Running Delphi applications on Raspberry Pi 3

..using RTAndroid 7.1 on RPi3 using ADB over network.

Update: RTAndroid has now become emteria.OS at https://emteria.com/.

Embarcadero has Linux (console) applications on their roadmap - but that is for AMD64 (x64 - see comments) only - read more about the product roadmap here.

Despite the above I did get my Delphi application running on the RPi 3 B hardware - read below:

Fallback for non-installed SQL Server Native Clients

- or how to survive in a world where you are not in control of everything.

Today I did deploy a small application that did connect to a MS SQL Server, so a driver was needed, and I do prefer to follow the recommendations on using the latest native drivers - and I also try and avoid ODBC as the plague.

What had slipped my mind until the first test user got an error - was that in a plain Windows installation only the "old" ODBC SQL Server driver exists - and since I really didn't want to involve the whole IT support/operation/packaging scenario - to get the SQL Server Native Client 11.0 client pushed out to some users around the world - who also would be lacking admin rights, so that they would not be able to install the drivers themselves - I had to include a fallback option.

I refuse still to understand why the newer Windows versions keep only having the old "SQL Server" ODBC driver and not also include a "native" one, when that is what is been recommended over and over again.

Why "browser" clients not always are a good idea

- or why you could/should consider a n-tier setup, spiced up with a briefcase model - part nil.

I haven't really been able to see the revelation in browser clients - and I am not quite sure why anyone would always consider this as a good option.

It might look tempting from an IT operations standpoint and maybe also from a management view - but would they have a chance to know - it is the users experience and productivity that counts - and that is what we all should care about.

So I would say that if the job the client needs to handle is comparable to an old VT100 dumb terminal - then browser it is.

Unofficial JEDI JCL and JVCL patch for Delphi XE8

- and honorable mentioning of the new GetIt package manager in XE8.

Update 21. September 2015: Delphi 10 Seattle now has JCL and JVCL available in GetIt.

Update 10. April 2015: Seems like a proper official update is being done - activity on GitHub - Thanks :-) - so ignore my patch files. So I don't have to roll up my sleves during the weekend to do a proper job. EMBT has expressed interest in getting the JVCL into the GetIt package manager.

I was in the process of mixing together a small mock-up – using VirtualTreeView and some JEDI VCL components in XE7, when I couldn't resist the urge to install XE8 on that machine – since there are many of the new features I wanted badly.

Do you miss the days at BorCon?

- or things I should had gotten rid of years back - maybe :-D

I had, or maybe I still have a tendency to save old stuff that have some sentimental value - my wife would probably say she had the same - still having me around.

Well anyway, I have decided to digitized the most of that old stuff - things I haven't used or looked at for years - digitizing it so I would not feel a sentimental loss - lets hope my wife won't settle with a digital photograph of me - or a 3D model (that would be cool).

Get to know your database

- or how to make your database applications shine.

Once in a while I stumble across fellow developers or applications, that could shine by doing things a bit differently and adding extra skills to their tool set - a change of focus might be the only thing that is needed.

One example is the art of refactoring, another is some basic database knowledge.

I have several times meet people and companies who develop business application that depend heavily on database access - that uses their chosen RDBMS just as a bucket.

Let me give some examples of "performance smells" - you might easily expand the list, and please do in the comments.

TIniFiles and its alternatives

- or how to make legacy applications survive, with less work.

When applications gets an “End of Life” sentence – it doesn’t mean that they just can be closed down – they might need to wait for their successor to be build – and meanwhile it has to survive in the field of changing infrastructure, OS upgrades and consolidation.

What at the time seemed like a good idea and best practice, would end up as the sins of the past. INI files could be one of these – and here are some minor tips on what can be done to conform to newer or changed environments – without rewriting too much code.