Dimensional Data

It seemed like many people thought Windows 7 was great and Microsoft should stop there. However, Microsoft recognized that what people thought of as their primary computing device was changing. Apple’s iPad and the inexorable rise of the mobile phone meant people were starting to interact with the internet and the new streaming services in ways which threatened Microsoft’s traditionally desktop-bound Windows operating system. Microsoft’s response was Windows 8 which brought with it a new user interface paradigm which leaned hard on the lessons learned targeting mobile tablets: simplified user interface, touch-friendly controls, flatter, simpler UI elements. Windows 8 was to intended to be a new era where non-PC devices such as an XBox would merge with desktops running Windows 8, MS’ own Microsoft Surface tablet/touch friendly devices and the beleaguered and ultimately doomed Microsoft Surface phones. While the idea of “one Microsoft operating system user interface to rule them all” eventually floundered – the Microsoft phones which were hugely loved by their users but failed to ignite enough sales to capture the interest of the carriers – the experience ushered-in some magnificent changes and new technologies that helped thrive with Windows 10 like WinRT (Windows Runtime – Language-Independent Application Binary Interface). This gave rise to a better Windows 10 app development environment for developers.  How did Windows 10 make things better for developers? Applications built with Windows Runtime may run inside a sandboxed environment to allow greater security and stability and can natively support both x86 and ARM. To point out, you can use highly productive development tools like Delphi and C++ Builder to create modern Windows applications that support Windows Runtime among other new sets of features. What is the difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11 app development? Windows 11 operating system promises massive changes with various user experience transformations.  The new Microsoft Store New native features for Windows apps The Fluent Design System and WinUI Advanced technologies for the Game Development industry It seems like a significant number of Windows users are staying with Windows 10 either because they are concerned about change and wish to seek stability, or they are shut out due to Windows 11 having a more rigid set of hardware requirements which many devices cannot meet. How to improve your Windows Apps Before discussing improvement, I would like to discuss Embarcadero’s Delphi and Visual Component Library briefly. With its Visual Component Library (VCL), Delphi programming language brought new graphical user interface development concepts. Using Delphi and VCL, you can achieve 5x faster development and a massive pool of components to thrive in any development field.  By creating with Delphi and VCL, you can make native Windows-based applications with direct access to the hardware. Be sure to check out this article called: What You Need To Know – A Beginner’s Guide To Windows UI Toolkits. Improve your Windows Apps by adding this sophisticated feature which is actually easy to do Start using AI in your Windows applications! AI is one of the most significant trends in the app development industry. You do not need to create new machine learning models to use in your Windows apps. You can use AI APIs from Cloud Computing platforms like Google, APILayer, DeepAI APIs, and other services. Be sure to check out this tutorial to learn how to integrate those AI APIs! Quickly modernize your user interface […]

Webinar on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 11 AM CST The Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) brings native Android applications to the Windows 11 desktop. Learn how to set up and configure Windows Subsystem for Android for use in software development. See what is required to run WSA as well as what is required to target it from your Android development. Windows Subsystem for Android is available for public preview on Windows 11. I’ll be joined by special surprise guest Scott Hanselman.  Come back to this blog post for slides, links, and the replay.

If you carry out native development on windows for a living, clean coding can add fun and enjoyment to your job. Let us explore some fun facts about clean code windows program development. 1. Why is change inevitable in any software system? A discarded software does not need any change. However, any successful software will require many changes for compatibility, addition, correction, legal reasons, etc. This software change is only possible and cost-effective if it follows clean code principles. 2. Is clean code related to your development on windows tool? Sure, clean coding is more about you than your tools. But Abraham Maslow said: “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Thus, development on windows with Delphi helps you create outstanding solutions while adhering to clean code techniques. 3. What is the primary task of a software developer? Programming computers is inherently complex. Therefore, the primary task of a software developer is to reduce complexity. By adhering to clean coding principles, we can reduce complexity as much as possible from our coding solutions. 4. What is the meaning of “Soft” in software? The software starts with “soft,” meaning “easy to mold, cut, compress, or fold”. Unlike hardware, which has a fixed functionality for life, the software is easily changeable by design, which is the cause of all pros and cons of the software. 5. Should we love the source code or the software? Source code and software distinctions are evident to programmers only. Thus, when software is “ready” for the customer, the source code might not be. Justifying this extra work to the customer is difficult, but we should fight for code quality to serve their needs for better software. 6. Why is Pascal a clean coding language by design? Clean coding is all about explaining code well. Interestingly enough, Niklaus Wirth designed Pascal to explain structured programming. While modern object pascal is feature-rich, it still retains its spirit of readability and clarity, making it the number one choice for writing clean code. 7. Why is coding faster not the answer? Although many developers mix up productivity and typing speed, the ratio of time spent reading code versus writing is well over ten to one, making coding faster unimportant. Instead, READing code more quickly and producing READABLE code is essential, which is best possible with clean coding. 8. Can it be dangerous to write spaghetti code? “Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live” ― John Woods (My Addition: and he knows when you are alone ;)) 9. Can clean coding bring more work to you? Clean coding enhances the lifespan of your code by improving its quality. Your code’s long-lasting smooth working in the industry will boost your image and connections. As businesses are always searching for quality programmers, this will drastically bring more work to you. 10. What does your code tell you about yourself? If your code is easier to read and change, it tells that you care about your profession and about the person who will maintain your code. On the other hand, messy code means that you only care about doing as minimum work as possible without considering others. 11. Does code have nine lives? James […]

This blog post compares the Delphi and Electron frameworks based on the Application Store Deployment, namely whether the framework’s IDE makes it easy to deploy directly to native platform application stores by reducing the complexities surrounding deployment and reducing time-to-market. This post is part of a benchmarking whitepaper comparing the two frameworks. The “Discovering The Best Cross-Platform Framework Through Benchmarking” whitepaper evaluates two frameworks supporting multi-platform desktop application development: Delphi and Electron. Delphi Delphi, encapsulated in the Rapid Application Development (RAD) Studio IDE, is Embarcadero Technologies’ flagship product. A proprietary version of the Object Pascal language, Delphi features graphical application development with “drag and drop” components, a WYSIWYG viewer for most mobile platforms, and robust style options including platform-standard and unique palettes that provide a fully customized look and feel. Among other features, included libraries provide GUI controls, database access managers, and direct access target platform hardware and platform operating systems. The Delphi FireMonkey (FMX) framework will compile projects to native code for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux, allowing users to develop and maintain one codebase reaching most of the market. Delphi has been available for over 25 years. Electron Electron is an open-source (MIT License), Chromium-based framework that utilizes web technologies to build desktop applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is developed and maintained by GitHub, a subsidiary of Microsoft. Electron combines the Chromium-based rendering engine with a Node.js server environment. As such, the user interface for an Electron application is available via HTML5 and CSS. Generally, Electron works with most Javascript frameworks such as Angular, Vue.js, and React. The HTML5, CSS, and Javascript-based technologies found in Chromium provide a rich ecosystem of user customization familiar to any web developer. Despite its relatively young age of five years, its community boasts open source packages for database access, operating system interactions, and other common tasks. 26 Benchmarking Metrics This is the sixth in a 26-part series of blog posts looking more closely at each of the individual metrics used in the study, and how Delphi and Electron each fared on these metrics. The first can be found here. Download the complete whitepaper here Benchmark Category: Developer Productivity Developer productivity is the measure of effort and code required for developers to complete typical development tasks. Productivity directly impacts product time-to-market and long-term labor costs so tools that increase developer productivity have substantial impacts on business timelines and bottom lines. Productivity can be realized in two distinct ways – reduced coding requirements due to native libraries, and IDE tools like code-completion and visual design.IDEs with greater library breadth generally result in fewer lines of code per application and produce a clean, lean codebase that minimizes opportunities for bugs or maintenance problems later in the product life cycle. Framework productivity was evaluated according to six metrics that sought to capture howframeworks and IDEs improve product time-to-market. Benchmark Metric 6/26: Application Store Deployment Application Store Deployment: Does the framework’s IDE facilitate direct deployment to native platform application stores (i.e. iOS App Store, Android’s Google Play, Microsoft Store)? Frameworks with built-in deployment features reduce product deployment complexity, limiting errors that could occur or compound, and time-to-market for initial products and updates/bug-fixes. Benchmarking Results Delphi Score: 5 (out of 5) Delphi’s FMX framework can deploy applications for the Microsoft Store, Apple […]

Delphi and Electron licenses differ significantly. In fact in some ways they are diametrically opposed. The benchmarking study sited in this blog post and the entire series of which it is the seventh post looks at the similarities and differences between the two platforms. Read more below. The “Discovering The Best Cross-Platform Framework Through Benchmarking” whitepaper evaluates two frameworks supporting multi-platform desktop application development: Delphi and Electron. Delphi Delphi, encapsulated in the Rapid Application Development (RAD) Studio IDE, is Embarcadero Technologies’ flagship product. A proprietary version of the Object Pascal language, Delphi features graphical application development with “drag and drop” components, a WYSIWYG viewer for most mobile platforms, and robust style options including platform-standard and unique palettes that provide a fully customized look and feel. Among other features, included libraries provide GUI controls, database access managers, and direct access target platform hardware and platform operating systems. The Delphi FireMonkey (FMX) framework will compile projects to native code for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux, allowing users to develop and maintain one codebase reaching most of the market. Delphi has been available for over 25 years. Electron Electron is an open-source (MIT License), Chromium-based framework that utilizes web technologies to build desktop applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is developed and maintained by GitHub, a subsidiary of Microsoft. Electron combines the Chromium-based rendering engine with a Node.js server environment. As such, the user interface for an Electron application is available via HTML5 and CSS. Generally, Electron works with most Javascript frameworks such as Angular, Vue.js, and React. The HTML5, CSS, and Javascript-based technologies found in Chromium provide a rich ecosystem of user customization familiar to any web developer. Despite its relatively young age of five years, its community boasts open source packages for database access, operating system interactions, and other common tasks. 26 Benchmarking Metrics This is the seventh in a 26-part series of blog posts looking more closely at each of the individual metrics used in the study, and how Delphi and Electron each fared on these metrics. The first can be found here. Download the complete whitepaper here Benchmark Category: Functionality Functionality Framework functionality was examined qualitatively through research on the business aspects of each framework ranging from initial investment through long-term maintenance of the products created. Business functionality refers to a framework’s business suitability and impact on long-term plans. Excellent functionality allows companies to easily build custom tools or extensions, develop on a platform of their choosing, protect their source code from exploitation, and have confidence that their applications will be maintainable for decades. Benchmark Metric 7/26: License License: Does the framework’s IDE facilitate direct deployment to native platform application stores (i.e. iOS App Store, Android’s Google Play, Microsoft Store)? Frameworks with built-in deployment features reduce product deployment complexity, limiting errors that could occur or compound, and time-to-market for initial products and updates/bug-fixes. Benchmarking Results Delphi Score: 3 (out of 5) Delphi is a proprietary software with three paid license tiers and a free Community Edition and Academic Program. The free tier allows for development as long as annual revenue does not exceed $5,000 USD per year. The first license for full commercial use costs $1,599 USD and the tier that fully unlocks the software suite is priced at $5,999 USD at the time […]

Delphi version 1 was launched at the Software Development Conference in San Francisco on February 14, 1995. I and other team members would travel around the world giving demonstrations of the IDE, Object Pascal language, VCL components and database connectivity. When Delphi was released, one of the frequently asked questions was, “where is the Borland C++ version”. At that time we were shipping Borland C++ with its support for building C++ applications, using Object Windows Library (OWL), Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) and other C++ libraries and code. Meanwhile, back at the Borland R&D department,  a team was busy working on what would become C++Builder. Previews and a Release At the Comdex expo in Las Vegas in November of 1996, in the Borland booth and in meetings, we started previewing a test version of C++Builder. Then in January 1997, we let the C++ development world know they could take part in a preview release of C++Builder. Finally, on February 23, 1997, a press release announced that C++Builder was finally available for purchase. Three editions of C++Builder were available: Standard, Professional and Client Server. C++Builder was (at that time) the only Rapid Application Development tool for C++ that combined visual component based development with the power of the C++ language. Some Steps Leading Up To C++Builder’s release The release of C++Builder built on top of IDE, compiler, runtime library and database access development for both the C and C++ languages. Those products included: Turbo C for DOS Turbo C++ for DOS and Windows Borland C++ for DOS and Windows Delphi versions 1 and 2 Hitting the Road with C++Builder After the release of C++Builder version 1 we hit the road again to demonstrate C++Builder. Borland’s C and C++ developer community was finally able to take advantage of the power of the C++ language and visual component based development to build console, desktop GUI and Client/Server database applications. C++Builder version 1 supported building applications that ran on Windows 95 and Windows NT. For the next 2.5+ decades we continued to release new versions of C++Builder with ever increasing language, library, component and platform support. The first demo we would show was a C++ version of the same first Delphi application that was shown at the launch of Delphi 1. The project contained a form with a button, edit box and list box. The event handler code for the button click event was add the contents of the edit box to the items in the list box. The IDE also supported integrated debugging with breakpoints, inspectors and evaluators. C++Builder Version 1: A Short YouTube Video I’ve put together a short video (available on YouTube) that shows building this one line C++ application using C++Builder version 1 Client Server edition running on Windows 95. C++Builder Version 1 running on Windows 95 YouTube Video (2 minutes and 28 seconds) The C++Builder Team Easter Egg inside the Help About Box Just as in Delphi version 1, C++Builder 1 contained a team member easter egg in the Help About Box. Holding down the ALT key and typing the letters TEAM brought up a scrolling list of all of the team members that worked on the product including those from R&D, QA, Documentation, Localization, Product Management, Product Marketing, Marketing, Developer Support and Developer Relations. Here is a complete list […]