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3 Trends You May Have Missed About Windows App Development

Delphi

In a recent survey of 65 000 developers, StackOverflow finds that Windows is still the most used application development platform. This, in part, is because Windows app development meets the four requirements users must consider before choosing a platform — reach, simplicity, speed, and future proof. This is quite reiterated in Microsoft’s Windows 11 launch publicity which focuses a lot on developers. If anything, this new version of Windows shows the direction of the development platform for the next several years. With innovative features like the new Microsoft Store, new distribution methods, WinUI3 controls, the Windows app SDK, etc., Microsoft is affirming its position as a dominant operating system.  With that being said, every software developer knows the importance of staying abreast of the latest industry trends. From rapid application development to low code solutions, application development trends change as fast as technology. To stay current, not only do you need to consider new platform features, but you must also pay attention to trends that can increase developer productivity.  This article discusses 7 trends in Windows program development you may have overlooked. Is visual development making a come-back?   Visual application development can be said to have originated as far back as the 1960s and 70s when developers sought improvements on typing numerous lines of code into a terminal window. Early on, the term Visual programming was often associated with Visual Basic, an IDE launched by Microsoft in 1991. This tool allowed users to develop applications by dragging and dropping code blocks and flowcharts. Borland then took the development world by storm with their launch of Delphi in 1995. With a similar “draw the user interface with a WYSIWYG interface but with a vastly superior experience due to Delphi’s ability to compile code natively – with a blindingly-fast compiler – with no dependencies which had plagued Visual Basic it quickly became the development IDE of choice for all sorts of developer scenarios ranging from small indie developers to large, sprawling blue-chip corporates where the reliability of Delphi apps which ‘just worked’ and kept on working made an awful lot of sense. In our fast-paced economy, developers are under increasing pressure to meet business needs. Demand to deploy new solutions faster, demand to deliver innovative and exciting features and a number of other competing requirements. Sometimes these expectations are unrealistic, but such has become the norm for developers today. Add to that the might of marketing muscles from organizations who were able to wield large advertising budgets to push and pull developer opinions things headed into all sorts of directions, not all of which were the best for the developer.  While there may be development methods that claim to speed up Windows program development, none quite does it, like visual development. Hence, we’re seeing developers move towards tools that enable them to incorporate visual development. One such tool is the Delphi IDE.  RAD Studio IDE, Embarcadero’s modern evolution of Borland’s phenomenally successful Delphi continues to pave the way for innovative Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), with what is surely the most advanced visual development toolset, an extensive array of unique features, shortcuts, and capabilities to improve development productivity significantly.  Is rapid application development coming back in fashion?  In 1991, James Martin, in his book, Applications Development Without Programmers, coined the term Rapid application […]

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How To Use Cross-Platform Programming Languages: Expectations vs Reality

Delphi

Cross-Platform languages are not something new. For more than two decades, cross-platform development has been with us, but each programming language and technology evolved differently, adopted different architecture, and offered even more choices to consider.  Today we are going to talk about different cross-platform programming languages, why they are good and what are their disadvantages and, through this learn how to choose and use the right cross-platform programming language and frameworks. What computer languages are available for cross-platform programming? Most programming languages provide at least some form of cross-platform development. By this we mean that with one codebase – the program’s source code – you can target most major operating system and device platforms. They have their specific UI framework and architecture that can or cannot directly utilize hardware features and platform-specific functionalities. Here are the top cross-platform programming languages C++ Java Delphi C# JavaScript Dart It is not easy to compare these languages, but they all have great features and problems. For instance,  Java has a huge third party library pool with a high number of users but requires its Java Runtime Machine. JavaScript is everywhere but not secure & efficient as compiled languages. Microsoft’s C# has evolved so much, but its cross-platform frameworks are not the happiest. Dart with Flutter is getting attention because of its widget powered UI solutions for developing client-optimized apps. Still, it lacks third-party libraries and has problems with iOS development and is not an excellent choice for building server-side apps. C++ is a great choice, but it requires higher knowledge and practice about the ecosystem to develop apps fast. Delphi provides the fastest time to market option with high productivity when creating cross-platform native applications but has low open-source projects.  How to choose a cross-platform programming language? If you can efficiently utilise hardware components and system-specific features, that is a good sign, like accessing the camera, gyroscope, or OS-specific features.  Cross-Platform is one of the ongoing arguments in the software development industry. It is also noteworthy that Native and Cross-platform development is continuously evolving. While Native app development goes with a much more complex process, it stays true to the target platform, namely Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS or Android. To point out that these languages utilise a framework for building cross-platform responsive user interfaces and provide interfaces where you can use system provided APIs through them. Applications built with these frameworks should behave like native apps; if it does not, it breaks the user experience, leading to the decline of users from your product. For instance, applications built with web-powered components lack several ways that kill the native features, and it gets even hard to work with device hardware. What is currently happening in cross-platform development? Mobile market share is enormous, and most cross-platform languages target iOS and Android with their frameworks. Moreover, web apps can also do the job of a mobile app using technology like progressive web apps (PWA), which are web apps that act like a native apps albeit with some disadvantages such poor battery life and an inability to access many of the device’s hardware features.  One of the latest frameworks for building cross-platform applications is the MAUI framework by Microsoft. It is a .NET Multi-platform App UI framework for building applications with C# and XAML. It is the […]

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DevOps careers: SRE, engineer and platform engineer

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Even if you’re totally happy in your current position, it pays to keep an eye on your DevOps career path and learn about emerging roles, especially given the way the DevOps space evolves so rapidly. For example, you might be wondering about the role of site reliability engineer (SRE) as opposed to DevOps engineer (and the totally new position called DevOps platform engineer, more on that later). These are all engineering positions requiring tech expertise and coding chops, but they play distinct roles on the DevOps team. Here’s what you need to know: SRE: a seasoned role As the title suggests, at a high level, SREs focus primarily on reliability, solving operational, scale, and uptime problems. In 2003, Google originated the SRE role to safeguard the uptime of its site, but it has evolved considerably since the advent of cloud-native applications and platforms. Today, SREs concentrate on minimizing the frequency and impact of failures that can impact the overall reliability of a cloud application. According to Glassdoor, SREs typically require a Bachelor’s or graduate engineering or computer science degree. Salaries range widely, according to Glassdoor, hitting about $120,000 after 2 to 4 years of experience but can reach up to $300,000 and higher at the senior level. At least 1 blogger feels the SRE title carries more prestige and earning potential than DevOps engineers. Typical SRE responsibilities include everything from designing, developing, installing, and maintaining software solutions to working with engineering teams to refine deployment and release processes. Collaboration and communication are important job skills for the SRE role, as they need to work closely with multiple roles across the organization. At this writing, there were 4,000 SRE jobs on Glassdoor. Indeed had more than 5,000 SRE postings and ZipRecruiter showed nearly 12,000 posts for remote SRE jobs. Python, Go and Java were the most sought-after SRE skills listed on Indeed. According to Indeed, SREs transition to “DevOps engineer” at a high rate. DevOps engineers bridge the gap DevOps engineers, on the other hand, concentrate on removing obstacles to production and automation and making development and IT work well together. Like SREs, DevOps engineers need to be good at working and communicating with others, eliminating barriers to increase speed and quality of code delivery. With typically less need to be on call, the DevOps engineer may have a more favorable work-life balance than an SRE, who can have around-the-clock call. DevOps engineer work responsibilities include such things as analysis of technology utilized within the company and then developing steps and processes to improve and expand upon them. Project management is another key function, establishing milestones for departmental contributions and establishing processes to facilitate collaboration. The educational requirements for the two roles are comparable, with a Bachelor’s degree in computer science or engineering or higher the usual price of admission. According to Glassdoor, the salary range for DevOps engineers is slightly lower than that of SREs, from a low of about $63,000 up to a high of $234,000 for someone with 2 to 4 years of experience. DevOps engineer positions are easier to find than SREss. Glassdoor has more than 6,000 DevOps engineer job posts. Indeed has more than 17,000. And ZipRecruiter has more than 81,000 remote DevOps engineer listings. New to the game Cloud native development and the desire to […]

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These 3 Tools Provide Powerful Solutions For Web Development

Delphi, Noutați

In this video, we will learn not just one but THREE powerful solutions for web development in Delphi. The webinar will highlight three popular frameworks that represent three different ways of coming at developing for the web. These include TMS Webcore, IntraWeb, and DelphiMVCFramework. While Delphi already comes with powerful tools for web development, these popular frameworks can help you build more compelling web applications that deliver both the functionality and performance that once required native windows development. Joining this webinar are Dr. Holger Flick of TMS Software, Jackson Gomes of Atozed Software (IntraWeb), and Daniele Teti of bit Time Professionals (DelphiMVCFramework) to explain their respective products. TMS WEB Core is a cross platform solution for web development using Delphi TMS WEB Core is a web development tool that allows you to create web client applications from Delphi using RAD development methodology and a component-based framework. In this video, Dr. Holger Flick will introduce us to the framework and how to employ Delphi in web applications. He will also highlight some of the powerful and easy-to-use features of TMS Web core that allow you to build web applications surprisingly easy and fast. IntraWeb allows programmers to produce web apps using Delphi Jackson Gomes will discuss the advantages of using IntraWeb in Delphi. He described IntraWeb as the VCL equivalent for the web. It is an equally powerful framework for building web apps in Delphi with the goal to close the gap between Delphi developers and web development. The video will also demonstrate some of IntraWeb’s new features including HTTP.sys, IWreCaptcha Component, Intraweb Certicifate managers, and as well as the things we can expect from their upcoming IntraWeb 17 edition. Do you know how the DelphiMVCFramework can help your web app development? The DelphiMVC Framework is mainly designed to be a powerful and easy-to-use Open-source framework for web solutions. According to Daniele Teti, the framework is currently the most popular Delphi library on GitHub today. Interestingly, this framework supports RESTful and JSON-RPC APIs development. In this video, Daniele will briefly show how to create some kind of APIs in Delphi using DMVCFramework. While these frameworks are all designed for web development, each of them is distinct in its own way and you just have to find the right framework that provides the web development solution that you need. To learn more about these powerful web frameworks, feel free to watch the webinar below.    

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4 creators who will inspire you to invest in our planet

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Gazooky Studios recently launched Muster, a meta playground for team learning and development. Muster replaces traditional carbon intensive company offsites with richly immersive multiplayer experiences that foster team building without the environmental footprint. The project was created after CEO of Muster, Tim Lambert, calculated that his 2019 company travel to Poland added up to an equivalent of 1,431,000 lbs of CO2. This trip sparked a question for Lambert: could there be a better way for clients to access learning and development services but still meet sustainability targets? Rosemary Kay, CEO of Gazooky Studios, believes that Muster has the potential to make a massive difference. “Our platform has an emissions calculator which displays the total amount of avoided CO2 for a given event. Team members simply input their location and the platform does the rest. The immediate data visualization of avoided emissions can spark an interesting and positive conversation among team members, who can see the benefit of choosing a remote learning and development platform before the fun has even begun. Companies can also use this data in their ESG reporting. Shifting an entire workforce to this sort of model would have a huge impact on both a company’s bottom line and their ability to reduce GHG emissions.” Muster uses Unity to build their 3D environments and avatars, and Kay shared the benefits of using such a “plug and play” tool for development. “Our 3D avatars and environments are what allow us to design such engaging games, which in turn drives our core value.” Learn more about Muster’s mission

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Try out our battle pass sample using Unity Gaming Services Use Cases

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For live games, especially multiplayer ones, the server should be the source of truth for most of the players’ data.  This prevents cheating tactics which may allow a player to have an advantage over another, or grant a player items or currencies that would otherwise need to be purchased or earned.  Similarly, in order for seasonal rewards or battle passes to be fair for all players, all data and decisions need to be managed server-side.  In the design of this battle pass sample, Cloud Code (beta) service does most of the heavy lifting in terms of handling the backend infrastructure. Cloud Code allows you to write and run your game logic away from the client. Other tools used in this sample include Cloud Save (beta), which allows you to store player data to the cloud. In this case, it allows the player’s season progress to be stored in a flat key-value system. A battle pass ownership flag for the current season is also stored with Cloud Save. Game Overrides (powered by Remote Config), which lets you create personalized in-game player experiences to determine the content of the current season and battle pass tiers. All of the tier rewards in the battle pass are either currencies or inventory items, which are all managed through Economy (beta). There is also one Purchase set up in Economy for exchanging gems for a battle pass. As with any game where player data is managed by an online back-end, each player will need to sign in to the game. For this, we’re using Authentication (beta). Once the user is signed in, all Unity Gaming Services SDKs will automatically know to send the player’s unique ID with every server request. Here’s how the sample works:  Seasonal reward configuration data is sent from Game Overrides to the client, and is also available in Cloud Code (read only). The game client will use this data to determine the UI. Cloud Code will use this data to determine which rewards to grant a player that claims a valid reward tier. Cloud Save is used to track the player’s progress through the reward tiers. The player will have an array of mutually exclusive tier states with three possible values: Locked, Unlocked, or Claimed. Cloud Save also stores a value indicating whether the player has purchased the battle pass for the current season.

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Unity and Meta Immersive Learning partner to expand VR education and inspire creators

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Immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are transforming how people work, socialize, play, and learn. More and more, schools and educators are recognizing the power of these tools to reimagine learning and inspire students to be creators – not just consumers – in the metaverse. The market for extended reality (XR) is expanding, as is the demand for talent to create these immersive digital experiences. According to Burning Glass, AR jobs are projected to grow 172% and VR jobs are projected to grow 170% globally in the next 10 years. As the XR job market broadens, schools find themselves in the position of needing to prepare the future workforce. Even though many schools have rapidly adopted XR technology, enabling their students to create and learn in new ways, equity gaps are growing, too. Most schools, especially those serving underrepresented and low-income communities, still experience barriers to accessing the promise of XR, with cost and readiness being the most prevalent factors. To address this, Unity Social Impact and Meta Immersive Learning have partnered to increase access to AR/VR hardware, high-quality educational content, and resources to prepare educators to teach.  We are excited to partner with Meta Immersive Learning on our shared goals to propel immersive learning and diversify the XR creator workforce. The Create with VR Grant and Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant – two core components of the partnership – will increase access to hardware and software, provide training and preparation for educators, and support educational institutions in creating immersive learning experiences. “At Unity, we believe the world is a better place with more creators in it. This partnership brings that belief to life by ensuring education is accessible to all, regardless of zip code. Every student should have the opportunity to achieve their full potential,” says Jessica Lindl, vice president of social impact at Unity. “As we all know, there has been a major shift not only in the global labor market but also in how we work. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to connect young people with the skills needed for future jobs, as these help chart a clear path from learning to earning opportunities.” John Cantarella, vice president of community and impact partnerships at Meta, says, “As part of our commitment to support the next generation of creators through the Meta Immersive Learning initiative, we’re excited to partner with Unity, a trusted and innovative name in the XR industry. Together, we can empower aspiring creators to learn and grow in the metaverse – removing barriers to immersive technologies and unlocking new opportunities.”

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Compiling TMS WEB Core Projects with the DCC

TMS Software

1. Introduction TMS WEB Core is a framework that allows the user to write JavaScript applications with the Pascal language. Therefore the Pascal code is transpiled to JavaScript. TMS WEB Core supports the three IDEs Embarcadero RAD Studio with Delphi, Microsoft Visual Studio Code and Lazarus. This article is primarily concerned with the Delphi IDE and shows how to use hidden features to accelerate the work with the IDE. 2. Pas2JS Transpiler TMS WEB Core uses the Pas2JS transpiler in order to convert the Pascal code to JavaScript. In the following the transpiler is abbreviated with Pas2JS. Pas2JS is basically compatible with the Delphi language, but there are exceptions. Because of these exceptions the Delphi IDE sometimes does not work correctly with some basic features like Code Insight. 2.1. Code Insight Code Insight is a feature of the Delphi IDE that helps the user to write his code faster. Code Insight includes Code Completion, Parameter Completion, Code Hints, Tooltip Expression, Tooltip Insight, Go To Definition, Block Completion, Class Completion and Error Insight. It can only work if the current project is a Pascal project that can be compiled with the Delphi Compiler. 2.2. Delphi Compiler The Delphi Compiler is the so called DCC (Delphi Commandline Compiler) which normally compiles Delphi projects. In case of a TMS WEB Core project things are different. A TMS WEB Core project is compiled with Pas2JS, not with the DCC. This behavior has consequences for Code Insight, which only works for projects that can be and are compiled with the DCC. 2.3. Compiling WEB Core projects with the DCC TMS WEB Core has a wonderful hidden feature that allows the user to compile WEB Core projects additionally with the DCC. This feature can be enabled in ToolsOptionsTMS WEBOptions. If Show the DCC button is set to True a tool button will appear in the tool bar, which allows to toggle between the DCC and Pas2JS. Here, Pas2JS is enabled. A compiled project looks like the following: And here the DCC is enabled: If the project is compiled with the DCC, code completion looks like this: 2.4. Compilation Speed Since the DCC is one of the fastest compilers in the world, it compiles much faster than Pas2JS. Hence it is a good practice to compile a WEB Core project with the DCC during coding. The user can always check with a click on Ctrl+F9 whether his code is compilable. 3. Special Language Features Pas2JS introduces a few special language features that cannot be compiled directly with the DCC. In the following it will be shown how they can be written in a DCC compatible way. 3.1. ASM Pas2JS allows to write plain JavaScript in so called “ASM blocks”. Here is an example: class function TIntegerHelper.ToString(const AValue: Integer): string; assembler;asm  return AValue.toString();end; With the help of the internal compiler defines WEBLIB and PAS2JS you can write this code in the following way: class function TIntegerHelper.ToString(const AValue: Integer): string;begin{$IFDEF WEBLIB}  asm    return AValue.toString();  end;{$ELSE}  Result := IntToStr(AValue);{$ENDIF}end; This code now compiles and works with the DCC and Pas2JS. 3.2. WEBLib.Utils The counterpart of many utility functions from Delphi’s System.SysUtils unit are currently defined in the Pas2JS unit WEBLib.Utils. With the upcoming version 2.2 of Pas2JS they will be moved to SysUtils. That is why it is currently […]

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20 Fun Facts About The Best Low Code Platforms

Delphi

Businesses are growing, and new challenges are rising. On the other hand, there is pressure to reduce costs by automating the tasks. The best solution is to lean on custom applications, but it takes a lot of time and is not affordable for most businesses. But do not make up your final decision about this trend. Here we present you collections of facts and information about the best low code platforms where you can grasp a new level of information about them. Solving today’s challenges means working smarter, not harder This ever-changing digital world has new ideas and practices every day, and with increasing demand for IT, businesses are required to take their things to the next level with these innovations. But it takes lots of engineering hours and overwork. Companies are overwhelmed with different software and application requirements and getting hard to fulfil all the software necessities. This is where low-code or no-code app development comes the saving. The learning curve of low code development tools is modest. Because of this, we see all these trends around no-code development tools for creating data-oriented apps or e-commerce web apps. These more rigid solutions provide a set of blocks to create a package out of it with quite limited customization options. This has both pros and cons. Software engineers can spend most of their time creating business-critical solutions for further automation when it comes to benefits. On the other hand, by entirely relying on these pre-packaged low-code tools, you might not get the results you expect, or run into intractable issues when you need something with more customization or is incapable of scaling-up like as your needs grow. Picking the right low-code solution is as important to efficiency and future growth as is recognizing that low-code is the smart choice for you to make in the first place. What is the future of the Low-Code Market? Business insiders are talking about the future of the low-code market. According to [Gartner], by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of all application development activity. For instance, most online shops and e-commerce websites are built with low-code development tools. The lower level of technical knowledge required to out together an online commerce solution using low-code techniques has revolutionized e-commerce site creation. Until the arrival of this kind of low-code solution website owners required assistance from web developers with very specific – and expensive – development skills in order to create their online shopping solutions. Now it’s arguable that a business owner possessed of only a modest technical knowledge can create a reliable and relatively secure online shopping destination. This booming industry will probably generate revenue of more than $185 billion by 2030, climbing from $10 billion in 2019 and envisioned to progress quickly. [GlobeNewswire] Of course, low-code platforms do not fill up the software developer gap but can make things better by giving flexibility for business owners to start their business online. If you really have a significant user audience, maybe you can create more customized and scalable products with the best development tools like RAD Studio. What is RAD Studio? RAD Studio is one of the best developer ecosystems. You can use Delphi and C++ with FireMonkey or VCL frameworks to create cross-platform and native applications for Android, […]

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UI Toolkit at runtime: Get the breakdown

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Let’s clarify how UI Toolkit can ensure smoother workflows while creating UI.  Creating UI in collaboration with artists can be a complex task. While the artist is editing the Canvas to add colors and material, the developer adds scripts, behaviors, and OnClick listeners. Afterward, when merging occurs, merge conflicts can arise and lead to issues that require swift resolution. UI Toolkit prevents such merge conflicts by having the artist work on the UXML and USS files while C# handles all of the logic. For example, button handling is done with C# only, which queries the button using its name, and adds logic without editing any UXML or USS files. Not only does this process ease merging, it simplifies future style changes. For instance, if all project fonts suddenly had to be changed, you wouldn’t need to go through each asset, one by one, to edit the text settings. This avoids tedious work that can lead to oversight issues – and the bigger the game, the more complicated this becomes. With UI Toolkit, Panel Settings hold all of the text settings. So to change the fonts under a UI Document, you only need to edit those Panel Settings. Although Editor scripts can similarly assist with UGUI, UI Toolkit’s framework automatically handles this process. A Visual Element is the base class of every UI Toolkit element: buttons, images, text, etc. You can think of it as the GameObject of UI Toolkit. Meanwhile, UI Builder (Window > UI Toolkit > UI Builder) is a visual tool that helps create and edit interfaces without writing code. This is useful for artists and designers alike, as it allows them to visualize the UI as it’s being built. As the premiere tool for people already familiar with web technologies, UI Toolkit also improves collaboration between artists and developers by separating logic and style to refine organization and avoid file conflicts. While UI Builder takes care of the elements’ positions, style, and design, code can be handled in a distinct section of the project to query the parts of UXML that it needs, and connect logic to it.

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