Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene #134
02 Nov
- We have published Help Update #1 for the RAD Studio 2010 help. You can find out more at the Developer network. The Help Update should be available through the IDE’s automatic update system. If you have that turned off by default, you can invoke it via the Start menu.
- Question: Can you ever really have “Release Candidate 1”? If you call it that (as opposed to just “Release Candidate”), is it really a release candidate?
- The marketing folks have been busy – they’ve taken your input and created a Delphi and C++Builder Application Showcase page. On that page, you can find all different kinds of applications that are built with RAD Studio, from licensing tools to Client/Server applications to games and media players. If you want to see the power and speed of what can be done with your favorite development tool, that is the place to go. And of course, if you want to be included in that impressive lineup, then let us know.
- I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: If your most current version of RAD Studio is 2005 or earlier, then 31 December 2009 is the last day you can take advantage of upgrade pricing. So if it has been a while since you’ve upgraded, now is the time. That page is also our Upgrade Center, which has information and links about the latest new features, how to migrate to Unicode, and getting your third-party tools updated to the latest version. There isn’t going to be a better time to make the move to the best version of RAD Studio ever.
- And of course, if you’ve moved to Windows 7, RAD Studio is the tool for doing your Windows 7 development.
i don’t think the showcase is working. all i see is (briefly) 4 apps at the top, then after waiting for the page to load, a pretty picture of some warped screenshots and a marketing blurb appear instead.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:32 amJB,
Click the arrows to the left and right. The applications will scroll 4 at a time.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:06 amthe website link of finalbuilder is the same as ibp, are you sure ?
and the navigate panel is not so smooth in my firefox
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:12 amand, where is the showcase for c++builder???
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 amLove it!!!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 amHmm, the bar at the top where i suppose the left and right arrows are supposed to show up just goes black when the page has loaded. Using IE 7. I can’t do or click on anything.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 amHmm, the release candidate question is a good one. I think "Release Candiate 1" is a valid name for a release candidate. You’re just protecting against confusion if an RC2 needs to be released. On the flip side, it does feel like that gives it a bit less mental weight, like you’re planning on the second one. I was planning on naming the next Abbrevia release RC1, but now you have me second guessing myself.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 pmHere’s an idea… instead of hanging a threat of loss of upgrade rights over people’s heads to try to compel them to upgrade to a version that - right or wrong - they feel they don’t need or have a fear of, why not offer them something they are far more likely to be able to use…
i.e. instead of "Upgrade in the next 2 months or we’ll consider you a new user"… offer: "Upgrade to Delphi 2010 and get the same edition (Pro/Ent/Arch) of Delphi 2007 FREE"
I bet you’ll get a better response and a lot happier customers as a result.
As it is I imagine many people on 2005 and earlier will instead be thinking "Well, that’s it then… definitely time to switch to Visual Studio if THIS is how we’re going to be treated in future by Emborcaderoprise"
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 pmHiya Nick,
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:54 pmHaving only jumped in and upgraded yesterday, including Help Update #1 I’m not really in a position to pass out kudos -but- having had a quick glance at it - it looks promising. Having abandoned Help several versions ago I’m really going to have a good look at what you’ve done with it for D2010.
I think the UG deal you’re offering those that have been sitting on dusty old dog-eared versions is a great deal for them. Hopefully many will take advantage of it - it’ll be a very smart move for them. I disagree with giving them the latest and greatest just so they can sit on that for 10+ years though. If you like/use the product, not investing in the company [at upgrade rates] seems kind of foolhardy to me. If you’re giving stuff away, give it to those that support the product/company regularly.
The showcase page is really well done - congrats to the team who designed/built it.
My $0.02
I finally tried Rad Studio 2010 and my high expectations were exceeded. A bunch of little things really add up. The IDE Insight and improved Find already made me hate using older version of Delphi.
I heard that executables might be larger than Delphi 2009, so I use PECompact (by Bitsum Technologies) which sometimes compresses a 6MB .exe to only 2MB.
Yes, I know UPX is a free executable compressor, but UPX is GPL and says "The terms of the GNU General Public License still apply as compressing a program is a special form of linking with our stub." — which means you have to allow reverse engineering and binary modifications for personal use among other things (not compatible with 99% of commercial software EULA).
So all in all, there’s no practical disadvantage by upgrading from Rad Studio 2009 to 2010. Highly recommended because it increases productivity. Isn’t improved productivity one of the biggest reasons we use Delphi instead of Microsoft Visual C++?
The improved help is nice, but what we need are updated editions of books like Delphi in a Nutshell and many more. In the meantime, I’m waiting for Marco Cantu’s Delphi 2010 Handbook and hope they are as good as his 2007 and 2009 editions.
DISCLAIMERS: I’m not affiliated with Bitsum. I’m just a happy customer having switched from ASProtect to UPX and finally to PECompact (most reliable so far). I’m also not affiliated with Embarcadero. I’m just a happy customer of Rad Studio & Rapid SQL (I just wish I wasn’t compelled to use Microsoft C++ for creating DLLs that need to load into 64-bit apps).
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:09 pmra: Funny how you could read that line of the UPX license and miss the *very next one*, which says "As a special exception we grant the free usage of UPX for all executables, including commercial programs." You can use UPX on commercial, closed-source applications, so long as you’re using an unmodified UPX release, which means it’s completely compatible with 99% of commercial software.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:07 pmIANAL and this is for entertainment purposes only.
Craig: It is doubly funny because the *very next one* after that says "See below for details and restrictions."
Not so funny story: I used an LGPLv2 library that granted special exception to allow closed-source apps to statically link to the library without distributing the resulting software with LGPL license. After months of effort, the LGPL library had to be replaced. Why? Because during due-diligence, it was determined that the non-LGPL license for the resulting software (as allowed by LGPL) is required to allow reverse engineering, among other things as a condition of allowing non-LGPL license. A "license engineer" from fsf.org also confirmed this awful finding. See for yourself by reading LGPLv2.
Until that incident, I assumed it was safe to use LGPL in closed source software. And I assumed it was doubly safe if the LGPL library had a special exception for closed source software. I was wrong and the experience wasn’t fun.
Do popular Delphi libraries like JCL, JVCL etc. include any LGPL or GPL code? Does any GPL or LGPL code get static-linked into your binaries? What does that mean for your closed-source software and your commercial EULA? Ask fsf.org or your own IP lawyer, because their opinions matter more than ours regarding these matters.
Imagine how funny it would be if a qualified intellectual property lawyer told you that your software must allow your end users to reverse-engineer and modify their copies of your binaries for personal use. Then imagine if you had already allowed thousands of end users to download a shareware version. ROFL.
Good luck!
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 pmNick: this link doesn’t work:
http://staging.embarcadero.com/images/dm/RAD-2010-upgrade-FAQs.pdf
This is link under "More information" at the bottom of window which is offering an upgrade.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 pmEven with Help Update 1 dexplore.exe still hangs around, causing my system to hang on reboot/shutdown. The saga of broken help with Delphi still continues from 2005. Is it really taking you guys over four years to fix a problem with the documentation?
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 pmOnly 4 applications so far.
Information on what they are and what they do would have been nice.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:07 amKen - try another browser. I have the same problem in IE7. Firefox works much better for me. It’s a pretty cool showcase when it works. Hopefully somebody who can fix this is paying attention.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:37 amThere has already been RC2005, RC2006, RC2007, RC2009 and RC2010 so wouldnt RC1 confuse current users ?
I’m sure that Help Update is needed but F1 not working in OI should have been fixed weeks ago !
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:35 amRegarding RC1. Consider this: Hardware products and movie producers seem to follow the rule of "omit the number 1". For example, "Rush Hour 1" would have come across weird. "BlackBerry Storm 1" would also be equally weird, even though there is now a Storm2 model out. Keep it simple, go ahead and omit the 1, even if you know for certain you’re going to have RC2.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:54 amIf Rad Studio 2010 is the tool for Windows 7 why does the Windows 7 compatible tool advise me that Delphi 2010 "has issues"?
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:45 am@Pete,
November 5th, 2009 at 3:12 amDoes Windows 7 give details on what these issues are?
I kept the report - this is all Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor says:
Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010 - Embarcadero - Known issues - You may experience issues running this program on Windows 7.
"Known issues"?
November 6th, 2009 at 10:15 pmWorking help is not important to Embarcadero.
From http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/40139/
"Object Inspecter help contexts are nonfunctional.
Note: the core team decided not to prioritize this for Weaver GA."
So it was known bug was known but not fixed in RTM !!!!
Another bug with touch keyboardcomponent was reported during FT but not fixed in RTM…
Seems to me that Embarcadero dont give a s… about quality.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:38 pmPratt –
For the record, that bug was reported about ten days before we shipped, and it required a risky fix that we weren’t willing to take that close to release.
Becauase we "give a s…. about quality", we decided not to risk hurting the quality of the product further by taking the risky fix.
It is, of course, fixed in the Update.
Nick
November 12th, 2009 at 7:16 amIt’s fixed in the update that was pulled bc it breaks Delphi…
November 12th, 2009 at 8:37 am