Dimensional Data

For programmers, building and testing their codes could be a tedious and repetitive process. If done manually, this task could result in boredom and it will surely affect their overall productivity. This is where automation comes into play. In this new TCoffee and Code session Jim McKeeth and guests discuss the advantages and disadvantages of automated processes and how they can effectively improve productivity and modernize the workflow. Joining McKeeth is Wagner Landgraf of TMS Software and Glenn Dufke of GlennKonnekt. Here, they share their thoughts on why is it important to automate and what are things should go on with automation. Generally, automation’s core function is to help programmers save time and money. Instead of dealing with the same tasks during windows application development or when building or testing codes, automation will bypass the manual process and will help programmers code faster and easier. The team also discuss Automation Theory as well as the tools you can use to apply automation. Other noteworthy topics from this discussion include automated testing, automated deployment, model-driven development, artificial intelligence, and more. They also address various automation-related queries from their followers. If you wish to know more about automation, workflows, and modernization, feel free to join this great team of developers and learn more.   

Whether you are working on a big or small project, it is important to know that your codes are running properly. You have to make sure that the software runs smoothly and is free from bugs and if there are bugs, you should know how to fix them. This is where Test Driven Development comes into play. In this TCoffee and Code session, Stephen Ball is joined by Jens Fudge to discuss everything about Test Driven development and its huge role in windows program development especially in Delphi. What is the importance of Test-Driven development? Interestingly, Test-Driven development is a common method or style in programming where the developers intentionally write a unit test and make sure that the test fails. After passing the test, the developer will refactor the code to make it more maintainable. Test-driven development or simply TDD plays a crucial role, especially when working with new projects. If you are going to add new codes, change or add new features into your existing codebase, TDD allows you to find bugs quicker. Learn about the advantages of Unit Testing The session also highlights the notable pros and cons of writing a unit test. While unit testing allows you to discover bugs quicker, it may also cost you time writing it especially if you’re new to it.  According to Fudge, it really does take time to learn about unit testing just as it takes time to learn about programming. They also discuss the differences between NUnit and XUnit testing frameworks as well as other mocking and testing frameworks like Spring4D and Beyond Compare. Jens Fudge also gives us a quick demo on how to get started with unit testing. To learn more about TDD, feel free to watch the superb 1 hour TCoffee and Code session below.

In continuation of a recent TCoffee and Code Session where Jim McKeeth, Marco Cantu, and Stephen Ball discussed the future of IoT and Data, here comes another equally meaningful discussion that provides us with more in-depth details about the Internet of Things. Joining Mckeeth are his fellow Embarcadero MVPs Ian Barker and Miguel Moreno to enlighten us more with IoT, its fascinating history, structure, and its future. What is TCoffeeAndCode? TCoffeeAndCode is a weekly webinar series where a group of experienced developers and experts gather together for an informative and lively discussion about a particular tech related subject. Rather than a formal presentation TCofeeAndCode is aimed at being a light-hearted and very interactive chat – and the audience are very much encouraged to join in with questions related to various topics ranging from windows development to Delphi tools which the team will try to discuss and answer. If you want to register for the hugely popular TCoffeeAndCode series then please click on the following link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2291075882684532496 The discussions are also streamed live on Embarcadero’s official YouTube channel which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/c/EmbarcaderoTechnologies The Evolution of the Internet of Things The discussion highlights the evolution of the Internet of Things and how it rapidly evolves from simple embedded systems in single-function devices like microwave ovens to the most advanced technology algorithm applied to modern devices including Smart TVs. You will also learn that the first-ever IoT machine was a Coca-Cola vending machine in 1982 and it was not even developed by Coca-Cola but by the university in Pennsylvania. IoT Standards and Protocols The team will also walk us through the standard IoT protocols and how they play a crucial role in IoT technology. Without these data and network protocols, the hardware would be rendered useless as these protocols enable the devices to exchange data in a structured and meaningful way. Everything About IoT Aside from the main discussion, they also entertain various questions from their followers. They also address the importance of encryption when it comes to IoT development. Miguel Moreno also walks us through a real-life IoT application where he will demonstrate how a simple microcontroller works with IoT.

Ian Barker is back in another TCoffee and Code session. Joining him in this virtual conversation are his fellow Embarcadero MVPs like Holger Flick (FlixEngineering), Olaf Monien, Malcolm Groves, and Jim McKeeth to discuss everything about Dockers, Containers, and other similar platforms. In this video, they provide a comprehensive comparison between Virtual Machines and Containers as well as those common misconceptions about the two. What is the difference between Containers and Virtual Machines? Containerization allows developers to create and deploy applications faster and more securely compared to traditional methods. Virtual machines, on the other hand, are defined as an abstraction of physical hardware turning one server into many servers. While these are two different platforms, both Container and Virtual machines can work together to provide a great deal of flexibility in windows program development. The team will also answer various queries from their webinar attendees during the entire course of this 2-hour-long TCoffee and Code Session. How can you choose between Linux, Windows and other platforms when using containers? In this video, they will discuss which operating system is better when it comes to docker engine ~ Linus or Windows? Here, they will provide their thoughts about their personal preferences and will also highlight other platforms like HHVM, Facebook’s HipHop Virtual Machine, Vagrant, and many others. They also discuss the pros and cons of using Kubernetes, which is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, as well as the right docker engine for various applications (Web, GUI, and Database). If you want to know more about Dockers and Containers, feel free to watch this TCoffee and Code Session below.

Now that Windows 11 will shortly be available to everyone, a vast number of changes are expected to happen after the massive upgrade. While Windows 10 is already taking advantage of the recent versions of ARM to speed up the emulation on the device, the upcoming update of Windows and the introduction of ARM64EC will bring a great number of benefits to the developers and will surely bring tons of changes to windows application development. In this TCoffee and Code session, Jim McKeeth will be joined by Olaf Monien will discuss everything about Windows 11 and macOS on ARM. They will explore these features using the newest version of Delphi (10.4.2 Delphi Sydney). ARM vs Intel X86: Which is Better? This 2-hour long virtual coffee conversation will highlight everything about the new Windows 11 update and what it means for Windows on ARM. The two will discuss and provide a comparison between Intel x86 and ARM and will share their thoughts on which of the two aforementioned architectures is better. ARM is the CPU architecture used by all modern smartphones in both the Android and Apple ecosystems today and is considered to be more energy-efficient than Intel. Do you want to learn about Intel Architectures? The discussion will also highlight not just the major differences between ARM and Intel but will also provide focus to four Intel architectures such as Intel X86, 64 Bit, RISC-V, and Itanium. They will also provide a comparison between the two implementations of RISC – ARM, and RISC-V and which one is more flexible. Here, we will also learn how advantageous the new Windows 11 update is to the developers. To top it all, we will also get a chance to witness a live demo as the two explore Windows 11 on ARM. We will also get to see how it runs smoothly on InterBase and FireMonkey. To learn more about ARM on desktop (Windows and macOS), feel free to join McKeeth and Monien in this video below.

TCoffee and Code is an informal virtual meeting series on YouTube launched by Embarcadero Technologies in response to the current pandemic situation. Now that everyone is embracing the work-from-home environment, some of the Embarcadero MVPs will utilize the YouTube platform to provide you with online webinars, tutorials, and online discussions about the latest and the most in-demand topics in the industry today. What are the latest Industry Trends today? For the very first TCoffee and Code session, Stephen Ball was joined by Marco Cantu to discuss all the latest trends in the industry today including those new windows tools for developers. This one-hour-long virtual meeting will highlight both the latest Windows and Mobile trends that are seemingly shaping up the industry. One of which is the recently introduced Microsoft Project Reunion that provides a vast of changes to the Windows App development platform by introducing new components and tools that is considered to be the largest change since WinRT and UWP were originally introduced with Windows 8 What are the latest mobile trends? Aside from the Windows 10 Trends, this virtual coffee meeting also discusses some of the latest mobile trends. Some of the highlighted topics include the leading Native App Platform for mobile app development as well as the rising new cross-platform like Flutter (Google’s UI toolkit for crafting beautiful, natively compiled applications for mobile, desktop, and web). They also discuss the advantage of using the FMX technology and how some of its features are absolutely ahead of some of the trends today. Marco Cantu and Stephen Ball share insights about the future of RAD studio and things we should expect soon. To learn more about the latest industry trends, feel free to watch this video below.

TCoffee and Code is a webinar series on YouTube launched by Embarcadero Technologies. It’s an informal live conversation between a group of developers and experts discussing various topics related to programming and more. In this session, Stephen Ball was joined by his fellow Embarcadero MVPs David Millington, David Hoyle, and Dave Nottage to discuss everything about the Open API tools and the advantages of using them in windows application development. What is the Open Tools API? Open Tools API or OTA is a set of interfaces that allow developers to add features to the BDS, Delphi, and C++Builder IDEs.These additional features are called wizards that can use the OTA interfaces to modify the IDE, obtain information about the IDE’s state, and receive notification of important events. The discussion also highlights the things you can do with Open Tools API including the ability to add wizards to a new project, add new dockable windows, add options dialog pages and more. Why “ask the Davids”? Part of this one-hour-long webinar is a short demo of how the Open Tools API works. They also provide various OTA samples. Just like most TCoffee and Code sessions, there was also a Q and A section which allowed attendees to ask all the three guest “Davids” in this session. The Davids address all the Open Tools API questions that you should definitely not miss. To learn more about Open Tools API, feel free to watch the video below and make sure to follow the Embarcadero Technologies channel for more TCoffee and Code sessions.

Delphi is a software product that uses the Delphi dialect of the Object Pascal programming language and provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid application development of desktop, mobile, web, and console software, currently developed and maintained by Embarcadero Technologies. Delphi is known for its fast compilation speed, native code, and developer productivity. Borland originally developed Delphi as a rapid application development tool for Windows as the successor of Turbo Pascal. In this article, we will go over everything you need to know about modernizing Delphi apps and look at some of the most important points mentioned by senior Embarcadero members that you should keep in mind when modernizing UI Delphi apps with the Windows UI toolkit. How to upgrade Third-Party components? First of all, you should ask yourself which third-party libraries and components are you using with your legacy Delphi or C++ builder project? Having the source code for these components makes it easier because you can just take that existing source code, drop it into the current version of Delphi builder and rebuild it. Now you have a library that will work with the current  Delphi/C++ builder that you want. Any third-party libraries or components that do not have this source code still need the upgraded version for the current Delphi / C++ build you are using. There is a good chance that some, if not all of your third-party libraries and components can be found on the GetIt Package Manager. You can search and install directly into the Delphi or C builder. This saves you a lot of time and effort trying to find a version of these third-party libraries of components compatible with the current version of Delphi. Should you update your app to use Unicode? A lot of people believe that updating their apps to Unicode is a lot harder than it is. You need to ask yourself if your application needs Unicode, or can it live as an English-only application? If your existing code only uses ‘single-byte’ (English standard alphanumeric characters and punctuation) and you do not need to support Unicode characters in your code, then you might be able to get away with avoiding Unicode altogether. It is a perfectly valid technique to use instead of string or Unicode string. There is a wonderful utility called the Unicode Statistics Tool, also known as The Parser Executable. It returns some objective measures on the likely complexity of your Unicode migration. The good news is that the compiler is smart enough to tell you where and if any Unicode changes need to occur. The Unicode migration has always been a lot easier than folks think it will be. The good thing is that after you go through the process of Unicode migration, your code will now allow you to now distribute that application to larger markets for supporting Unicode character and Unicode strings. It also makes upgrading between future versions of Delphi a lot easier. Do you have the latest database technology? You should seriously consider moving away from the BDE (Borland Database Engine). Yes, it was extremely popular for many years but it has also been LONG deprecated by Embarcadero and has not been actively upgraded for the last 15 years. The BDE cannot support Unicode and will never have 64-bit support. So […]

Our everyday life involves interaction with all kinds of different technologies. Some of these are at their pinnacle, the best versions that could ever come. Some technologies, on the other hand, are continually upgraded and made better. We get to see exciting new developments in such technologies every year or so, even more frequently in some cases. When it comes to computer technology, both hardware and software are constantly being improved. Users can choose to have machines with the latest specifications, or they could opt for older ones. More robust processors, bigger memories, and better displays and input devices are some of the kinds of upgrades we see in laptops and smart devices. One of the most significant upgrades users can adopt for personal computing devices is switching from a 32-bit architecture to a 64-bit architecture. A 64-bit machine can enable the machine to achieve far more than a 32-bit one in terms of productivity and performance. As a user can always make this switch, native windows development applications make it easy to develop for 64-bit and 32-bit architecture alike. This article dives into understanding the conversation around 32-bit and 64-bit architecture and why switching to the latter is beneficial. What does 32-Bit/64-Bit mean? Before talking about the benefits that the switch in architecture would bring you, it is necessary to be on the same page about what exactly is a 32-bit or a 64-bit machine. Referring to the bytes of data a particular processor can access, the number in the name is an exponent to 2 because computers only understand binary. A 32-bit processor can access only 232 bytes of memory while a 64-bit one can access 264 bytes. Having a processing power equivalent to more than 4 billion 32-bit processors combined, a 64-bit processor can evidently handle applications intended for a 32-bit machine. However, vice versa is not possible as a 32-bit won’t deal with 64-bit applications. While 32-bit processors came in handy when the most RAM any personal computer had was 4 GB, 64-bit processors were rolled out to accommodate RAM greater than 4 GB.   With 32-bit machines being upgraded to 64-bit, developers started worrying about migrating the codebase for their applications to 64-bit. However, development products like Delphi made it easy to achieve this task and encouraged developers to offer both versions for users to choose from. What are the benefits of going from 32-Bit To 64-Bit? Having understood what 32-bit and 64-bit allude to, you may ask the question of whether it is desirable to upgrade your machine. While it may depend on factors like the general nature of work and resources, the upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit is most often encouraged. Some of the main advantages of opting for a 64-bit architecture are discussed below: More Processing Power Possessing much more processing power than its 32-bit counterpart, 64-bit processors can handle much more complex computations. They are the right choice if your work involves complicated calculations. Examples of applications that require such computations include spreadsheets, media processing, and development applications like Delphi. 64-bit processors handle graphics processing much better as well, necessary for a better gaming experience. Apart from laptops and PCs, smartphones and tablets have also started using 64-bit architecture for high processing capabilities. Apple’s iPhone 5s was the first smartphone with a […]

Wouldn’t it be nice to know where your customers access your website from and customize user experiences based on IP?! ipstack offers a powerful, real-time IP to geolocation API capable of looking up accurate location data and assessing security threats originating from risky IP addresses. Results are delivered within milliseconds in JSON or XML format. Using the ipstack API you will be able to locate website visitors at first glance and adjust your user experience and application accordingly. In this article, we will see how fast and easy it is to use windows app development toolsto create a Firemonkey multi-device application using the LowCode Wizard in addition to a REST client library to take advantage of ipStack API and retrieve a JSON format response for IP to geolocation in real-time. ipstack API has years of partnership with large ISPs ensure accurate and consistent data any day of the year and covers over 2 million unique locations in more than 200.000 cities around the world. Our RAD Studio and Delphi applications will be able to call the API and request information based on the name of parameters you provide. How do I set up the IpStack API? Make sure you refer to IpStack API website (https://IpStack.com/) and and SignUp for the free Plan providing only your email and some basic information (no credit card required). Once you are in the website will redirect you to a Quickstart guide dashboard and your API Access Key will be provided. The Access Key unique, personal and is required to authenticate with the API. Keep it safe! How do I call IpStack API endpoints? Now all we need to do is to call the API base URL (http://api.ipStack.com/) via a HTTP POST method with no JSON request body needed and some few requested parameters added to the URL address depending on the ednpoint we choose to call. One can do that using REST Client libraries available on several programming languages. ipStack offers two API endpoints to choose from: Standard Lookup: Look up the data behind an IP address. Bulk Lookup: Look up the data behind multiple IP addresses at once. Requester Lookup: Look up the data behind the IP address your API request is coming from. Our demo will focus on the Standard Lookup endpoint but all the others follow similar logic but with different parameters passed. For a complete and detailed list of endpoints and its parameters make sure you refer to IpStack Quickstart guide (https://ipStack.com/quickstart) // Standard IP Lookup – look up the data behind an IP addresshttp://api.ipstack.com/134.201.250.155? access_key = YOUR_ACCESS_KEY// optional parameters:& fields = ip,location,security& hostname = 1& security = 1& language = en& callback = MY_CALLBACK& output = json// more parameters available please refer to the API Documentation (https://ipStack.com/documentation) What does the IpStack API endpoint return? After the call the main results will be as shown below. {“ip”:”35.208.128.246″,”type”:”ipv4″,”continent_code”:”NA”,”continent_name”:”North America”,”country_code”:”US”,”country_name”:”United States”,”region_code”:”IA”,”region_name”:”Iowa”,”city”:”Council Bluffs”,”zip”:”51501″,”latitude”:41.23295974731445,”longitude”:-95.87735748291016,”location”:{“geoname_id”:4852832,”capital”:”Washington D.C.”,”languages”:[{“code”:”en”,”name”:”English”,”native”:”English”}],”country_flag”:”https://assets.ipstack.com/flags/us.svg”,”country_flag_emoji”:” “,”country_flag_emoji_unicode”:”U+1F1FA U+1F1F8″,”calling_code”:”1″,”is_eu”:false}} How do I connect my applications to IpStack API? Once you have followed basic steps to set up the IpStack API we need to make sure we are able to connect and communicate with it before we start writing some code. RAD Studio Delphi and C++Builder make it very easy to connect to APIs as you can you REST Debugger to automatically create the REST components and […]