Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene #132
15 Oct
- Oh, by the way, another good way to get your comments deleted is to use profanity. Should have mentioned that before.
- The guys over at Gurock Software have a really cool article called “Working with Delphi’s new Exception.StackTrace” showing how you can get more information about stack traces at runtime.
- Want to write an iPhone application in Pascal?
- If you haven’t tried IDE Insight in RAD Studio 2010, then you should. It is easy – hit F6 or CTRL+. – and then start typing what it is in the IDE that you are looking for. Cool feature. But here’s the question – what would a 16×16 pixel glyph look like if it represented “IDE Insight”?
- Have you checked out all the code samples on the Delphi DocWiki?
How about a Kitchen sink? Might be a little small at 16×16 pixels, though.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:34 pmFor your icon:
* The current IDE icon with a pair of binoculars
* The current IDE icon with a crystal ball
* A crystal ball
N@
October 15th, 2009 at 1:19 pmI think the pascal iPhone app underscores the value in Embarcadero buying into RemObjects directly.
As for the Exception.Stacktrace… I would liken it to the plug in structure that lets one swap out the memory manager in Delphi - a good thing. But there does not appear, in this case, to be any basic functionality there in the first place. Seems to me that something basic should be there to replace.
After all, the stack tracers already work just fine without the plugin spot.
The crystal ball is an interesting icon - but at 16×16 it’s hard to make anything really meaninful and clear. Too bad you can’t at least jump to 24×24
October 15th, 2009 at 2:14 pmTotally cool icon for IDE Insight: flaming eye of Sauron
Examples here:
http://images.google.co.za/images?q=image+eye+sauron
The pupil is catlike, and as such forms the shape of the Vesica piscis, which has one symbolic interpretation as the shape through which all things come. Probably, you could just go straight for a Vesica piscis shape outright (this would be visible at 16×16, if you just use the inner intersection), and avoid the copyright issues the "eye of Sauron" may incur. But it would be awesome.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:42 pm"but at 16×16 it’s hard to make anything really meaninful and clear"
Clever use of gray scales in the old Windows icons fool your eye to see things that, when viewed enlarged, were simply not there. It is an art form that is disappearing.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:50 pm@Ken -> Not so much disappearing, more like reached its limit. Let’s face it, you can only many so many uniquely distinguishable shapes in a 256 pixel array. The visual effect you describe actually further limits the possible variations.
Let’s face it, no one is making a recognizable 16×16 mona lisa. Even a picture frame is more likely to look like any old yellow box at that size no matter how artfully you tweak the colors.
I find I like the trend towards the larger icons in XP, Vista etc. If the higher DPI displays ever show up, maybe we can hope for a recognizable mona lisa in the relative space of today’s 16×16 icon - but only because it’ll be a higher resolution image in the same visual space.
But I suspect we are wandering a little off topic here.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:49 pmIsn’t "The eye of the Oracle", that finds everything in Delphi?
October 16th, 2009 at 1:30 amAt 16×16, an image of the letters "ii" would be easiest and most intuitive. Try using italics or shadows to make it look nice.
October 16th, 2009 at 3:25 amXepol –
How do you wander off topic in blog comments?
Nick
October 16th, 2009 at 5:21 amNick,
The icon for IDE Insight would simply be a bullseye target.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:25 amFrank –
Many of them are ready for D2009. Which ones are you looking for?
Nick
October 16th, 2009 at 11:00 amI’m sure this is off topic, but, any idea when there will be a version of the Turbopower tools for BDS 2009 or 2010?
Best Regards,
Frank
October 16th, 2009 at 11:22 amI would like to see Async Pro and Orpheus but the last time I tried them (2 or 3 months ago) they wouldn’t install even following the tutorial that Norden Logic posted. http://www.nordenlogic.com/download_vcl.html
Best Regards,
Frank
October 16th, 2009 at 11:35 amFrank -
You can pull Orpheus off of SourceForge:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/tporpheus/
You should be able to pull it using Subversion and then compile it using the D2010Packages.groupproj project group.
I’m looking into AsyncPro.
Nick
October 16th, 2009 at 11:39 amHow about picture of an eye with the words ‘IDE’ in the bottom right corner.
October 16th, 2009 at 12:22 pm