Meetings 2016
Agenda & Information for the Meetings held in 2016
See Downloads 2016 for the available files associated with the meetings.
Date: 15th Nov 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(tbc):
- Writing more robust .net applications using Actor systems – Sean Farrow
- The actor model first proposed by Carl Hewitt in 1973 is a mathematical model of concurrent computation. While in this talk we will not be dealing with the mathematics, we will take a look at the traits that make actor systems reliable, from deployment mechanisms to how actors handle failure. To do this we will look at a library first written in Scala and now ported to the CLR, Akka.net
- Custom URIs – Andrew Cutforth
- To click a link (in an email/document/spreadsheet etc) and route it into a running Windows desktop application. This is to achieve the same functionality that you would
get with a link taking you into a page in a web application e.g. a link taking you to a particular job in a bug tracking/logging system. Code written in .Net. - Jason will then try and produce the same in Delphi.
- To click a link (in an email/document/spreadsheet etc) and route it into a running Windows desktop application. This is to achieve the same functionality that you would
- Documentation and helpfile – helpscribble – Martin Hamilton
- TOGGL with some code or A Month of GIT – Jason Chapman
Please see times below(tbc):
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Jason Chapman |
| 13:00 | Writing more robust .net applications using Actor systems | Sean Farrow |
| 14:30 | Break for tea/Coffee | |
| 14:45 | Custom URIs | Andrew Cutforth |
| 15:45 | Documentation and helpfile – helpscribble | Martin Hamilton |
| 16:30 | TOGGL with some code or A Month of GIT | Jason Chapman |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Date: 17th Oct 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(tbc):
- Accessing custom barcode scanner hardware from a Delphi Android app – Brian long
- This session looks at how a single interface was developed to talk to a couple of entirely different hardware barcode scanners as well as some barcode scanning software, and looks at how successive versions of Delphi have helped make the job simpler
- There more to a good “REST” than meets the eye! – Peter Edwards
- If you have ever considered a REST server as just an ‘Old Hat’ way of getting a bit of data from a remote database, then you may have missed a trick or two.How about if you were able to create simple apps for mobile devices that deliver quite a punch at the back end of your office application – even without the need for any real server as such. Extending data entry from a single user desktop to many mobile devices is now a real possibility and quite practical.If you are dealing with stock control, delivery of products, auditing , asset management or any kind of remote data capture, then REST may well be an efficient way of not only collating and sending data but also processing that data live upon receipt, just as if you had entered that data on the office program.Peter Edwards of Qsys.co.uk will demonstrate a “goods inward app” on an Android Smart Phone and show that all the required journals for stock keeping records are maintained and purchase orders updated .. as if by magic. A hands on deep dive into the code at both ends of the code will reveal how we can make an android appear to be a very powerful tool indeed.Delphi Enterprise is required to achieve this but beyond that, your skills are more than enough to complete the task.There will be no real consideration for security or privacy in this presentation but ideas may well be discussed with others who may have relative experience or this could be a topic at a future meeting.
Please see times below(tbc):
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Brian Long |
| 13:00 | There more to a good “REST” than meets the eye! | Pete Edwards |
| 13:45 | Accessing custom barcode scanner hardware from a Delphi Android app | Brian Long |
| 15:00 | Break for tea/Coffee | |
| 15:15 | More “REST” | Pete Edwards |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Date: 14th Sept 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include:
- Case Study: ITN Project started in Delphi changed to C# – Eric Thorniley
- Eric will present details of a project he undertook for ITN. The task was to add some functionality to a system provided by a third party, involving connecting at a fairly deep level into their proprietary system using dlls from their internal work (with their help and co-operation.) Initially the plan was to build a C# wrapper for the dlls to provide a com interface so that the project could be undertaking in Delphi. Instead the project was implemented in C# (except for some Delphi simulation programs for testing.) He will go through the choices he faced in undertaking the C# project, and the coding approaches used.
- The aspects covered will include (in no particular order):
- Threading in C# and some of the differences from Delphi.
Some of the useful tools available for C#.
A beginner’s experience of developing using XAML compared to Delphi forms, and the Caliburn UI framework used for the project.
Using “Inversion of Control” to isolate much of the project from possible changes to the third party dlls.
Network issues that hit many broadcasting control systems.
Recent changes to the C# language that would have been a help had they been available at the start of the project.
- Skype chat with Marco Cantu, up for discussion:
- Office closing in Alicante
- 2016 Delphi (and RAD Studio) Roadmap that was publish in August
- Any questions you would like to ask
Please see times below:
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Pete Sykes |
| 13:00 | ITN Project | Eric Thorniley |
| 14:30 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 14:45 | Skype chat | Marco Cantu |
| 15:30 | ITN Project continued | Eric Thorniley |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Date: 12th July 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(see timings below):
- GIT – Will Watts
- File formats – Comparing plain text (e.g. XML/JSON) and binary – Dave Martel
- FastMem – for those memory leaks – Adam Brett
- Digging into memory management and errors in Delphi using FastMem4, showing the type of programming behaviour that leads to errors and some useful techniques to identify and resolve issues that can be hard find and to debug.
Please see times below:
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Jason Chapman |
| 13:00 | GIT | Will Watts |
| 14:30 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 14:45 | File formats – Comparing plain text (e.g. XML/JSON) and binary | Dave Martel |
| 15:30 | FastMem – for those memory leaks | Adam Brett |
Date: 13th June 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(see timings below):
- Version control with Subversion – Brian Long
- A revisit of the topic: not as fashionable as git, but still very capable for SOHO/distributed teams.
This session takes another look at Subversion from the eyes of a Delphi developer, seeing how to set up and use it through the life of a project. We look at how it resolves certain common single user and multi-user development problems and how it offers strong benefits over “floppy-net”. - We hope to do a follow on session with GIT very soon
- A revisit of the topic: not as fashionable as git, but still very capable for SOHO/distributed teams.
- Hacking and the internet of things – Mark Jacobs
- Short videos demonstrating techniques and results from hacking the IoT.
- A presentation on the Third Party component provider – Developer Express – Pete Edwards
- Taking a look at Quantum Grids + Reporting – showing a real world Application that utilises these basic components throughout.
- Third Party DAC – Devart Vs FirDac in Mobile & Desktop situations. Accessing data over the internet to remote server MySQL.
- Real life example of using bar code reading on Andriod with commercial devices such as Motorola TC55 & M3.
- A brief heads up and demonstration of REST server & access to such a server via the internet.
Please see times below:
Please note: This is the provisional and is subject to change.
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Brian Long |
| 13:00 | Version control with Subversion | Brian Long |
| 14:30 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 14:45 | Developer Express, Devart Vs FirDac + more | Pete Edwards |
| 16:15 | Hacking and the internet of things | Mark Jacobs |
Date: 18th May 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(see timings below):
- Case study – Scientific Instruments – Dave Martel
- From Ion guns to bows and arrows: Gentle meanderings from Delphi 0.9 to present, with a leaning towards the scientific side of life.
Delphi was launched in San Francisco in 1995, just after I was hired to rewrite software to control $1m instruments for Windows. Bringing older code from Modula/2 and the history of excellent tools from Borland made the choice a no-brainer. 20+ years on we are still using it.
Some examples of what we use it for, including more recent excursions in to 3D data presentation. Some (hopefully) pretty pictures. Why I like providing interactive softwar
- From Ion guns to bows and arrows: Gentle meanderings from Delphi 0.9 to present, with a leaning towards the scientific side of life.
- How to build a mobile-responsive web site in Delphi – from scratch – Patrick Hort
- The latest hot topic: Building bots – Pete Sykes
Please see times below:
Please note: This is the provisional and is subject to change.
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Pete Sykes |
| 13:00 | Hot Topic: Building Bots | Pete Sykes |
| 14:00 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 14:15 | Case Study: Scientific Instruments | Dave Martel |
| 15:15 | How to build Mobile-responsive website – from scratch | Patrick Hort |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Date: 19th April 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(see timings below):
- Happiness and Horrors – Deploying a Delphi Application to a Touch Screen Embedded Android card – Brian Frost
- Here at Applied Relay Testing we have been using Delphi since version 1.0 for real time control of the automatic test equipment that we design, build and sell. Thus far, all of our control software has been Windows based using our VCL Delphi Application as the user interface. A recent project required a ‘built-in’ user interface, so we chose a kind of ‘tablet solution’ using a small touch screen connected to an embedded processor running Android. To achieve this, Delphi 10 Seattle has been used to create a FireMonkey Application that installs and runs on this embedded board and which creates a completely stand-alone solution. This talk will contrast the ease of getting a “Hello world” application deployed and working with the many road-humps that we encountered when trying to create and deploy a fully-fledged Application
- Mobile App to control a model railway – Pete Brownlow
- A joint brainstorming and coding session to put together something using Delphi 10 Seattle that will drive trains, via Wifi,
on a digitally controlled model railway. We will use Delphi’s ability to target multiple platforms from one source codebase
and try to get it running on both Android and an iThing, as well as Windows and Mac. Pete will come along with some “bits I prepared earlier”
so that we can put them together into something that works during the session.Pete will have a small demo board with him so we can actually make a train move.
- A joint brainstorming and coding session to put together something using Delphi 10 Seattle that will drive trains, via Wifi,
Please see times below:
Please note: This is the provisional and is subject to change.
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Jason Chapman |
| 13:00 | Android App controlling model railway | Pete Brownlow |
| 15:00 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 15:15 | Deploying a Delphi Application to a Touch Screen Embedded Android card | Brian Frost |
| 16:30 | Optional XE10 vs D7 (add-ins I still needed and my experience) | Jason Chapman |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Date: 14th March 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(see timings below):
- More on Arduino – Alex Hamilton – follow up session
- Typescript – problems with Javascript, why Typescript is desirable – Will Watts
- PostCode verifier and retrieval DELPHI code – Martin Hamilton
Please see times below:
Please note: This is the provisional and is subject to change. We will update this page with future meetings soon.
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Brian Long |
| 13:00 | ||
| 14:30 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 14:45 | ||
| 15:30 | ||
| 16:45 | ||
| 17:00 | Finish |
Date: 24th February 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(see timings below):
- Beginner’s Guide to Task-based Multithreading in C# – Pete SykesPete has recently started to use TAP – Task-based Asynchronous Pattern – for multithreading in C#. In this session
he shares some of his early experiences and, he hopes, provides enough information for those new to the concept to
be able to start using it in real world situations. - TMS Diagramming Suite – Adam BrettTms diagram studio offers a detailed component set used to create UIs including restaurant plans, cinema seat plans,
electronic and architectural lay outs as well as more traditional uses such as database or UML modelling.
Adam has worked with TMS Diagramming Suite and used its vector based graphics for drawing shapes and relationships.
- Sending TXT Messages from DELPHI App – Martin Hamilton
Please see times below:
Please note: This is the provisional and is subject to change. We will update this page with future meetings soon.
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Pete Sykes |
| 13:00 | Beginner’s Guide to Task-based Multithreading in C# | Pete Sykes |
| 14:30 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 14:45 | Sending TXT Messages from DELPHI App | Martin Hamilton |
| 15:30 | TMS Diagramming Suite | Adam Brett |
| 16:45 | Idera/overrun | Jason Chapman |
| 17:00 | Finish |
Date: 12th January 2016
Agenda
Topics so far include(see timings below):
- Data Spaces – implemented into a data import / integrate / Applying technique / Java Code – Richard Brownlow
- Multi Media – writing audio video applications – Sebastian Cottam
In this presentation we will look at writing audio video applications, explore some of the libraries that can assist us,
outline techniques to manipulate content, and investigate the underlying technology - Migration from D7 to Seattle – Patrick Hort
Please see times below (TBC):
| Time | Description | Speaker |
| 11:30 | Registration (with tea and coffee) | |
| 12:00 | News/Questions | Jason Chapman |
| 12:30 | Data Spaces | Richard Brownlow |
| 13:45 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 14:00 | Multi Media | Sebastian Cottam |
| 15:15 | Break for tea / coffee | |
| 15:30 | Migration from D7 to Seattle | Patrick Hort |
| 16:45 | More news | Jason Chapman |
| 17:00 | Finish |