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August 2010
6
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Memory leaks, log analysis and Unix command-line tools
Entropy Overload
– I had cause recently to tackle a fairly tricky memory leak bug in the Delphi compiler as hosted by the IDE. The test case for the bug was complicated: compiling and running a large portion of the IDE itself. After a compile, subsequent debug runs of the IDE kept on increasing the debugging IDE's ...
May 2010
9
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Android: Momentum and Apps
Entropy Overload
– I'm liking the current momentum behind Android. I'm sure Apple will come out with their new phone soon, and the pendulum will swing a bit, but it's definitely a two horse race, and Apple isn't out of sight, not by a long shot. I got my Nexus One from http://www.google.com/phone a few months ago, to ...
8
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Locations vs Values: using RTTI to work with value types
Entropy Overload
– Delphi's Rtti unit is designed in substantial part around TValue, a kind of hold-all record that should be capable of containing almost any Delphi value, along with type information for that value. However, this means that when you're working with value types, such as static arrays and records, ...
April 2010
2
votes
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Programming font for VS2010
Entropy Overload
– So, Visual Studio 2010 shipped. Now I have a problem: what font to use? My old standby, Dina, is a bitmap font so it doesn't work with the WPF text editor in VS2010. Some things I look for in a programming font: High information density - vertical height in particular. For example, I use Dina at ...
March 2010
0
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JEDI newsgroup change
Entropy Overload
– I got word that the JEDI newsgroup changed after the old forums.talkto.net server died. The new server is at: news.delphi-jedi.org That's nntp on standard port 119. Please update your favorite news reader to this new server.
0
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CrashPlan for Backup on Nexenta
Entropy Overload
– For some time, I've been using cron jobs with rdiff-backup on Cygwin for backups. The cron job runs on a Windows server I have on my home network and iteratively mounts remote Windows shares (if they're present) and runs rdiff-backup over them, with the destination also being local. Then the job ...
February 2010
2
votes
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Multidimensional Separation of Concerns, or Matrix Inheritance
Entropy Overload
– I just spotted a paper that I didn't know existed before. Abstract: Done well, separation of concerns can provide many software engineering benefits, including reduced complexity, improved reusability, and simpler evolution. The choice of boundaries for separate concerns depends on both ...
January 2010
7
votes
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One-liner RAII in Delphi
Entropy Overload
– Some C++ aficionados point at the ability, in C++, to create an object such that the creation allocates some kind of resource, and the destruction frees the resource, with much glee. The idiom is RAII: Resource Acquisition Is Initialization. The technique can be a useful, albeit somewhat opaque, way ...
9
votes
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Using anonymous methods in method pointers
Entropy Overload
– Anonymous methods may have associated state. In particular, all variables that an anonymous method captures need to be kept alive so long as the anonymous method is callable. For this reason, anonymous methods are implemented with a lifetime management approach: anonymous methods are actually ...
13
votes
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Delphi 2010 RTTI Contexts: how they work, and a usage note
Entropy Overload
– Delphi 2010 includes extended support for RTTI, also known as run-time type info or reflection. Many design approaches that have previously only been possible with managed languages like C# and Java because of the code annotation and introspection they required should now be possible in the Delphi ...
December 2009
3
votes
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Playing DVDs in Windows 7
Entropy Overload
– Oh, how I pine for the blissful days of Windows XP, when menus were still in fashion, the start menu didn't contain a tree view, applications didn't require a half-dozen clicks to launch (to expand the tree view, you see), and the user's colour theme choices were respected. Better days, when the ...
13
votes
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Commonly Confused Tidbits re .NET Garbage Collector
Entropy Overload
– I recently read a less than informed blog post purporting to describe the .NET garbage collector, but when pressed to point to a better one, I couldn't find a single concise article that covered everything I thought should have been covered. Type and Memory Safety We all know what the gist of GC ...
November 2009
1
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On the Difficulty of setting the Windows 7 Desktop Wallpaper
Entropy Overload
– You need to be a software engineer to precisely and correctly set the Windows background in Windows 7. I have a multi-monitor setup, and I use a very particular method for laying out windows on my secondary screen: I have them cascaded, from the top-left corner of the screen towards the bottom ...
October 2009
0
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Bad week
Entropy Overload
– It's been a bad week. My main hard drive crashed last Monday or so, while today my scooter is gone, presumed stolen. On the bright side, the final component of my new PC arrived and I was able to get Windows 7 up and running. The new machine has an i7 920, so things like %NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS% ...
July 2009
3
votes
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Public interest rule of thumb
Entropy Overload
– TechCrunch is having a crisis of conscience over what they'll do with internal Twitter documents they've received. My rule of thumb is pretty simple. The documents are stolen. Unless the documents reveal wrongdoing greater than stealing, such that the public interest served in publishing is greater ...
