​​Do you use InnoSetup for making installations? Check out a script, which can download and install any dependency such as .NET, Visual C++ or SQL Server Express Redistributable during your application's installation process. You can even easily add your own dependencies. A really useful addon for one of the best free installer tools 🔥

The script uses the standard InnoSetup's Download wizard page. Wow, I didn't know about this feature 😲 Next, the script collects dependencies together with the direct download links, adds them to this page, and starts the downloading process.

I think, we will implement this feature in our TaskRunner installer, because this program often requires vc redistributables when installing on some old machines 👍
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/20868/Inno-Setup-Dependency-Installer

​​Upcoming webinar DEC 2, 2020. Learn how to mix C++Builder and Python with David I & Kiriakos Vlahos. Hurry, the webinar starts today at 3:00 PM GMT 👉
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5414464058002270476

​​Last week, Marco Cantu has announced his new book on the Delphi Object Pascal language, covering all of the new features in the 10.4 release.

Check out the design of the cover while waiting for the book release. And surely don't forget to 👍
https://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/2020-november-announcing-objectpascal-handbook-104.html

​​Just tried new TMS VCL UI Pack. Wow, it allows converting svg graphics to pdf in one line of code. Didn't know that it's possible 🔥
https://www.tmssoftware.com/site/blog.asp?post=712

​​Off topic 🤣

​​An upcoming webinar. Join Alexey Sharagin tomorrow December 9th, 9 AM CST, to learn everything you need to know about working with VCL styles, including how to customize and make your own ones 👌
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/483236871005209869

​​Woah, DevExpress offers their cool VCL NavBar Control for free 🔥
However, there are conditions, the offer is applicable only for RAD Studio 10.4 and valid until the end of January.

More details here 👉
https://www.devexpress.com/vcl-navbar-free

More screenshots https://www.devexpress.com/products/vcl/navigation/getting-started.xml

​​If you have a Logitech gaming keyboard, headset, or a mouse, you can try one interesting Delphi library, by Delphi MVP François Piette, who is known for the Internet Component Suite (ICS) 🔥

The library allows you to make illuminations on your Logitech hardware using the Logitech Gaming LED SDK. The sources for the library are available on GitHub.

My Microsoft Natural keyboard doesn't allow me to run the supplied examples. So if somebody has tried the library, please share your experience 👌
https://github.com/fpiette/Logitech-Gaming-LED-SDK-for-Delphi

​​Tomorrow starts an interesting webinar - Python Native Windows GUI with Delphi VCL (Thu, Dec 17, 2020 9AM CST) 👀
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7093310562018477071

👉 BTW: to those, who uses Python together with Delphi, Embarcadero community has published an article to learn how to connect Python iterators with Delphi string lists. The demo project has VCL UI and available on GitHub.
https://blogs.embarcadero.com/learn-how-to-build-an-iterator-python-type-for-delphi-in-this-windows-gui-app/

​​On Sunday, Marco Cantu announced RAD Studio 10.4.2 Beta and a Teaser Image availability. If you have an active update subscription, you can download and try it 👉
https://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/2020-december-rad1042-beta-teaser.html

​​Wow, HarmonyOS 2.0 beta released 😲 This new mobile operating system by Huawei supports Android apps, and can be installed on China smartphones, including P40, Mate30, and MatePad Pro. The beta is available on Gitee, and intended to app developers 👉
https://gitee.com/openharmony/docs/tree/master/docs-en

Hmm, should we expect Firemonkey to support this new OS? Check out this short video - the first look at Huawei HarmonyOS 2.0 mobile beta. It seems, the UI has no significant changes. Probably, they change it later...
https://youtu.be/_7y8jxV-CWM

​​Have a merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year 🎄🎄🎄

​​Woah, the Object Pascal Handbook by Marco Cantu can be downloaded for free. Just submitted the download request. A good reading for holidays.

🤔 Still waiting for the link...
https://lp.embarcadero.com/Object-Pascal-Handbook-2021

​​Howdy to everyone!

In this first 2021'th post I'd like to share one interesting GitHub project. Embarcadero Dev-C++ represents a fast, portable, simple, and free C/C++ IDE, which is made in ❤️Delphi❤️ It provides a code editor for the C/C++ programming language and uses Mingw port of GCC as its compiler.

Check out their repository. The recently released version 6.2 is available, as well 👍
https://github.com/Embarcadero/Dev-Cpp

Recently, I've read about GraphQL, an alternative to REST APIs:
https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/stop-using-rest-for-apis-d697727ae6dd

The main difference is that in GraphQL, you get what you request, and nothing extra. This API was introduced several years ago and has implementations in different programming languages. I've tried to learn, what about Delphi:
https://graphql.org/code/#language-support

It seems, the standard REST Client Library cannot be used directly to send GraphQL queries. We have to use HTTPClient, or any to communicate via GraphQL, as it's made in the following simple GitHub project: https://github.com/bogdanpolak/graphql-delphi

If you know a good GraphQL implementation in Delphi, please share your experience 👍

Check out an interesting video by Marco Geuze, an Embarcadero MVP and the co-owner of GDK Software.

The video describes how to write code that is easy to understand and easy to change. This is especially important, if you are working on a project and your client comes back with some changes.

There are lots of examples and use cases, which I think, may be useful to even experienced devs 👍
https://youtu.be/3GpYKQDpIcA

​​When developing a program, which works with DB, the main headache to me is to optimize SQL queries.🧐

Recently, I've read one interesting article, where the author describes how to improve the query execution performance, find and create missing indices, and discusses some performance tuning techniques.

If your project utilizes SQL Server, MYSQL, or PostgreSQL as a data storage, this article may be helpful for you 👌
https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/sql-server-create-missing-index-from-actual-execution-plan/

There was a lot of work this week. Today is Friday, and I just watched an interesting video by Embarcadero Tech 😲

If you are working on a Python project, and you need a user interface, check out DelphiVCL for Python.
The video shows examples that describe how to use VCL components with Python 👍
https://youtu.be/NP9QKsKsSVg

​​Yesterday, CodeProject has published an interesting article about a new object-oriented scripting language, VRCalc++. This interpreter engine can be easily embedded in any Delphi app using Delphi packages. It uses the same operators as C++ and Java and extra objects related operators implemented using Delphi object interfaces 💪
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1272020/VRCalcplusplus-Object-Oriented-Scripting-Language

I decided to try this scripting language. Probably, this is a good candidate to embed in to the TaskRunner utility. Currently, TaskRunner already supports both the RemObjects PascalScript and the SpiderMonkey JavaScript engines.
https://github.com/CleverComponents/Task-Runner

The VRCalc++ sources and also a set of demo projects, including both VCL and FMX, are available on SourceForge 👍
https://sourceforge.net/projects/delphi-vrcalcxx-oosl-and-more/

​​In addition to one of my previous posts about Delphi VCL for Python. Today, I've read the other interesting Machine Learning article. If you are using Python in your ML project, no matter in which IDE you are, you may find it useful to learn about different types of regression you can use in your code 👉
https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/wha/

More details on the regression implementation can be found here 👌
https://scikit-learn.org/