Dimensional Data

TCoffee and Code is an informal virtual meeting series launched in the Embarcadero Technologies YouTube channel where a group of expert developers discusses everything related to programming, encoding, software development, and more. Interestingly, in this particular session, Embarcadero MVPs Stephen Ball, Marco Cantu, and David Millington will talk about the most important element in programming – the programming language! Object Pascal and C++ Programming Languages There is a great number of programming languages available today but this session will highlight two of the most used programming languages, Delphi’s Object Pascal and the C++ Programming languages. Ball, Cantu, and Millington will walk us through the fascinating history of the aforementioned languages and how they rapidly evolved over the years and how these evolution brought drastic change in development on windows. They will also share their own thoughts about their most favorite features and how these languages are being used in RAD Studio today. Connecting Delphi and C++ Aside from discussing the notable features that have been added for both Delphi and C++ over the years and how these extensions made an impact on these languages, the team will also discuss the considerations or the possibilities of Delphi and C++ working together. RAD Studio, for instance, is a powerful IDE that is capable of compiling both Delphi and C++ in one project and allows you to embrace the best of both languages. If you want to learn more about these programming languages and which one suits you the best, feel free to join this one-hour-long TCoffee and Code session below.

ETL is basically an acronym for Extract, Transform, and Load, a general procedure that programmers and developers commonly perform by copying data from one or more sources and transfer it into a destination system that represents the data differently than the source. This procedure is considered to be one of integral parts of any windows application development. Today, data transfer and data integration are done through various modernized solutions providing users with easier and automated data transfer procedures using microservices, portals, or files. Generally, ETL is everything you do as a programmer. Data System Integration Joining Ian Barker in this TCoffee and Code session are his fellow Embarcadero MVPs Kelver Merlotti, Miguel Moreno, and Olaf Monien to discuss everything about Data ETL and visualization. The discussion includes data system integration which is generally the process of moving data among different subsystems to make them look and run as a single system. They also tackle different integration models and how each process varies from one another. The Benefits of FireDAC The session also highlights the differences between the two data subsystems; Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Data Subsystems. Unlike Homogenous, Heterogeneous data subsystem is built using different database management systems. This is where the FireDAC library comes into play. FireDac has a powerful flexible and extendable scripting capability that connects different database systems with the help of its built-in connectors and non-visual components. In addition to that, these experts will also answer multiple queries along the way. Don’t miss anything and feel free to watch the video below.

TCoffee and Code is a tremendously popular YouTube series presented by Embarcadero Technologies where expert professional developers engage in a virtual conversation and give the benefit of their experience on a wide range of technology and windows development subjects. Each session features a different topic where panelists can freely share their own thoughts and opinions. In this video, Jim McKeeth is joined by his a great collection of Embarcadero MVPs to discuss everything about Threading and Concurrency. Joining Jim in this 2-hour-long virtual conversation are Primož Gabrijelčič, Olaf Monien, Kelver Merlotti, Frank Lauter, and Dalija Prasnikar. They will also answer thread-related and multi-tasking queries from their followers. Thread programming can be extremely tricky yet immensely powerful at the same time. This session will teach us all the do’s and don’ts in making threads and how can we keep our application run smoothly and responsive while keeping the users happy. The discussion also highlights the differences between Threads and Tasks as well as the importance of Thread Safety to ensure that all threads behave properly and fulfill their design specifications without unintended interaction. This session also tackles multithreading, parallel programming, single-threaded program, and more. The team will also discuss the things we can do to address various synchronization issues and also the advantage of using the Parnassus Parallel Debugging Tool for both single-threaded and multithreaded apps. We also get to see actual Delphi encoding demos using TTask and Tthread classes. To know more about Threading and Concurrency, feel free to watch the video below. RAD Studio Delphi has all you need to create powerful programs for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android. Why not download a free trial today?

After discussing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning from the previous TCoffee and Code session along with other Embarcadero MVPs, Jim McKeeth came up with a 1-hour-long webinar that will introduce us to OpenAI’s GPT-3. The OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory that aims to promote and develop a friendly AI in a way that benefits humanity as a whole. One of the company’s first commercial products is the API for the Generative Pre-trained Transformer or GPT (GPT-3 in particular), an autoregressive language model that uses deep learning to produce human-like text. How does GPT-3 work? In the video Jim McKeeth demonstrates to us how exactly GPT-3 works. He will also walk us through some OpenAI API examples as well as recommended parameters for OpenAI settings like Response Length, Temperature, top_p, n (number of responses you want to regenerate), frequency_penalty, best_of, stop, and more. The webinar will also highlight equally important topics including the various API methods like Completions, Searches, Classifications, and Answers. The same thing goes with various frameworks and windows tools for developers. He will also differentiate the types of engines available and their respective prices. Real examples of how OpenAI works To top it all, we will also get to see different OpenAI examples as provided by their webpage including applications like the Movie to Emoji Converter, Language Translator, Spreadsheet Generator, SQL Request maker, and more. McKeeth will also teach us how to use GPT-3’s REST API where we will get to see him creating a simple yet functional application from it. To learn more about OpenAI’s GPT-3, feel free to watch this video below. If you want to try out some examples for yourself why not download a free trial of the latest version of RAD Studio Delphi today?

Microsoft Azure is a cloud platform with more than 200 products to find a solution to your problem. Among those, Cognitive Services are some amazing products that provide you with many AI functionalities. For example: Anomaly detector Content moderator Personalizer Language understanding QnA maker Text analytics Translator Speech service Computer vision Custom vision Face API Cognitive services multi-service account With these resources, any developer can incorporate AI into their applications without the need for deep learning of machine learning. All of these can be accessed via the REST API and the Windows IDE, allowing them to be used in any modern application. What is the Bing Visual Search API? With the Bing Visual Search API you can integrate image search functionalities into your application. Users will be able to search by supplying an image and the Bing search API will find images which are visually or thematically similar. Also, it can identify celebrities, places, items, and other related objects to the source image. You can even extract barcodes and text from images. It’s a pretty powerful resource. How can I get the subscription key to use the Bing Visual Search API? Goto Azure Portal and sign-in. In the portal, type “Bing” in the search box and select “Bing Search v7” from the marketplace. Now enter a name, subscription, and a resource group and create a new resource. Then go to the newly created resource and under the “Keys and Endpoint” tab, you will find two subscription keys. Use that key in the next step. How do I implement The Bing Visual Search API in Delphi? We can easily implement Visual Search API through the Delphi REST components. We can set up the API at design time using these components: TRESTClient TRESTRequest TRESTResponse Do the following.. Create a new VCL application and drop a TRESTClient component and set the content type as “application/json”. Then drop a “TRESTRequest” component and set the method to “rmPOST”. Also, drop a “TRESTResponse” component to get the response. Also, you need a TIdHTTP component to download images in the response. Our API URL is: https://api.bing.microsoft.com/v7.0/images/visualsearch/ Also, you need an image file to post with the request. So drop a TOpenDialog component to open image files. Add a button to browse for images. Now add some code for the OnClick event procedure TfrmMain.btnBrowseClick(Sender: TObject); var Picture: TPicture; begin if not dlgOpenImage.Execute then exit; strImgPath := dlgOpenImage.FileName; btnSearch.Enabled := strImgPath ”; Picture := TPicture.Create; Picture.LoadFromFile(strImgPath); imgSource.Picture := Picture; edImgPath.Text := strImgPath; end; In the search button, first, we add the “Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key” as a header parameter. Then we add the image to process as a pkFile parameter of the RESTRequest. Then we execute the request and parse the response. The response is in JSON format. We can use “TJSONObject” and “TJSONArray” objects to easily parse the response. Then we can download similar images and display them in our Delphi application. The full search button Delphi code to search by image should look like this procedure TfrmMain.btnSearchClick(Sender: TObject); var lparam : Trestrequestparameter; imgProcessed: bool; jsonObj: TJSONObject; jsonTags, jsonActions, jsonValue: TJSONArray; MS: TMemoryStream; Picture: TPicture; I, x, y: integer; image: TImage; begin for i:=0 to ComponentCount-1 do if (Components[i] is TImage) then if (Components[i] as TImage).Parent=scrlbxImages then freeandnil(Components[i]); memResponse.Lines.Clear; RESTClient.BaseURL := edAPIURL.Text; RESTRequest.Method:=rmpost; imgProcessed := false; try RESTRequest.Params.Clear; RESTResponse.RootElement := ”; […]

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.