In few hours I'm going to do a free live webinar "Globalise your Delphi applications" (June 16, 2009 4:00 PM CEST). Please go ahead and register here (BTW: Two hours later there is a very interesting "InterBase - The Vault" webinar by Daniel Magin on InterBase SMP 2009 new security features (June 16, 6:00 PM CEST)). During "Globalise your Delphi applications" webinar I'm going to discuss what is Unicode, new UnicodeString type added in Delphi 2009 to the compiler, new "Character" unit with Un...

I have just downloaded and installed  "TMS Smooth Controls Pack" from the Delphi registered users site and I'm totally impressed. This is exactly what Delphi needs out-of-the-box. TMS components look slick, elegant and modern. Delphi's getting old? No way. It continues to be the best IDE and the visual component development is in the heart of RAD or "Rapid Application Development" invented with Delphi 1. It makes such a difference what visual component you are dropping on the form and manipulate...

Delphi is alive and kicking!!! Last week Delphi developers on RAD Studio workshop in Lier in Belgium were really happy to hear that Embarcadero CEO, Wayne Williams, is Delphi developer himself:-) Such small facts give us - Delphi developers world wide - the confidence into the future of Delphi - the best IDE for building high performance Windows applications! No doubts about that! This workshop was organized by Embarcadero partners: Barsten, PeopleWare and Synapsis Group. [caption id="attachm...

A while ago I have described the most simple Delphi 2009 DataSnap "Echo" application in "Getting Started with Delphi DataSnap 2009" blog post and in the EDN article. DataSnap 2009 uses custom JSON-based protocol for on-the-wire communication between clients and servers. It is very easy to intercept and log messages being exchanged in DataSnap 2009. As a starting point for adding logging to a simple DataSnap server application, I'm going to use "DelphiDataSnapEchoServer" descibed in my previou...

Introduction The new DataSnap 2009 architecture extends the DBX4 database driver framework introduced in Delphi 2007 and C++Builder 2007. The DBX4 framework abstracted away the concept of a database driver and introduced the notion of extensible command types. DataSnap 2009 takes advantage of the DBX4 extensibility and adds to the portfolio of existing databases drivers the new “DataSnap” driver that - from the perspective of a client application - looks very much like a database, but in realit...

Do you remember that Delphi 6 was the first IDE in the market with Web Services support? This trend continues and Delphi 2009 supports building web service servers and clients:-) In this post I'm going to describe all steps neccessary to build simple web service server and client applications in Delphi 2009. Building "Simple Calculator" web service application in Delphi 2009 The main difference between building ASP.NET web application and web services in Delphi 2007 and native web services...

Nick had to wake up early today to do "A year in the Life of Delphi" webinar for Delphi developers from European timezone. It was excellent to hear some of the future directions of Delphi discussed. Of course these are only plans and "subjects to change without notice" but it gives the confidence in the future of Delphi. The year 2009 is going to be "transitional" for Delphi native compiler. Delphi Team is looking at completely new cross-compilation technology, the ability to target multiple bac...

Did you know that it is so easy to extend Delphi 2009 IDE? Delphi 2009 provides a dedicated Open Tools API interface that let you interact and extend the functionality of the Delphi and C++Builder 2009 IDE. "Eric's Open Tools API FAQ and Resource" is probably the best place to learn about Open Tools API. Eric Berry is well known in Delphi community as author of GExperts extension to all versions of Delphi and also as expert on Tools API itself. In this post I would like to provide step-by-...

Delphi and C++Builder 2009 are considered by many developers that I have met recently the best versions ever of these two great products. There are significant improvements at all levels of product functionality, starting from new Unicode support, new programming languages features, improvements to RTL/VCL, IDE improvements and brand new DataSnap client/server architecture. Here are some of the Delphi and C++Builder 2009 online resources categorized for your convenience:-) Embarcadero Upda...

This week there were two Delphi and C++Builder 2009 launch events in Prague and in Bratislava. In Prague there were 205 developers and in Bratislava around 50. Good numbers of attendees and very interesting questions from the audience. There was an interesting question about the future of native applications on Windows. Check out "wizard behind the curtain" DDJ article for Michael Swindell take on native development. I personally do not expect Microsoft to rewrite Windows in managed code ...