--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4300005 Date: 04/01/97 From: GARY WEINFURTHER Time: 05:52pm \/To: MARTIEN DE GROOT (Read 1 times) Subj: Executing another executable from within17:52:3004/01/97 Martien de Groot mentioned this to All: MdG> How does one execute another executable from within a Delphi application? MdG> This is what I have tried so far: MdG> In the implementation section of the one and only unit so far I have put: MdG> function ShellExecute( hwnd: HWND; lpOperation : PChar; MdG> lpFile : PChar; lpParameters : PChar; lpDirectory : PChar; MdG> nShowCmd : Integer ) : Integer; far; external 'Shell.dll'; There's no need to do all this. Simply use the ShellApi unit, and it already has ShellExecute declared. ...Gary --- GoldED 2.41 * Origin: Nobody expects the Flying Circus BBS! (1:2410/905) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4300006 Date: 04/01/97 From: GARY WEINFURTHER Time: 05:53pm \/To: VADIM EVTEEV (Read 1 times) Subj: Test. Vadim Evteev mentioned this to Taras Boychuk: VE> Ok. What is Delphi? ;-) VE> BTW, Can I use here russian language? I dont see any rules... :( The language here is English. Thanks. The rules for this echo were posted a couple of times over the last few weeks. ...Gary Weinfurther, DELPHI Moderator --- GoldED 2.41 * Origin: The Flying Circus BBS. (1:2410/905) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4300007 Date: 04/02/97 From: VINCE KARCH Time: 09:28pm \/To: BART BROERSMA (Read 1 times) Subj: POSSIBLE PROBLEM ... -> Delphi (and TP 6.0) does the following on saving a file: -> - Delete the .BAK file; (or whatever extension is used for -> backups...) - Rename the .PAS file to .BAK -> - Save current file as .PAS -> -> That about explains it. -> So if you want your .Bak file back, don't save the curren file with -> the same name, or first rename the backup (yes, multitasking has it's -> advantages...) -> To prevent this, the IDE would have to make backups of backups etc... I'm just guessing here, but you didn't read my original post, did you? Try going back and re-reading it and you will see that your above information has nothing to do with a possible saving problem in Delphi that I described earlier. Sheesh! FVK --- PCBoard (R) v15.3 (OS/2) 10 * Origin: (1:226/600) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4300008 Date: 04/02/97 From: KEN PETERSEN Time: 06:52pm \/To: BART BROERSMA (Read 1 times) Subj: Trapping Exceptions from TMemo Hello Bart! Monday March 31 1997 15:51, Bart Broersma wrote to Bryan Smith: BB> This however will not solve the problems of BB> - files > 32K BB> - disk read errors BB> - other failures in reading the file. I solved some of your problems with this construct in one of my own programs: var InputFile: TextFile; BufferCount : Integer; TextLine: String; --- IF LENGTH(IN_FILE)>0 THEN BEGIN TRY FILEMEMO.Lines.BeginUpdate; AssignFile(InputFile, IN_FILE); Reset(InputFile); BufferCount := 0; WHILE (BufferCount<30000) AND (NOT Eof(InputFile)) DO BEGIN ReadLn(InputFile, TextLine); TRY FILEMEMO.Lines.Add(TextLine); EXCEPT BufferCount := 31000; END; Inc(BufferCount, Length(TextLine)+2); END; FINALLY CloseFile(InputFile); FILEMEMO.Lines.EndUpdate; END; This construct solved the LoadFromFile exception. Not pretty code but it does the job. Ken ... Public speaking is very easy. --- GoldED/386 3.00.Alpha4+ * Origin: The Falcon's Nest * The Ghetto * +45 86 25 52 45 (2:238/31.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4400000 Date: 04/02/97 From: MARTIN MAAT Time: 08:21pm \/To: STEVE BATSON (Read 1 times) Subj: C++ Builder/Delphi/Visual C++ Hallo Steve SB> But, my boss has decided that I need to move on to C++ at work SB> because of the people at work that set the company standards for SB> programming tools. These people likely walk around in a daze with SB> hands extended in front them chanting..."Yes Bill Gates...Yes, oh SB> master...". :-) SB> Any feedback you have on C++ Builder and the transisition from SB> Delphi would be appreciated. Or, should I just use Visual C++ for SB> work. My other alternative would be to use Visual Basic again and SB> write DLLs in C/C++ (or Delphi and don't tell my boss...hehehe) to SB> handle routines that need speed or power that VB doesn't offer. Apart from the warm feeling you might get from outsmarting your boss, I don't think it will be worth the trouble. Raw C++ code should be portable and Borland C++ builder _might_ support Microsoft's class tree (Microsoft Foundation Classes, then again, I would expect Borland to have it's own class library, but it could be an option, I think I heard something like that but I realy don't know), but the resource files (DFM files in Delphi) will most likely not be compatible. I would just join the Bee Gee groupies at work if I were you, it would increase your market value anyway. You can still be a real programmer at home and be really subversive at work by having Delphi Magazines on your desk which you will read in an teasingly obvious manner during break hours. [whisper mode on] Microsoft tools are pretty impressive as well, to be honest. But you didn't hear that from me. [whisper mode off] Groeten, Martin. --- FMail/386 1.02 * Origin: -=[ E-mail: m_maat@knoware.nl .......... ]=- (2:286/420.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4400001 Date: 04/03/97 From: ERIC VANEBERCK Time: 06:36pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Delphi 3 : Bench PcWeek * Post dans DELPHI * Post dans DELPHI.F * Post dans PAS.DELPHI March 31, 1997 10:00 AM ET Delphi 3: A real draw Tests find Borland's beta blends developer aids, near-C++ speed; multitier options will add enterprise appeal By Peter Coffee Delphi 3, soon to be released by Borland International Inc., combines leading-edge programming productivity aids with a constellation of new multitier technologies. During tests of a near-final beta, PC Week Labs found that Delphi 3 shared distinctive features of both Microsoft Corp.'s Visual C++ 5.0 and Visual Basic 5.0. Delphi 3, unlike Microsoft's just-released Visual Studio tool suite, provides a single development environment that offers both comfort and speed. At design time, Delphi 3 gave us the intelligent code completion and function parameter prompting that highlight the latest release of Visual Basic. Moreover, with the strong data typing and object-oriented discipline of its Object Pascal language, Delphi 3 delivered more extensive dynamic assistance than developers can get from Visual Basic's more limited IntelliSense facility. Borland's Object Pascal and Delphi 3's component-based design parallel the strengths that draw developers toward Java, while still delivering high speed and minimal application size. When it ships later this quarter at a price yet to be announced, Delphi 3 will therefore compete against Symantec Corp.'s Visual Caf and other emerging JavaBeans-based tools with multitier database access frameworks. (For more about Java's growing role as an enterprise application development tool, see "Java goes beyond mind share.") _Speedy_ _indeed_ Delphi 3 yielded execution speeds that were *three* to *six* *times* as fast as those achieved by Visual Basic 5.0's new native compiler, and about *70* *percent* as fast as those of the fastest C++ executables that PC Week Labs has tested to date. Delphi 3 is more than just a fast, Pascal-based alternative to Visual Basic. Like Visual C++ 5.0, Delphi 3 assists developers who want to build small, fast COM (Component Object Model) components and ActiveX controls, with COM classes that match Visual C++ 5.0's ability to deliver COM components with automatic reference counting. It also offers the full range of support for minimal ActiveX controls, without the overhead of forms, windows or bulky run-time libraries. This is what we would expect from a C++ development system. Producing fast code and efficient components is good, but using code and components that others have already written is even better. Positioning Delphi 3 as a business decision support tool, Borland has included in the package a generous collection of data visualization and analysis tools that offer impressive animated charting and flexible pivot-table interaction. Later this year, Borland will augment Delphi with middleware technologies from Borland's Open Environment subsidiary. PC Week Labs will look then at Delphi 3's enterprise-oriented engines, the Data Broker (which provides thin-client support) and the Business Object Broker (which provides fault tolerance and load balancing), as well as the forthcoming Open Environment tools. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Pros Cons Delphi 3 beta Borland International Inc. Scotts Valley, Calif. (800) 233-2444 www.borland.com Code completion and parameter prompting during source code editing; near-C++ execution speeds; extensive component libraries for building decision support applications. Pascal language less widely used than BASIC or C++; lacks cross-platform deployment options of Java. Summary: Combining intelligent coding aids like those of Microsoft's Visual Basic with the lean-and-mean component creation of a C++ development system, Borland's near-final beta of Delphi 3 retains its proven Object Pascal foundations while integrating with Microsoft's COM-based technologies and moving into large-scale multitier projects. PC Week Labs' scoring methodology can be found at www.pcweek.com/reviews/meth.html --- Terminate 4.0+ * Origin: Confrence Pascal en franais disponible sur Fido (2:293/2009) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4400002 Date: 04/03/97 From: ERIC VANEBERCK Time: 06:40pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Delphi 3 - VB5 : Information Week * Post dans DELPHI * Post dans PAS.DELPHI * Post dans DELPHI.F * Post dans VISUAL_BASIC March 31, 1997, Issue: 624 Section: InformationWeek Labs Two Paths To RAD -- The differences between updates of Microsoft's Visual Basic and Borland's Delphi development tools are subtle but important By Andy Feibus Despite their parallels, Microsoft's Visual Basic and Borland International's Delphi rapid application development tools are clearly oriented toward different audiences. Visual Basic is aimed at developers who are using Microsoft products almost exclusively. Delphi provides similar (and in several cases, better) functionality for distributed applications. At the same time, the two have never looked more alike. - Visual Basic 5.0, released on March 19, brought the VB line even closer to parity with Delphi's performance by way of its long-awaited native-code compiler. And when Delphi 3 goes to market in May, Borland will do its own feature matching, adding ActiveX and distributed application development capabilities. - The two releases raise the bar for Powersoft's PowerBuilder 6.0, due later this year. They also finally offer Windows developers some solid options for rapidly building and deploying distributed applications across their networks and intranets. The improvements in these tools may even be enough to lure developers away from Windows C++ tools. - Both tools make it easy to create ActiveX controls and servers, ActiveX documents that can be run from within a Web browser, and executable applications. Both can create applications with distributed components using Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). Both tools support only development of 32-bit Windows 95 and Windows NT applications; 16-bit users of Windows 3.x are left behind to use only the older versions of these tools. In fact, both development tools are very similar when it comes to developing standalone or simple client-server applications. The real differences between these tools emerge when they are applied to the task of enterprisewide application development -then the gap between Microsoft's and Borland's strategies for distributed development becomes visible. Visual Basic 5.0 Visual Basic 5.0's new compiler definitely helps. In our tests, compiled VB5 applications ran about three times faster than VB4 and just as fast as Delphi's old release, Delphi 2.0. In addition to the native-compiler technology, two new features make this release a must-buy for VB developers:ActiveX control creation and Microsoft's Visual Database Tools. Microsoft plans to release three different editions of Visual Basic 5.0. Learning Edition contains the VB development environment without the compiler, database tools, and team development tools. Professional Edition includes the compiler, the ability to create browser-based applications, and improved database-access features. For many developers, Professional Edition will be the release of choice. Enterprise Edition provides all of the features of Professional Edition, and adds tools to better integrate applications with Microsoft's SQL Server-including a copy of SQL Server 6.5 Developer Edition for those developers running Windows NT. The Enterprise Edition also includes Visual SourceSafe for source-code control, Visual Database Tools, a SQL Server stored-procedure debugger, and a Microsoft Transaction Server. Also included is Application Performance Explorer, a tool that can simulate distributed application scenarios to determine the best strategy for deploying applications. A 32-bit version of VB 5.0 Enterprise Edition will be available for Digital's Alpha processor some time in the near future. A major improvement in VB5 is its ability to debug multiple projects simultaneously. Although you could create OLE objects as dynamic link libraries (DLLs) with VB4, you needed to load two copies of VB in order to debug applications that used them:one for the DLL and one for the application that invoked the DLL code. With this release, you can open and debug both projects at the same time within a single copy of VB. The new compiler comes with numerous optimizing and debugging switches for tuning and checking code. Microsoft still supplies an interpretive debugger, which lets you modify code as you debug it. The interpretive debugger significantly speeds debugging when compared to traditional compile-link-debug code development. The applications that the compiler turns out are in native code, but they aren't completely standalone; you will also need to ship the VB5 virtual-machine DLL with any VB5 executable (as in previous releases, there is no charge for deploying this DLL with applications). As a result, VB5 cannot create standard, standalone DLLs. In addition to standard applications, VB5 Enterprise Edition and Professional Edition let you create ActiveX controls, ActiveX servers (nonvisual components), and ActiveX documents. With any edition of VB 5.0, you can create ActiveX controls. An ActiveX control consists of a user interface, properties and methods to control its actions, and events. These controls can be as full-featured as those created with C++:With VB5, your control can even have a customized properties page and define its own set of events. For example, a control that interacts with the Internet can define an event that is triggered when data is received. A program that uses this control can then define actions to perform when the event occurs. An ActiveX document is a form that contains ActiveX components and code that can be displayed and executed from a Web browser. VB5's ActiveX Document Migration Wizard can convert the forms in standard VB applications into ActiveX documents. To view and execute an ActiveX document, you need only point your ActiveX-capable Web browser at the ActiveX document. These documents are not, however, a complete Web application; you'll still need to link the pages together using the new Hyperlink control. As with every version of VB, a few new controls are tossed into the mix to improve your programming tasks. Four noteworthy ActiveX controls that were added to this release are: - the Inet control, which lets you manage a connection to an Internet server; - the WinSock control, which communicates with another sockets-based application over TCP/IP; - two MAPI controls, which let you integrate E-mail into your application. This release also includes a plethora of wizards to assist in various development areas. One of the most useful is the Data Form Wizard, which takes a database table or query and creates a form for editing the underlying data. Also useful are the Wizard Manager, which provides a framework for creating custom wizards, and the Class Builder, which helps construct object models. Also new to this release is the Microsoft Repository, which provides a common area for tool vendors to store information about projects and provides events for detecting changes being made to projects. For example, changing and saving a form could cause a third-party tool to update the form's screen shot in the project's documentation. Tools from different vendors can exchange information within the Repository as well. You can also use the Repository to share your components; VB5 Enterprise includes Component Manager to let you browse the Repository and access these objects. Reporting continues to be a weak spot in Microsoft's development-tools strategy. VB5 includes Seagate Software's Crystal Reports version 4.6-but Seagate has been shipping version 5.0 since last September. Using either version to create reports is painful when compared to, for example, the reporting capabilities of Microsoft's own Access 97. The database tools included with VB5 Enterprise Edition make it an ideal development tool for Microsoft SQL Server. Enterprise Edition includes a developer's version of SQL Server-which requires Windows NT to run-and some high-powered tools for getting under SQL Server's hood. One of the best of these is SQL Server Debugger, a wonderful tool for handling one of the trickiest problems with creating database code. With this tool, you can put in breakpoints and single-step through your stored procedures and triggers, evaluating variables and examining the data as you make changes. Unfortunately, it works only with SQL Server, so it doesn't help developers working with other databases. VB5 Enterprise Edition's Visual Database Tools aren't quite as limited. They can create SQL Server database objects-such as tables, queries, stored procedures, and triggers. Additionally, the tools can graphically design a database schema-the graphical representation can be used for documentation. For non-SQL Server databases accessed through either Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) or native drivers, you can view the tables and queries, create local queries based on the tables, and, with Oracle7.x, create stored procedures, but that's about it. Also new as part of the Enterprise Edition is the concept of the UserConnection object, which is a database object that lets you encapsulate the connection to a database. The queries and stored procedures are defined as methods of the UserConnection object. This provides a simple way for developers to access database information without writing a lot of code. Microsoft's Visual Modeler, a tool recently licensed from Rational Software Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., is now available for licensed Enterprise Edition developers from Microsoft's Web site. Visual Modeler doesn't just model how components will interact within an application-it can also reverse-engineer a component-based application to obtain documentation about its model. Enterprise Edition includes two tools for building distributed applications. The first is a refinement of the "network OLE" technology included in VB4-in addition to supporting Internet-based ActiveX applications, Microsoft includes support for distributing ActiveX components using the recently released DCOM. The second tool is Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) Developer Edition, which provides a server framework for servicing ActiveX object requests from remote clients (i.e., your VB application). Unfortunately, MTS-which requires Windows NT 4.0-is still a work in progress; advanced features such as failover and load-balancing are not included yet. This effectively keeps VB5 from being usable for anything resembling vital business applications. Delphi 3 Borland's Delphi line is two years old, but has always been ahead of VB technologically-even though its market share is considerably smaller. In its third release, Borland made a few nice improvements to its already easy-to-use interface but focused on extending Delphi's reach into the enterprise by integrating its newly purchased distributed object middleware software products, OLEnterprise and Entera. Delphi will come in four editions, although the names and final feature sets were not available at press time.For this review, I looked at the late beta version of the high-end Client/ Server Suite version, which includes the full scope of new Delphi functionality, including the ability to create ActiveX controls, components, and documents. The Client/Server Suite also includes ODBC support, native links to some remote databases, database tools and components, the ability to create interactive Web content, support for deploying multitier distributed applications, and Intersolv's PVCS version 5.2 source-code control product. An enterprise version, which will be released in the coming months, will include Borland's Entera Intelligent Middleware product for providing improved scalability for client-server applications. ReportSmith, the report generator included in Delphi 2, is gone. Reports in this release are created using the QuickReports components, which have been greatly expanded to provide better report customization. ReportSmith required learning a different language-ReportBasic-in order to use the application (much like Crystal Reports with VB5). The removal of this bolted-on piece of software is actually an improvement, although you can still purchase ReportSmith separately from Borland if you want it. QuickReports provides many of the same reporting features as ReportSmith, but you now get to create and program reports from within Delphi instead of using an external package. If you want to convert a ReportSmith report to a QuickReports report, forget it. You need to start over. In addition to improvements to QuickReports, a few new controls have been added to this release. Among them are the new toolbar control, date-and-time selection control, scrolling checklist, and additional data-access controls for improved server interaction. But the most important of these new controls include: - Decision Cube multidimensional data analysis controls. - Extended Internet application controls, including server socket and client socket components, and components to construct Web server extensions, as well as applications to create dynamic Web pages. These new Internet controls complement the existing controls provided in Delphi 2 for creating applications that use the FTP, HTTP, NNTP, POP, SMTP, TCP, and UDP protocols. Delphi 3 can be used to create not only a customized Web browser-a demo browser with source code is included-but also Web applications that are compatible with Microsoft's and Netscape's respective Web-server APIs. A Web-server application wizard is even included to help you get started. The Decision Cube components are the most interesting Delphi improvement in this release. These components help create local multidimensional data stores that can then be summarized into cross-tabulated views and graphs. Although you could create these cross-tab queries in Visual Basic 5, with the Decision Cube you can more easily pivot and reslice the data, which means your analysis can be done faster. But these components are definitely not a replacement for high-end, server-based decision-support tools, which can handle large tables with better performance. Like previous releases, the Delphi compiler includes numerous debugging switches, but not an interpretive debugger. Instead, if you need to change your code, you'll need to recompile it before further testing. However, with Delphi, you can create truly standalone applications and DLLs. Enhanced in this release is the Database Explorer utility, which lets you view your database objects, including databases, tables, fields, indexes, and other metadata. In Delphi Client/Server, the Database Explorer is extended to support the viewing of stored procedures and triggers as well as the querying of the database using SQL commands. Its real utility, however, is its data dictionary, which lets you store attributes on your database fields. By dragging the field from the Database Explorer to the Delphi form, you can automatically create a control in the form with the attributes you specify in the dictionary. The newly created form inherits these attributes as well as database information about the field. As with VB5, you can create ActiveX controls, servers, and documents with Delphi 3, including support for property pages and control-specific events. Some of these features were available in Delphi 2, but all are available in Delphi 3. Unlike VB5, however, Delphi 3 does not include a wizard to convert applications to ActiveX documents. Delphi also includes a repository that is geared toward sharing components among projects and project teams. The Delphi repository allows teams of users to reuse one another's forms and other objects, and stores all of the templates and wizards provided for creating new applications as well, so you can standardize the form templates that your developers base new applications on. Distributed applications support is Delphi's strongest selling point. Delphi Client/Server edition includes a copy of OLEnterprise, Borland's distributed object middleware, which allows applications to use ActiveX components on one or more application servers. Unlike MTS, OLEnterprise-with its built-in Business Object Broker-inherently supports failover and object-location transparency. If you place an ActiveX object on more than one server, OLEnterprise randomly selects which object to execute when a client requests it. This really isn't load balancing per se, but it will help distribute the load on your network. OLEnterprise also includes a name service-the Business Object Broker-so that you can centrally register the servers where your clients can find ActiveX objects to run. This contrasts sharply with VB5 and MTS, which currently require that every client specify where to find its server objects. The upcoming enterprise version of Delphi will also include a copy of Entera Intelligent Middleware, which provides failover and load-balancing services, as well as interfaces to third-party transaction processing packages such as Bea Systems' Tuxedo and IBM's Encina. Delphi Client/Server also includes the Remote Data Broker, which provides a single object from which an application can query all database information. Configuring an application to communicate with the Remote Data Broker means you don't need to configure ODBC, a database engine, or database communications software on every client that needs to access a database. Client forms incorporate a remote server object that names the Remote Data Broker server. Then, the Remote Data Broker server is configured to communicate with the desired databases. Overall, the features available with Delphi Client/Server provide impressive development suite for creating enterprise-class distributed client-server applications. More Choices Most users of the previous versions of these tools will want to upgrade. But developers who once had to rely on tools such as C++ and C to build their Windows applications now have two other options for creating distributed client-server or Web applications. Andy Feibus is president of CustomBytes Inc., an Atlanta consulting firm specializing in application development. He can be reached via E-mail at amf@mindspring.com SIDEBAR:Pricing And Platforms Product: Visual Basic 5.0 Microsoft Redmond, Wash. 206-882-8080 www.microsoft.com Pricing: $99, Learning Edition; $499, Professional Edition; $1,199, Enterprise Edition; available now Platforms: Windows 95, Windows NT; Alpha processor version of Enterprise Edition due soon --- Product: Delphi 3 Borland International Scotts Valley, Calif. 408-431-1000 www.borland.com Pricing: Pricing not yet available; product available in May Platforms: Windows 95 and Windows NT SIDEBAR:VA Basic:For DB2 Lovers Only IBM's rapid application development entry is Visual Age for Basic 1.0. VA Basic is similar in many ways to Microsoft's previous release of Visual Basic, version 4.0-it creates programs that are interpreted by a run-time engine. VA Basic targets customers with IBM's DB2 database. VA Basic creates client applications for OS/2, Windows 95, and Windows NT; it can also create stored procedures and user-defined functions for DB2 servers on Windows NT, OS/2, and AIX/6000 systems. And it does all this for $119 per copy. Although the DB2 stored-procedure debugging support is a big plus, the rest of its features fall short when compared with the more expensive, but more complete, RAD tools such as Visual Basic 5 and Delphi 3. VA Basic supports OLE components, older-style OCX controls (but not ActiveX controls) on Windows platforms, and OpenDoc components on OS/2 only. However, both IBM and Apple-the two primary proponents of OpenDoc-are in the process of abandoning OpenDoc, effectively killing all support for OpenDoc in future products and making the technology irrelevant to most developers. You can migrate your Visual Basic 3.0 applications to VA Basic with relative ease; VA Basic includes a migration feature for converting code and project files from VB3 to VA Basic. However, since VA Basic does not support the old-style VBX technology, you'll have to manually replace third-party VBX controls with their newer OCX counterparts. IBM has included some attractive features in the tool for DB2 database application developers. VA Basic can create, edit, and debug stored procedures for a DB2 database, and DB2 SQL statements can be embedded in a client application's code-including statements that pass arrays to stored procedures invoked by the application. But the appeal of VA Basic doesn't extend very far beyond the limits of IBM's own product lines. The product lacks many of the interface enhancements of other RAD tools. IBM provides no tools for deploying and distributing applications, and no standard way to integrate third-party tools, such as documentation tools or source-code control products, into the VA Basic environment. SIDEBAR :Strengths And Weaknesses Product:Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition Description:Microsoft's development tool for distributed database applications using Microsoft products Strengths: - Easy to use, with gentle learning curve - Native-code compiler provides C++ speed - Includes interpretive debugger for rapid code fixing Weaknesses: - Immature distributed object implementation for nterprise-class applications - Database development tools don't do much with other vendors' databases --- Product:Delphi 3 Client/Server beta Description:Borland International's multitier development tool based on object-oriented Pascal Strengths: - Easy-to-use interface - More-mature distributed object technologies - Object paradigm and repository encourage code and form reuse Weaknesses: - ObjectPascal has a steeper learning curve than Visual Basic - Manual migration path for converting applications to ActiveX documents DATA:InformationWeek Copyright 1997 CMP Media --- Terminate 4.0+ * Origin: Terminate registration site 32-10-813088 (2:293/2009) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4400003 Date: 04/03/97 From: ERIC VANEBERCK Time: 06:44pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Delphi 3 InfoWorld InfoWorld March 31, 1997 Beta Rapid application development tool Delphi 3 closes in on Visual Basic 5.0 By Maggie Biggs The new features and enhancements in the beta release of Borland's Delphi 3 Client/Server Suite offers stiff competition in the rapid application development (RAD) tools arena,closing the gap on rival Visual Basic 5.0, Professional Edition. With Delphi, developers can achieve some impressive results but at the possible expense of diminished productivity due to a less intuitive interface. Delphi 3 has about 50 enhancements. Though some improvements, such as those to development tools, ActiveX, and Web support, are reminiscent of Microsoft's recently released Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition (see Product Reviews, Feb. 10), there are some areas where Delphi surpasses Visual Basic. For example, Borland smoothly integrated decision-support components into Delphi. Although Visual Basic includes Crystal Reports, the decision-support capability within the Delphi integrated development environment (IDE) greatly simplifies the creation of these types of applications. With Delphi's Decision Cube component, you can see your data in multidimensional, spreadsheet-like views. You can then drill down, pivot, and aggregate the data. I was impressed with Decision Cube's flexibility. But using the pivot function against a rather small data set resulted in a much slower-than-expected performance. Quick Reports has useful reporting capabilities. I liked the TeeChart component, which let me create an array of graphical data views. Borland has improved database access in this version of Delphi. The included native database drivers support DB2, Microsoft and Sybase SQL Servers, Oracle, and others. The visual SQL tools are now on par with other RAD products, too. Like Visual Basic, Delphi 3 adds new wizards aimed at improving developer productivity and accuracy. Code Template Wizard ensures that you adhere to proper syntax by completing the statement as you type. You can also add your own code templates to the wizard. Delphi also provides Code Completion and Code Parameter Wizards. The former provides the properties, methods, and event names for a component, and the latter shows the parameters for functions, methods, and events. An option setting lets you enable or disable the automatic wizard, as well as set the speed at which they appear. I didn't particularly like the prompts, so I chose to disable the wizards and felt more productive without them. The Delphi integrated development environment (IDE) provides the expected features and functions, such as the capability to drop components onto forms, an extensible component palette, and an object repository. Delphi also supports third-party version control products and the capability to add external tools. Finally, compiler performance remains speedy. For comparison purposes, I created many typical business applications, such as sales and inventory, using the Delphi 3 beta and Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition. Both products delivered the functionality I needed, but Delphi's IDE seemed to require more development steps to achieve the same outcome. With Delphi, you can create ActiveX controls and generate object-oriented native controls. Controls created in Delphi don't require a DLL for distribution and interoperate well with other development products. Delphi now provides built-in COM support, so you can reuse objects that will interoperate with other standards, such as Active Documents. As you might expect, this edition of Delphi lets you deploy applications to the World Wide Web. WebBridge, for example, provides a common interface for both Microsoft Internet Information Server and Netscape Server. It is then easier to create an application without concern for Web server-specific issues. To improve Delphi's scalability, Borland has added three brokers that address multitier issues, such as managing client and server data interaction, business rules, redundancy, and load balancing. In particular, Remote Object Broker even lets you more easily create remote or off-line applications. Borland plans to offer Enterprise and AS/400 Editions of Delphi in the near future. Given the added features and enhancements in Delphi 3, it's well worth evaluating. Maggie Biggs (maggie_biggs@infoworld.com) is an InfoWorld technology analyst. THE BOTTOM LINE Delphi 3 Client/Server Suite, beta Although corporate developers will appreciate the wealth of features and enhancements in this version of Delphi, some may find the environment less intuitive than other RAD offerings. Pros: Capability to create and deploy applications in multitiered client/server and Web environments; powerful data-manipulation tools; fast compiler. Cons: Slow performance during multidimensional data analysis. Borland International Inc., Scotts Valley, Calif.; (800) 233-2444, (408) 431-1000; fax: (408) 431-4122; customer-service@borland.com; http://www.borland.com. Price: Not announced. Platforms: Windows NT 3.51 or later, Windows 95. Ship date: May 1997. Copyright 1997 by InfoWorld Publishing Company --- Terminate 4.0+ * Origin: ARJ : The best archiver (2:293/2009) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4400004 Date: 04/02/97 From: TOMMY USHER Time: 11:07pm \/To: STEVEN READ (Read 1 times) Subj: Free delphi! (sort of...) SR>Yes I have a friend that I would like to get a copy of Delphi SR>for... SR>Could you post the issue date and a price (dollars/pounds), as I SR>can only get it by placing an order thru my local book store. It will be the April issue of PC Plus, and it usually sells for something like $12. SR>They would frown on me if I tried to say "It's not the right one, SR>take it back". If they order it for me, then I have to pay for it. I know what you mean.... --- QMPro 1.52 No, I'm not an elitist. Why do you ask, peasant? * Origin: FidoNet GC-BBS! 614-871-0613 (1:226/810) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 269 DELPHI Ref: E4400005 Date: 04/03/97 From: TREV ROYDHOUSE Time: 3:33 am \/To: BART BROERSMA (Read 1 times) Subj: Re: TMemo 32K boundary > A TMemo componet is supposte to have a 32K size limit [...] > However it is possible to type text in a Memo >>> 32K > _AND_ save it to file [...] > I think this is a little odd, especially if you > consider the Exception that is raised (and handled by the > TMemo component) if you try to load a > 32K file . . . 32k is the "reliable" limit. I have in fact loaded 40k into a TMemo, but not reliably on different PCs. It seems to depend on both memory and resource utilisation under Win 3.1. TREV. --- QM v1.30 * Origin: Sentry -- Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (3:711/401.0)