Pascal Newsletter #34
The full source code examples of this issue are available for download.
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Pascal Newsletter #34 - 03-APR-2002 INDEX 1. A FEW WORDS FROM THE EDITOR 2. IN THE NEWS - Borland TeamSource DSP now available 3. APPLICATIONS WITHOUT VCL (I) 4. ASSEMBLER IN DELPHI 5. TTRAYCOMPONENT 6. STOP WINDOWS FROM DISPLAYING CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGES 7. SHOWING WINDOWS "OPEN FOLDER" DIALOG (II) 8. FORUMS 9. DELPHI ON THE NET - Components, Libraries and Utilities . Shareware/Commercial . Freeware - Articles, Tips and Tricks . Kylix - Tutorials ________________________________________________________________________ 1. A FEW WORDS FROM THE EDITOR Hello folks, Here it is - my second newsletter, number 34 in the Latium Software history. I'd like to thank the authors for the articles collaborated for this issue, and I'm glad to award José Manuel Rodríguez (JMR) the license of Greatis Print Suite, a set of components for print and preview, provided by Greatis Software: http://www.greatis.com/printsuite.htm In the next issue, one of our collaborators will receive a license of SMImport, a component suite to convert from all popular data formats, provided by Scalabium: http://www.scalabium.com/smi/index.htm Thanks to Demian Lessa, the Portuguese edition of this newsletter is now a reality: * Boletim Pascal http://www.latiumsoftware.com/br/pascal/index.php If you want to receive the Boletim Pascal, you can subscribe from the web (Yahoo! ID required - you can register to get yours free if you don't have one) or -more easily- by email: http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/boletim-pascal/join boletim-pascal-subscribe@yahoogrupos.com.br As you'll see, I have also made an HTML version of this newsletter. I plan to do this every time from now, since HTML offers much more and nicer options to display data. This way you can go for the plain text newsletter by simply reading on this mail, or you can surf to the URL and read the nicer HTML version: http://www.latiumsoftware.com/en/pascal/newsletter34.html I am looking for implementations of AI in Delphi for my personal artificial intelligence site http://www.futureai.com --which is undergoing a major restructure--. If the contribution is good enough, you will get a free 10 Kb space on FutureAI.com (mail me for more info) and you will also get an article on this newsletter. Now on to the articles! Charl Linssen eds2004 @ latiumsoftware.com __________________ Collaborated in this issue: Dave Murray. ________________________________________________________________________ JfControls Library. Multi-language. Multi-appearance. Skins. Privileges. More than 40 integrated and customizable components. Impressive GUI. Centralized resources administration. Multiple programming problems solved. For Delphi 3-7 and C++ Builder 3-6. http://www.jfactivesoft.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ 2. IN THE NEWS Borland TeamSource DSP now available ==================================== Borland TeamSource DSP is a collaborative development platform for distributed teams. In plain English, if you need to coordinate the work of your software development staff thru the Internet, then TeamSource DSP might be the solution you are looking for. TeamSource DSP is not software... well it involves software, but basically it's a service (a web services solution hosted on a Borland's server, to be precise), and it is charged as a subscription on a per user and per month basis. To learn more about Borland TeamSource DSP and take the tour, visit TeamSource DSP's main page at http://www.borland.com/teamsource/ ________________________________________________________________________ Greatis Print Suite Pro - An extremely convenient set of VCL components which provides advanced print and preview features into Delphi and C++ Builder applications. Forget BeginDoc, EndDoc, NewPage and other low- level printing procedures, just draw your print job and Print Suite will handle the rest! >>>>>>>> http://www.greatis.com/printsuite.htm <<<<<<<< ________________________________________________________________________ 3. APPLICATIONS WITHOUT VCL (I) By José Manuel Rodríguez (JMR) CopyRight: JMR, Madrid 1997/1999/2002 Delphi's VCL allows us to do in a few minutes extraordinary things that in other environments would take hours and hours. However this comes at a price, which is the footprint the VCL leaves in the final product. Every time we use a new component a good part of the code of all VCL units that directly or indirectly provide support for this component, including ancestors and some related components, gets linked in our executable or DLL (SmartLinking ensures that only referenced code gets linked, not all the code in these units, but anyway it's still a lot of code). Of course, this only happens the first time we use a new component. The components of this type or related types that get added later produce much smaller size increments (good part of the common ancestors is already included by the use of other components), but in the beginning, or when adding certain components, we get brutal size increments. For example, the use of a simple TButton produces a sudden increment of the code size in the order of 150-200K, although from then on, for each standard control that we add, the total size will just suffer an increment of 1 or 2K, but if for example we add a TListView, the size gets increased a lot one more time, but again every new common control that we add produces an insignificant increment in the size of the final PE (portable executable). The use of packages solves this problem somehow, but in the end, the program plus the runtime (the packages) is bigger than the program linked in the traditional way. While doing without the comfort and versatility of the VCL for almost any project that deserves to be called as such would be almost insane, for minimum projects, like little servers, utilities and things of this kind, or mainly for DLLs or console applications, the use of the VCL is totally superfluous. Matter of fact, many times we don't use it, but inadvertently we make references to it, causeing the inclusion of its code in our final product. Normally the unnoticed references to the VCL come from some visual aspect of our program, like user interaction ("show data to" or "get data from" the user). Well, the routines of the unit APIDlgs presented here intend to solve this problem, providing input and output dialog boxes that don't use the VCL but instead they use standard Windows resources and Windows API calls. Of course, the unit doesn't interfere with the VCL, so you can use it without problems in a VCL-based application. In the examples that accompany it, you can see a program using the VCL (withVCL.DPR), taking 178K, and the same program using only APIDlgs (WithoutVCL.DPR), taking just 42K! (you can see it by yourself). Anyway, in normal applications it isn't feasible or desirable to do without the VCL, but you'll find the functions included here more versatile than their VCL counterparts (MessageDlg/InputDlg), so even if you use the VCL, you might still want to use APIDlgs. Description =========== The unit contains two well differentiated function families. The first (APIMsgShow, APIInput, and their decaffeinated sisters QuickShow and QuickInput) uses standard Windows resources created with a conventional resource editor, while the second (APIMsgBox and CriticalMsg) uses an internal Windows function (the same used by the well-known MessageBox), and therefore it uses resources contained in the Windows libraries. Here goes the syntax of the functions: function APIShowMsg(hParent: THandle; const cTitle, cText: String; Buttons: TAPIDlgBtns; DefaultBtn: TAPIDlgBtn; hIcon: THandle; HelpCtx: Integer): TAPIDlgBtn; function QuickShow(cTitle, cText: String; Buttons: TAPIDlgBtns): TAPIDlgBtn; function APIInput(hParent: THandle; const cTitle, cText: String; hIcon: THandle; HelpCtx: Integer): String; function QuickInput(cTitle, cText: String): String; ------- function APIMsgBox(hParent: THandle; const cTitle, cText: String; WinFlags: LongInt; HelpCtx: Integer): LongInt; procedure CriticalMsg(const Title, Text: String); For time limitations, I'm omitting the explanations, but I hope the functions are clear by themselves, and that a quick look at the source code would be enough to understand the parameters and return values. Comments ======== a) This unit is meant for 32 bits. It hasn't been tested in 16 bits but except for APIMsgBox which is based on a Win32 API, I don't see why it shouldn't work on Delphi 1 and Windows 3.1x. b) The unit has been tested, although not thoroughly. No bug has been found so far, but I cannot guarantee the unit is free of them. c) All code is mine, but I'd like to thank the collaboration, tips, and suggestions of some fellow programmers, mainly Nicolás Aragón (nico@nicoaragon.com). The theory base can be found in books and articles (PC Magazine USA) about 32 bits Windows by Charles Petzold and mainly about Delphi by Neil J. Rubenking. d) This unit can be used free of charge in compiled programs without any kind of restriction, but --if you use it-- I would be grateful if you mention the author in the credits of the program. If it is distributed as source code, the whole package should be distributed, free of charge, with all files in full, including copyright notices. This first part of the article includes the unit APIDlgs and a couple of sample applications. In the second --and last-- part, I will introduce the unit APIApp that would allow us more flexibility in the creation of non-VCL applications. Any suggestions, corrections or critics (constructive, of course) would be welcome. José Manuel Rodríguez <jmr@clubdelphi.com> ________________________________________________________________________ SMImport component suite 1.46 - Components for data loading from Text, CSV, HTML, XML, MS Excel (without OLE), MS Access (without the BDE), Lotus 1-2-3, QuattroPro and Paradox/DBF. Available for Delphi 3-6 and CBuilder 3-6. Price $35. >>> http://www.scalabium.com/smi/index.htm <<< ________________________________________________________________________ 4. ASSEMBLER IN DELPHI By Max Kleiner <max@kleiner.com> We have always found OP (Object Pascal) to produce fast and more efficient code, add this to the RAD Environment of Delphi and Kylix and the need to use assembler becomes questionable. This article is somewhat of an extract from the excellent paper "Learning Assembler with Delphi" from Ian Hodger at: http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_2245.asp It was the wish of my students to shorten it and say a few words about debugging. Attached to this newsletter you'll find an impressive assembler example in a DOS-Shell, it's shows a graphic-fire on the screen (firefast.pas). In all of our work with OP, we faced just five situations where we have felt one should consider the use of low level system code: 1. Stepping & processing large quantities of data. Of course I exclude from this any situation where a data query language with a query optimizer is employed, but not always in an automation- or micro- controller environment. 2. For scientific reasons to provide high speed simulations or just for education with Compiler-Assembler-Linker-Loader steps. I call that CALL. 3. For controller programming or to develop or test peripherals like COM-devices, e.g. on how to detect free COM ports (as far as Windows knows...) and call some functions Windows doesn't allow, i.e. does not detect a COM port if a mouse is attached. Uses a DPMI call with assembler. 4. High speed display routines; here we want quick and easy routines that comes with OP, not the strange C++ headers, external function libraries or confused hardware demands of DirectX. 5. Strong and fast encryption algorithms like ciphers, hashes or checksums, so the core encoding and decoding routines are written in highly optimized assembler code. To say that writing machine code is cosy would be an understatement and as for debugging an assembler language is just an easy way of remembering what machine code operations are available. The job of converting to machine code is done by an assembler, so Borland's Turbo Assembler is built into Delphi. Let's practice a little "Bit": If we look at adding an integer 15 to the register eax, the appropriate assembler instruction is add eax,15 // a := a + 15 Almost the same, to subtract the value of ebx from eax sub eax,ebx // a := a - b To save a value for a happy day, we can move it to another register mov eax,ecx // a := c or even better, save the value to a memory address mov [1733],eax // store value of eax at address 1733 and of course to retrieve it with mov eax,[1733] This means also the the largest number we can store in a register, e.g. eax is 2 to the power 32 minus 1, or exactly 4294967295. Bear in mind the size of the values you are moving about; the mov [1733],eax instruction affects not only memory address 1733, but 1734, 1735 and 1736 as well, because as you will recall eax is 32 bits long, or rather 4 bytes, therefore memory is always addressed in bytes! Next step is the example: step := step + 1; we would write something like this: mov eax, step add eax, 1 mov step, eax or simply: inc step Now we're ready for our first snippet of assembler, but let aside the simple nature of this example. Consider the following lines of OP code: function BigSum(A, B: integer): integer; begin result := A+B; end; OP provides the asm...end block as a method of introducing just plain assembler to our code. So we could rewrite the function BigSum as: function BigSum(A, B: integer): integer; begin asm mov eax,A add eax,B mov result,eax end; end; This works fine, but there is a point to consider. There is no speed gain and we've lost the readability of our code. But the fact is, all our sophisticated class design is "broken" by an assembler. You can also write complete procedures and functions using inline assembler code, without including a begin...end statement, e.g.: function LongMul(X, Y: Integer): Longint; asm mov eax, X imul Y end; The compiler performs several optimizations on these routines so no code is generated to copy value parameters into local variables. This affects all string-type value parameters and other value parameters whose size isn't 1, 2, or 4 bytes. Within the routine, such parameters must be treated as if they were var parameters. If we are going to produce really useful code, at some point we shall need to implement more deeper routines. E.G. we have to display the output of some function dependent upon two variables. You might imagine this as a three-dimensional map, where the coordinates [X,Y] correspond to a height H. When we plot the point [X,Y] on the screen we need to give the imagination of depth. This can be achieved by using colors of differing intensity, blue below sea level and green above. What is needed is a function that will convert a given height into the appropriate depth of color for a given sea level. Debugging code -------------- To finish this article, let's say few words about debugging. It is very easy to set up watches, program breaks, and traverse OP programs a line at a time. The same is true, even when using assembler. All we need to do is add the four 32bit general registers eax, ebx, ecx and edx to one's watch list, and see the effect of each line of assembler. In a DOS-Shell you can also type "debug" and then "u" for disassembly. The built-in assembler allows you to write Intel assembler code within OP programs. It implements a large subset of the syntax supported by Turbo Assembler and Microsoft's Macro Assembler, including all 8086/8087 and 80386/80387 opcodes and all but a few of Turbo Assembler's expression operators. Assembler functions return their results as follows: - Ordinal values are returned in AL (8-bit values), AX (16-bit values), or EAX (32-bit values) - Real values are returned in ST(0) on the coprocessor's register stack - Pointers, including long strings, are returned in EAX - Short strings and all the variants are returned in the temp. location pointed to by @result So I hope you feel a little "Bit" the speed of Delphi and thanks Ian for his fundamentals. ________________________________________________________________________ Join our Delphi forum for intermediate-level Delphi programmers at Yahoo! Groups >>>>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/delphi-en <<<<< ________________________________________________________________________ 5. TTRAYCOMPONENT Stewart Moss <stewartm@idcorpholdings.com> presents his modification of TrayComponent to make the "Show in Taskbar" code work under Windows 2000/NT. TrayComponent was originally written by Alexander Rodigin, based on the Stealth component by Janus N. Tøndering and the TrayIcon component by Pete Ness. The component is in the file TrayComp.pas. ________________________________________________________________________ 6. STOP WINDOWS FROM DISPLAYING CRITICAL ERROR MESSAGES By Zarko Gajic http://delphi.about.com When performing certain functions it is necessary for your program to take full control over error messages. For example, if your program wants to "quietly" check if a floppy drive has a floppy disk in it, you may not want Windows to display a "critical error" if in fact the floppy drive is empty. You can control which error messages Windows displays by using the "SetErrorMode()" Win API function as follows: var wOldErrorMode: Word; begin // tell windows to ignore critical // errors and save current error mode wOldErrorMode := SetErrorMode(SEM_FAILCRITICALERRORS); try // code that might generate a critical error goes here... finally // go back to previous error mode SetErrorMode(wOldErrorMode); end; end; ________________________________________________________________________ 7. SHOWING WINDOWS "OPEN FOLDER" DIALOG (II) In the last issue I published source code to show the standard Open Folder dialog, and since I received a lot of feedback about it, I thought the article deserved a second part addressing a few issues raised by the readers. SelectDirectory =============== Many people reminded me that the SelectDirectory function that comes in the FileCtrl unit does that. Well, actually, this is not correct... One of the two overloaded versions of SelectDirectory allows you to set the root path, but not the selected directory: var Directory: string; begin Directory := 'C:\Delphi\'; if SelectDirectory('Select folder', '', Directory) then ShowMessage(Directory); end; The other version of SelectDirectory allows you to set the selected directory, but not the root directory, although it has some interesting features (you can allow directory creation, the user can type the directory name, and you can provide a context help id), but this version of the function doesn't use the standard Windows' "Open Folder" dialog: var Directory: string; begin Directory := 'C:\Delphi\'; if SelectDirectory(Directory, [], 0) then ShowMessage(Directory); end; Disposing PIDLs =============== In the code I used GlobalFreePtr to deallocate the memory allocated for a PIDL. It's a quick and dirty way to do it but unsafe. PIDLs should be released by calling IMalloc.Free. An easy way to replace GlobalFreePtr could be using the following function: uses shlobj, ActiveX; procedure IMallocFree(Ptr: Pointer); var pMalloc: IMalloc; begin if Succeeded(SHGetMalloc(pMalloc)) then pMalloc.Free(Ptr); end; Root directory as string ======================== A couple of readers requested that instead of the CSIDL of a special folder the root parameter could be any directory passed as a string, so I made a few changes in the source code to get the corresponding value for TBrowseInfo.pidlRoot based on the root parameter (now called RootFolder, a WideString): : function BrowseForFolder(Title: string; RootFolder: WideString = ''; InitialFolder: string = ''): string; var : IDesktopFolder: IShellFolder; Eaten, Attributes: LongWord; begin with BrowseInfo do begin : pidlRoot := nil; if RootFolder <> '' then begin SHGetDesktopFolder(IDesktopFolder); IDesktopFolder.ParseDisplayName(Application.Handle, nil, PWideChar(RootFolder), Eaten, pidlRoot, Attributes); end; : end; : end; ________________________________________________________________________ 8. FORUMS Delphi ====== If you know much of Delphi but you are still far from being a guru this forum is for you. This is the only forum for intermediate-level Delphi programmers on the Web (Delphi hackers are also welcome :-)). The forum now has more than 610 members and last February it had a nice level of traffic with almost 250 messages: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/delphi-en If you want to join the group, the best way is to subscribe from the web since you can access the special features available at the web site (a Yahoo! ID is required and you can get yours free by registering as a Yahoo! user), but if you don't want to register or if you don't have full Internet access you also can subscribe by email: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/delphi-en/join delphi-en-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Components ========== This is a forum for searching/recommending software components (VCL and CLX components, ActiveX objects, DLL libraries, shared objects, etc.), as well as utilities, tutorials, information, etc. The forum is rather new and currently counts with a little over 125 members and very low traffic: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/components I hope you join the forum to help us build a larger group. You can subscribe from the web or --more easily-- by email: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/components/join components-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ________________________________________________________________________ 9. DELPHI ON THE NET By Dave Murray Components, Libraries and Utilities =================================== Shareware/Commercial -------------------- * Database Pro v1.14 - by IMG Software Database Pro includes eleven components and give the most simple and fast way to filter or find values in the database. You will get: 1) The simplest way to assign conditions of filtering / data retrieval 2) Support BDE, MIDAS, ADO, InterBase, KADao and any alternative Database Pro is currently available in 18 languages. http://www.imgsoft.com * RichView Package - by TRICHVIEW.COM. Shareware ($139) RichView is a suite of native Delphi/C Builder components for editing formatted documents with images, tables and hypertext links. Customizable attributes of text and paragraphs, Unicode, bi-directed text, HTML export, RTF, printing, data-aware versions and more... http://www.trichview.com/ * SMImport Suite v1.46 - by Scalabium, Mike Shkolnik SMImport suite is a components for data loading from Text, CSV, HTML, XML, MS Excel (without OLE), MS Access, Lotus 1-2-3, QuattroPro and Paradox/DBF. Available for Delphi 3-6 and CBuilder 3-6, price: $35. http://www.scalabium.com (mshkolnik@scalabium.com) Freeware -------- * dbExpress InterBase 6.5 driver for Delphi 6 available - by J Kaster http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,28508,00.html Articles, Tips and Tricks ========================= * Bring RAD to your Web app development with WebSnap - by GetPublished WebSnap enables Delphi to build the scriptable business objects, database driven web pages, and back-end servers that are integral to a successful, dynamic web site. http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,28567,00.html * Simple scripting with NetCLX extension components - by John Kaster C++ Builder 6, Delphi 6 and Kylix all have new RTTI functions that make simple scripting much easier to implement. John K shares some producer components that show how. http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,28551,00.html * From XML to Object: Part II - by Keith Wood Wraps up this series on the XML Data Binding Wizard with sample applications that demonstrate how to read and display XML documents and generate new ones. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/04/di200204kw_f/di200204kw_f.asp * A Smart Combo Box, etc - by Bruno Sonnino How to create a combo box that remembers the user's selection or entry, and offers it as the default the next time around and tips for RadioGroups and What's This? help. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/04/di200204bs_f/di200204bs_f.asp * Taming the Beast from Redmond - by Dave Ball A step-by-step explanation of how to deploy ISAPI DLLs within an MTS or COM+ memory-protected development environment, by configuring IIS settings within the MMC. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/04/di200204db_f/di200204db_f.asp * Take Action - by Bill Todd If you want your menus and toolbars to have the look and feel of Office 2000, the ActionManager and ActionBars in Delphi 6 may be just the ticket. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/04/di200204bt_f/di200204bt_f.asp * How to get an MP3's ID3-Tag? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=121 * How to load Rft Text from a resource file into a TRichEdit? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=1049 * How to refresh the icon cache? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=1054 * How to enable the Return key in a TWebbrowser? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=1055 * How to open local files in a TWebbrowser and start links directly? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=1057 * How to program a peak level meter? - by Steve Schafer http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/torry/showcode.php?id=1086 * How to show the source code of a webpage in a Memo? - by Screaminator http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/torry/showcode.php?id=1085 * How to perform a binary seach on a TListview? - by P Below http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/torry/showcode.php?id=1078 * Add current page of a TWebbrowser to your favorites - by Screaminator http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/torry/showcode.php?id=1094 * How to connect to an ftp server + download a file? - by Thomas Stutz http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/torry/showcode.php?id=1095 * How to check if a given folder is empty - by Christian Cristofori http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3095.asp * Component for saving User Settings (using Tools API) - D Wischnewski Writing a Component, a Component Editor and a Property Editors. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3096.asp * A Simple Notepad with Delphi 6 - by S S B Magesh Puvananthiran http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3098.asp * Implementation of the State Design Pattern - by Jochen Fromm http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3099.asp * Find full path of registered Applications - by Andreas Schmidt http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3101.asp * Exporting Syntax Highlighted text to HTML - by Danilo Vieira http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3103.asp * Converting HTML colour names and codes to TColor - by D Wischnewski http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3104.asp * Writing all controls of given component to TXMLDocument - by N Ozniev http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3106.asp * Sending email in console mode - by Arman Rad http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3107.asp * Creating High Performance Middleware Apps with Indy - by Romeo Lefter Indy Step by Step part 4. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3108.asp * Move or resize a TControl object graphically - by Bertrand Goetzmann Graphically move or resize a TControl object by using another object that has all the necessary code. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3109.asp * How to get the long path and file name? - by Maarten de Haan How to get the long path and file name from a DOS name. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3110.asp * Viewing Targa Bitmap File Format in Delphi (256-colors) - by h4ry p http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3113.asp * Easiest way to draw a transparent image - by h4ry p http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3115.asp * Un-hiding Properties - by Romeo Lefter Unhiding some usefull properties for VCL controls. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3116.asp * PAS 2 HTML converter - by Eber Irigoyen Sourcecode to HTML converter for web pages with highlighted syntax. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3117.asp * Grab the PC Serial Number & BIOS info using WMI calls - by Doug Good Windows Management Instrumentation Calls in Delphi. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3118.asp * Windows detection routines - by Ronald Buster Here is how to find out the Windows versions for all versions. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3119.asp * Easy logger - by Eber Irigoyen http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3121.asp * Placing icons in DBGrid - by Fahad Aljarbou http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3122.asp * Extract Icons from .exe, .dll, .lnk - by Prashant Gulati http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3126.asp * Syntax Highlighted Source Code Export to HTML or RTF - by Jim McKeeth Export many different source code files into HTML or FTP with Syntax Highlighting and end user customization http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3128.asp * Web Page to Image File - by Jim McKeeth How to get the URL from IE, open it with PBear's THTMLViewer and save it as a image file. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3129.asp * A simple class to implement compound files - by David Bolton How do I store multiple files within one compound file? http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3130.asp * Improving your Object classes reliability - by David Bolton How to reference count the easy way. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3132.asp * How to send HTML messages with attachments (using Indy) - by N Cross Using IdMessage to send HTML formatted emails with attachments. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3133.asp * How to parse a wave file? - by Liran Shahar Parsing a wave file to access each of its chunks. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3134.asp * SignalDisplay component - by Liran Shahar Ever wanted to display audio from a microphone or see wave file samples like CoolEdit does? http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3135.asp * How to get keys, like up,down,left, right? - by Etienne Nijboer http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3136.asp * Determine If a File has One of Several File Extensions - by John Long http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3137.asp * Changing IE Proxy Settings - by Shannon Wynter How do I set proxy settings in IE without having to restart? http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3138.asp * How do we implement the Choice Pattern - by Max Kleiner Working with Interfaces. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3141.asp * How to make a Window with RAW API - by Simone Di Cicco http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3142.asp * From XML to Object: Part I - by Keith Wood The Delphi 6 XML Data Binding Wizard. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/03/di200203kw_f/di200203kw_f.asp * Differential Equations - by Alexander Gofen Implement the Taylor center, a powerful numeric and expression- processing application with extensive visual features, in Delphi. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/03/di200203ag_f/di200203ag_f.asp * Hot Spots: Part II - by Victor Hornback Build a custom component, showing how to register a custom property editor, stream non-published data, and more. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/03/di200203vh_f/di200203vh_f.asp * Spreadsheet Data via ADO, ODBC, or Automation - by Bill Todd A detailed explanation and example projects for accessing MS Excel spreadsheet data via ADO, ODBC, or automation. www.delphimag.com/features/2002/03/di200203bt_f/di200203bt_f.asp * Bug in StringReplace (Handling Null characters) - by Stewart Moss Workaround for a bug in StringReplace function when used on a string which contains NULL (#0) characters (not null terminated). http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3090.asp * Making a "recent files" menu - by Dan Strandberg How to make a simple "recent files" menu/list in your application. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3091.asp * Yet another "recent file" menu - by Magnus Flysjö http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3093.asp * RGB and HSV conversions - by William Egge Explains HSV and RGB colour values and includes source for converting between the two. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3094.asp * Quiz: Delphi ADO Programming - by Zarko Gajic Who Wants to be a Delphi ADO Database Programming Guru - trivia game. One copy of a great Delphi book will be given away in this "competition". Closing date is 31st May and a winner will be picked randomly on 1st June. http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa030502a.htm * Spell Checking with MS Word - by Zarko Gajic Why buy or write spell checking components when you can use MS Word? Add spell checking + thesaurus capabilities to your Delphi app using the MS Word Object Library. http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa032701a.htm * Creating PDF Documents, the free way - by Romeo Lefter How to create easy and fast PDF Documents. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3076.asp * Implementation of the Memento Design Pattern - by Jochen Fromm How do you implement the MEMENTO Design Pattern in Delphi ? A Memento is an object that stores a snapshot of the internal state of another object - the memento's originator. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3077.asp * Reducing Source Code Complexity in your application - William Egge Using a MessageCenter to link your application systems together. Implementation of an observer pattern except that it uses Delphi's built in message dispatching and also maintains the relationships. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3079.asp * Creating a simple HTTP Server How to create a simple HTTP server using TIdHTTPServer from Indy and the TPageProducer for simple scripting capabilities. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3081.asp * Read/write summary information of an Office document - by B Goetzmann How read/write summary information of an Office document? http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3082.asp * How to create disabled bitmap - by Mike Shkolnik How can I create a disabled bitmap from original? http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3085.asp * Convert Tab to Space - Yilmaz Kaygisiz How Can i Change TAB Char To Space in my string? http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3086.asp * String or Number? Undocumented Effects of Val(...) - by D Wischnewski Interesting phenomenon where obvious string is incorrectly converted into a number by Delphi functions Val, IntToStr + InToStrDef. http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3087.asp * Lost your MainForm? - by Eber Irigoyen Has it ever happened to you that the MainForm that you want is not listed in Delphi's Projects|Options|General? http://www.delphi3000.com/articles/article_3088.asp Kylix ----- * Simple scripting with NetCLX extension components - by John Kaster C++ Builder 6, Delphi 6 and Kylix all have new RTTI functions that make simple scripting much easier to implement. John K shares some producer components that show how. http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,28551,00.html * How to catch kernel-signals in Kylix? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=1059 * How to use RCDATA resources in Kylix? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=1060 * How to clone a process in Linux? http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch/en/showcode.php?id=1061 Tutorials ========= * Cup of Coffee for Dolphins Part I - by John Kaster Java for Delphi programmers. Describes basic Java instructions in comparison with Delphi. http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,28481,00.html ________________________________________________________________________ YOU CAN HELP US We need your help to keep this newsletter going and growing. 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