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Thoughts from David Cornelius

My History with Delphi--and Why I still Use It

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Today marks the 27th anniversary of the first release of Delphi. My personal experience with the product starts several years before 1995 and ends with the conclusion that Delphi is still just as relevant and critical to my business as ever. Let me tell you the story about how I came to use it--and why I still find it the best development tool for what I do today.

Keep it Cool!

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Programmers are not typical office workers--they use lots of memory, graphics, and CPU cycles. The standard heat sink and fan combo that CPU makers "generously" provide with their CPUs just don't cut it for us. Do your development machine a favor and upgrade it to one that runs quiet and cool.

Delphi Productivity Tips: Keyboard and Mouse Basics

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There's an old story about a question that was posed during a family meal asking what was the best modern convenience in the home. The younger generation were saying things like ice makers in refrigerators and microwave ovens. The grandmother of the family listened for awhile then gave her input: indoor plumbing! It's too easy to take some of the basic conveniences of life--or features of an IDE--for granted, and assume they will always be present. This article continues a set of Delphi Productivity Tips but goes back to some of the basics of the Delphi IDE that I realized are probably more import--but I don't always think about because I figured every development environment should have.

I Finally Understand High DPI

I've heard a lot about High-DPI monitors and 4K TVs for the last several years and wondered what the hype was all about. I had watched webinars and seen demos exclaiming how crisp and clear everything is, even with more on the screen, but had not experienced it for myself. This year, I acquired my own High-DPI monitor and hooked it up next to a Full HD (High Definition) monitor to see the difference.

TRESTResponseDataSetAdapter and Hidden Gems of the REST Debugger

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Writing REST applications in Delphi is pretty simple with the advanced components we have available these days. The functionality encapsulated allows us to spend time on the business and user interface aspects of development rather than the nuances of connecting to an API and parsing JSON results. When starting a new REST app, I usually use the REST Debugger that comes in RAD Studio to test out an API before building the app itself. There are other REST API tools but this one has a great feature that saves me time building my Delphi app that no other tool has.

I Wrote a Book!

Early last year, I was contacted by Packt Publishing with a request to write a book about Delphi. I was surprised, honored, and a little scared! I know the Delphi community is world-wide but does not have as large a following as other languages so was unsure how much of an audience there would be. Was I up to the task?

Delphi Productivity Tips: Navigation Toolbar

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At the top of Delphi's code editor, is a Navigation Toolbar with several "jump lists" as I like to call them. They help you find and jump to places in your code quickly by selecting them from lists built by the parsing engine in Delphi. There are also shortcut keys that allow you to use them without taking your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse.

GetIt Dependencies Work!

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When GetIt Package Project Dependencies first came out in Delphi 10.1 Berlin, they didn't work right, or at least not for me in the way I expected them. I had problems with them in Delphi 10.2 and 10.3 as well. I don't remember if I tried them or not in Delphi 10.4. However, with the new Delphi 11 Alexandria that was released last week, they DO work!
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