In programming languages, some people might claim that certain language features are "syntactic sugar".  The claim is that syntax was added to m...

Today is July 14, 2011.  It's Bastille Day in France.  This morning I got up at 3:30am to watch Stage 12 of the 2011 Tour de France.  Stage 12 was the first stage to enter the mountains of the Pyrenees which are on the border of France and Spain.  The stage 12 winner was Samuel Sanchez from Spain.  The overall tour leader is still Thomas Voeckler from France.  All of this is perfectly fitting for this French National Day. Bastille Day celebrates the Fête de la Fédération, July 14, 1790, the firs...

Who wants more Bits (binary digits)?  I first started programming in September 1969 on an IBM 360 model 40 as a Freshman at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Computer Science Department.  The IBM 360/40 had a 16-bit data width, 32-bit general purpose registers, and 64-bit floating point registers.  I also got permission to program (using Assembler and FOCAL) on the PDP-8 (12-bit single accumulator, up to 32k of 12-bit memory words) that was in the Journalism department.  Later on, Professor Emile Attala ...

I am in the constant search for knowledge of all kinds. While I continue my search in the areas of software engineering and computer programming, I also explore other areas where software might be used.  In my undergraduate studies at Cal Poly Computer Science (1969-1973) I took a range of non-computer science courses as part of my degree.  The Cal Poly "Learn by Doing" philosophy expanded our knowledge to include areas where computers and software would be used in my future career.  After gradu...

On Monday, June 17, 1985 (twenty-six years ago today), I started working for Philippe Kahn at Borland International in Scotts Valley California.  Twenty six years working on programming languages and for programmers.  The fun of being a part of the software development tools world continues today. While I'm reminded that this is a job, it is also so much fun to be able to be a part of moving the programming world forward, one day at a time. My journey started in Eureka California on June 13, ...

On June 18, 1985 I joined Borland International in Scotts Valley California.  It was great to come to a developer tools and software company.  It is a special treat to be able to work on developer tools and be a developer.  25 years have passed and they have all been great years.   There have been some ups and downs, some changes (of company names and addresses in Scotts Valley).  One thing has stayed in the same place (besides me) - the drive to continually improve, enhance and simplify this th...

In the most recent Dr. Dobbs Update email I received, Jon Erickson, DDJ Editor, asks "Let's Hear About Your Personal Computing History". "What was your first programming job? Anything as exciting as COBOL programs for the Yellow Pages? How did you get Job #1 and why did you move to Job #2?" Send an email to Jon (jerickson 'at' ddj.com) with the subject line "Early Career". He says "I'll put together a report of sorts, and we'll all have a little fun in the process. Be sure to add any anecdote...

I just got back from two weeks in Europe visiting with great customers, partners, and press in Moscow, Milan (Piacenza), Hamburg, Frankfurt, Brussels, London, and Maidenhead. I arrived back in time to celebrate my 24 years, today, here in Scotts Valley working for Embarcadero (Borland International, Inprise, Borland Software Corporation, DevCo, and CodeGear).  Twenty-Four years focused on developers who want to use the best developer tools on the planet. I remember arriving at the 4585 Scotts...