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Thoughts from David Cornelius

Delphi's Find in Files Trick

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You've probably used Delphi's Find in Files feature to search for an identifier or library function through multiple folders of source code. If you have backups of your source or multiple projects with copied or similar sets of routines and check the "Include subdirectories" checkbox, the search results could contain a lot of duplicates taking extra time to wade through them all. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to fine-tune the folders being searched?

There is!

Switching From UniDAC to FireDAC

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Since upgrading my Delphi subscription from Professional to Enterprise, I've been slowly replacing third-party database components with FireDAC since the Enterprise edition comes with many more databases supported. One of the ones I've used a lot is Devart's UniDAC. UniDAC is a great database component suite. I've used them for many years, they have an excellent support forum, and frequent updates. I just don't want to pay for duplicate functionality--well, mostly duplicate; there are some advantages to using UniDAC but they're not deal-breakers for me.

Improve File Searching with UltraFinder

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I find the Windows File Explorer's built-in search feature to be painfully limited, slow, and inadequate for my needs. It's right there in the file explorer window so it's really handy but every time I use it, I'm frustrated. After recently acquiring the UltraEdit suite of tools, I started looking at one of the included products, UltraFinder. It is significantly better!

Major Drupal Upgrade Woes

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Upgrading multiple Drupal-based websites on a shared hosting platform has a gotcha: they all must use the same version of PHP--but different versions of Drupal have different PHP requirements. To make matters more interesting my (still supported) Drupal 7 sites need to be upgraded to Drupal 9 but must be upgraded to the non-supported Drupal 8 first. And then I ran into a photo site that isn't migrating its photos.

Application Usage Reporting with Delphi and PHP

I do a lot of contract programming in a niche market that requires small, custom-written, import/export programs. Some of these can are copied with few modifications for similar customers. Once in a while, there's a common need where the application can be used by several customers. In those instances, I need to implement some form of licensing and accountability but I didn't want anything too elaborate nor do I want to incur ongoing charges for an online API for the one-time pricing structure of the projects I work on.

UltraFTP vs. WinSCP

A few weeks ago I compared UltraEdit with EditPad Pro; an ancillary product that comes with the UltraEdit Studio suite is UltraFTP. I've been using an open source FTP client for many years and have come to rely on WinSCP for keeping websites up to date, uploading software for customers, and more. I figured since I now own the UE suite of products, I should at least look at UltraFTP. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations.

UltraEdit vs EditPad Pro

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UltraEditEmbarcadero's parent company, Idera, recently acquired UltraEdit which includes the company's namesake product, UltraEdit, a long-standing favorite text editor among many programmers, and some accompanying tools that have grown up around the main product, namely UltraCompare, UltraFTP, and UltraFinder. I decided to go through the feature set and compare this suite of tools with EditPad Pro the text editor I've used for several years from Just Great Software.

This review doesn't cover every feature of the two editors nor does it go into great depth as there are tutorials and videos on each of the respective sites. It also concentrates on just the task of editing files, mostly ignoring file comparison, FTP, and file-finding features of UltraEdit's companion tools. This review is the personal conclusion I came to based on my experience, interest, and needs--your view may be different. The bulk of my time is spent in the full-featured Delphi IDE; nevertheless, I do have need for a good-quality text editor in many circumstances and having several time-saving features built-in are well worth learning about and using.

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