This new version will bring some new features related with the new Windows 8 UI, which Microsoft called Metro and will call something else as they release Windows 8, FireMonkey and others stuffs that will be announced later.

I will be posting my thoughts about this new version as soon Embarcadero release that. This is going to be my first independent and imparcial review about a new version since I left Embarcadero, stay tuned.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

My Borland history began in Brazil on December of 1995, had so many chapters (Borland/Inprise/CodeGear/Embarcadero), a new and important chapter started in December of 2006 when I moved to the United States and today this chapter comes to an end. Today is my last day at Embarcadero Technologies.

I would like to thank all of you around the world for the great time we shared together during all of this years, for all the conversations face-to-face, online, by email or phone. I have been your advocate during all of this years was something unique and enjoyable, something I will always take with me.

The 17 years of Delphi was only possible because of the support of this energetic community, keep sending your feedbacks to Embarcadero, specially now with FireMonkey, which has a long way to go.

This blog will continue and software development will continue to be the predominant topic here. My videos on YouTube will continue and I expected to publish other videos as well. Finally you can continue or start following me on Twitter @andreanolanusse

I will be around and you can contact me here or via e-mail andreano AT gmail DOT com

Now is time to start writing the next chapter and look for new opportunities, that I expect to be challenging and fun.

Sincerely,

Andreano Lanusse

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

This release represents a new era for Delphi and C++Builder developers, there are lot of new stuffs on this release and we will show all of them during the RAD Studio XE Tour, in the mean time I would like to highlight some of them:

[ilink style=”tick”]New Delphi for 64-bit Windows and full VCL/RTL support[/ilink]
[ilink style=”tick”]Full monitoring and controlling of DataSnap connections[/ilink]
[ilink style=”tick”]LiveBinding, the new mechanism for binding any type of data[/ilink]
[ilink style=”tick”]dbExpress ODBC driver[/ilink]
[ilink style=”tick”]Cloud API support for Amazon S3[/ilink]
[ilink style=”tick”]VCL Styles to modernize the look and feel of VCL applications[/ilink]
[ilink style=”tick”]FireMonkey the new platform for NATIVE software development[/ilink]

FireMonkey is a big step forward, it opens a whole new market for Delphi and C++Builder developers, allowing to offer their current applications on Mac, develop new products and at the end deploy their applications through App Store reaching millions of end users. The power of FireMonkey will distinguish your applications from any other.

Much more to come, stay tuned to this blog, other Embarcadero blogs and our Embarcadero website throughout this month for more information.

[button link=”http://www.embarcadero.com/world-tour” size=”large” style=”note” color=”red” border=”white” text=”light” window=”yes”]Register today for the RAD Studio XE2 World Tour[/button]

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

The MapKit provide a visual presentation of geographic information using Google Maps data and image, using the MKMapView control, the same use in the iPhone Maps app. The MapKit framework is exposed on MonoTouch via the MonoTouch.MapKit namespace.

CoreLocation works on a number of iOS devices using a variety of technologies to determine position, and using a built-in compass of newer devices provides the heading the device is pointing to. Using this information you can determine where users are and what direction their device is facing, and by monitoring changes to that data how fast they are moving and how far they have traveled. The CoreLocation framework is exposed on MonoTouch via the MonoTouch.CoreLocation namespace, and deal with two types of information: Location and Heading.

I’m assuming you already watch my introductory presentation about iPhone which I explain how to create a simple Web browser using Mono IDE and Interface Builder, on this post I will just go through the implementation.

In order to use MKMapView you just need to drag and drop the control in your window using Interface Builder, also the Segmented Control which will allow you to change the Map type (Standard, Hybrid, Satellite).

Based on the address informed I will add a PIN on the correspondent location, to do add PIN markers to the map requires creating and adding MKAnnotations to the MKMapView. MKAnnotation is a abstract class and need to be implemented in your application, like the code bellow.

	  MyAnnotation nested in AppDelegate = public class(MKAnnotation)
	  private
	    _coordinate: CLLocationCoordinate2D;
	    _title: System.String;
	    _subtitle: System.String;
	  public
	    property Coordinate : CLLocationCoordinate2D read _coordinate write _coordinate;override;
	    property Title: System.String read _title; override;
	    property Subtitle: System.String read _subtitle; override;
     	    // The custom constructor is required to pass the values to this class,
	    // because in the MKAnnotation base the properties are read-only
	    constructor (l: CLLocationCoordinate2D; t: System.String; s: System.String);

	  end;

Now I had to implement the Search Bar delegate to handle events that it generates, it’s not a full implementation of the UISearchDelegate but it implement what is necessary to implement the search behavior.

The Search button will retrieve the latitude/longitude from Google’s web service and add a pin to the map using the MyAnnotation class. Remember you need to sign up a Google Maps key at http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html to use this application, assigned the Google Maps Key to the variable GoogleMapsKey.

	  MySearchBarDelegate nested in AppDelegate = public class(UISearchBarDelegate)
	  private
	    app: AppDelegate;
	    lastResult: MyAnnotation;
	    GoogleMapsKey:String := String.Empty; // Define you google maps key here.
            // Keep a reference to the application so we can access the UIControls.
	   // This needs to be an internal class to access those (private) controls.
	  public
	    constructor (a: AppDelegate);
		// Method for the searchbar to call when the user wants to search,
		// where we create and call the Geocoder class. Note that we are
		// calling it synchronously which is undesirable in a "real"
		// application.
	    method SearchButtonClicked(searchBar: UISearchBar); override;
	  end;

method AppDelegate.MySearchBarDelegate.SearchButtonClicked(searchBar: UISearchBar);
begin

  var g := new Geocoder(GoogleMapsKey);
  var location: CLLocationCoordinate2D;
  searchBar.ResignFirstResponder;
  UIApplication.SharedApplication.NetworkActivityIndicatorVisible := true;

  // synchronous webservice call
  if g.Locate(searchBar.Text, out location) then begin
    if lastResult <> nil then
    begin
      // if there is already a pin on the map, remove it
      app.Map.RemoveAnnotation(lastResult)
    end;

    app.Map.SetCenterCoordinate(location, true);
    var pin := new MyAnnotation(location, searchBar.Text, location.Latitude.ToString + ',' + location.Longitude.ToString);
    app.Map.AddAnnotationObject(pin);
    lastResult := pin;
  end
  else
  begin
    // display a message that the webservice call didn't work
    using alert := new UIAlertView('Not found', 'No match found for ' + searchBar.Text, nil, 'OK', nil) do
    begin
      alert.Show()
    end
  end;
  UIApplication.SharedApplication.NetworkActivityIndicatorVisible := false;
end;

To finalized here the implementation of the Geo code using Google web services, just passing the address and Google will retrieve the latitude/longitude.

interface

uses
  System,
  System.Xml,
  System.IO,
  System.Net,
  MonoTouch.CoreLocation;

// Documentation for the service http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/
type
  Geocoder = public class
  public
    constructor (key: System.String);
    // Sign up for a Google Maps key http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html
  private
    var _GoogleMapsKey: System.String;
    var xmlString: System.String := '';
  public
    method Locate(query: System.String; out return: CLLocationCoordinate2D): System.Boolean;
  private
    // Retrieve a Url via WebClient
    class method GetUrl(url: System.String): System.String;
  end;

implementation

constructor Geocoder(key: System.String);
begin
  _GoogleMapsKey := key;
end;

method Geocoder.Locate(query: System.String; out return: CLLocationCoordinate2D): System.Boolean;
var
  url: System.String := 'http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q={0}&output=xml&key=' + _GoogleMapsKey;
  coords: XmlNode := nil;
  xd: XmlDocument;
  xnm: XmlNamespaceManager;
  gl: System.String;
  coordinateArray: array of System.String;
begin

  url := String.Format(url, query);
  return := new CLLocationCoordinate2D(0, 0);

  try
    xmlString := GetUrl(url);
    xd := new XmlDocument();
    xd.LoadXml(xmlString);
    xnm := new XmlNamespaceManager(xd.NameTable);
    coords := xd.GetElementsByTagName('coordinates')[0]
  except 

  end;

  if coords <> nil then begin
     coordinateArray := coords.InnerText.Split(',');

     if coordinateArray.Length >= 2 then begin
        gl := Convert.ToDouble(coordinateArray[1].ToString()).ToString + ',' + Convert.ToDouble(coordinateArray[0].ToString());

      return := new CLLocationCoordinate2D(Convert.ToDouble(coordinateArray[1].ToString()),
                                            Convert.ToDouble(coordinateArray[0].ToString()));
      exit true
     end
  end;

  exit false
end;

class method Geocoder.GetUrl(url: System.String): System.String;
var
  return: System.String := System.String.Empty;
  client: System.Net.WebClient := new WebClient();
begin

  using strm: Stream := client.OpenRead(url) do
  begin
    var sr: StreamReader := new StreamReader(strm);
    return := sr.ReadToEnd()
  end;

  exit return;
end;

end.

When we run the application we can have three different views of the Map, the pin (in red) is the location of our office here in Scotts Valley.

The source code is available at CodeCentral.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

The Web browser source code sample is available here

Watch more CodeRage replay videos

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Here some of the new project templates available:

• iPhone Navigation-based Project
• iPhone OpenGL Project
• iPhone Utility Project
• iPad Window-based Project

Also, after your project create you will see some new templates using the option File –> New File

• iPad View
• iPad View with Controller
• iPhone View
• iPhone View Controller

Update instructions:

• Select the Tools|Add-In Manager menu item in the MonoDevelop IDE.
• In the dialog that opens, click the Repositories button, then select Add and add the URL https://secure.remobjects.com/api/monodevelop/mac/.. (You only need to do this once, and this will give you access to all future add-ons).
• Once the repository is registered, click the Install Add-Ins… button – you will find the new templates under the Templates section.

That is it.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

On this session I will be talking about Delphi Prism and .NET development using Novell’s Mono and MonoTouch Framework. I will explain the requirements to start using Mono and MonoTouch, what kind of support they provide, how works the architecture and more.

As well I will cover development and deployment on Linux of ASP.NET and .NET WebServices using Mono and Delphi Prism IDE, also iPhone development through MonoTouch and Mono IDE integrated with Delphi Prism.

My session only starts at 3:00pm (PST) but CodeRage starts at 5:00AM (PST), check the agenda and have fun!!!

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

In other words start development your iOS applications and make some money.

Apple you provide a new reviewer guidelines, explaining what is allowed and what is not before you start build applications.

That’s a great news, days ago I published an article about iPhone development take a look.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

It is time to start looking the new RAD Studio XE which includes Delphi XE, C++Builder XE, Delphi Prism XE and the new RadPHP EXE.

All products information are now available, as well the trial editions. Take a look on the Ultimate RAD Studio XE Upgrade, you can get all Embarcadero products and improve your software and database development.

All Embarcadero Evangelist will be travelling around the world to show you the best RAD Studio release, save some time to attend the events.

Personally during the next 2 weeks I will be in USA and Latin America. I will be in the follow cities:

• September 1- 7:00pm-9:00pm – Orange Co., CA
• September 2 – 7:00pm-9:00pm – Los Angeles, CA
• September 7 8:30am – 1:00pm – Mexico D.F., MX
• September 9 – 8:30am – 1:00pm – Guadalajara, MX
• September 21 – 5:00pm – 7:00pm – Denver, CO
• September 22 – 6:00pm – 8:00pm – Salt Lake City, UT

In the mean time, download the trial and start looking the great new features for Delphi, C++Builder, Delphi Prism and RadPHP.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Now take some time and visit the  RAD Studio XE Preview to learn more about the new Delphi XE, C++Builder XE, Delphi Prism XE and RadPHP XE.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

The video will show:

• FinalBuilder tools (in Enterprise and Architect) to automate your build process
• Command line audits, metrics and doc generation to add even more functionality to your automated builds
• AQTime profiling features to deliver high performance apps
• CodeSite logging tools to help you build high quality apps

Watch the video:

More previews next week, for a while visit the RAD Studio XE Preview page

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

For iPhone Development we use two IDEs:

• MonoDevelop IDE integrated with Delphi Prism to create and manage our projects.
• Interface Builder allows developers to create interfaces for applications using a graphical user interface.

Both IDE’s are very easy to use and reusing our knowledge in Delphi language plus the new features of Delphi Prism language helps a lot. For every new platform is important to understand how it works, with iPhone is not different and I high recommend you to understand first the MVC concept and the iPhone Platform.

Today I was working on some samples and I took two screenshots showing the MonoDevelop IDE and Interface Builder, the second one shows my simple web browser built in Delphi Prism XE.

MonoDevelop IDE integrated with Delphi Prism XE

Interface Builder in front and behind MonoDevelop IDE integrated with Delphi Prism XE

Next week, here in San Jose, CA we have the DelphiLive, our Delphi Conference where you will have the opportunity to meet and talk face to face with other Delphi developers, as well you will meet the Delphi team and improve your skills. My session “Building managed-code cross platform applications with Delphi Prism” on DelphiLive will demonstrate how you can start developing iPhone applications and how to develop web applications using ASP.NET and deploy on Linux.

I forgot to add an important information about the requirements to build iPhone apps with Delphi Prism, in order to deploy apps to the Apple iPhone AppStore users will need to obtain a MonoTouch deployment license from Novell, join the Apple Developer program, and must adhere to Apple’s iPhone developer license terms. While Apple so far is passing MonoTouch applications, including games built with the Unity Framework, we cannot guarantee that Apple will pass MonoTouch developed applications in the AppStore.

Today Apple announced to “relax all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code”.

For sure there are lot of question about this topic. I will blog more about iPhone Development with Delphi Prism in the future.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Developer community today we start the RAD Studio XE Sneak Previews, which includes Delphi XE, C++Builder XE, Delphi Prism XE and RadPHP XE, new names, new tools, new features, and a lot of high productivity in RAD Studio XE.

XE in few words means:

• Heterogeneous database support with no additional cost
• ToolCloud enable which will help you to management and distribute our Tools in your organization
• Easy way to upgrade do All-Access XE and get access for all Embarcadero database and developer Tools

But, now let’s talk about some of the great features in RAD Studio XE.

• Powerful integration with Subversion in Delphi XE, C++Builder XE and Delphi Prism XE.
• Beyond Compare integrated into the RAD Studio environment is that it really gives you a rich interface for comparing files and understanding the differences that happen between versions of files
• RadPHP (formerly Delphi for PHP) completed redesigned including a lot of new features in the IDE, debugger, source code editor, new VCL components and more. Also RadPHP enable developers to create a Facebook Application in a very easy way, you will see some videos soon about that.
• Generate Sequence Diagrams helping you understand your Delphi code

There are much more, watch the first RAD Studio XE Sneak Preview.

Visit the RAD Studio Sneak Preview page and stay tuned!!!

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

Delphi Prism XE provide full support for .NET 4. the follow examples shows how to enumerate Directories and Files.

Enumareting directory names – this samples list all directories under “c:\Program Files\”

class method ConsoleApp.Main(args: array of System.String);
begin
  try
    var dirPath: System.String := 'c:\Program Files';

    // LINQ query.
    var dirs :=  from dir in Directory.EnumerateDirectories(dirPath) select dir;

    // Show results.
    for each dir in dirs do begin
      // Remove path information from string.
      Console.WriteLine('{0}', dir.Substring(dir.LastIndexOf('\') + 1))
    end;
    Console.WriteLine('{0} directories found.', dirs.Count().ToString());

    // Optionally create a List collection.
    var workDirs: List := new List(dirs)
  except
    on UAEx: UnauthorizedAccessException do begin
      Console.WriteLine(UAEx.Message)
    end;
    on PathEx: PathTooLongException do begin
      Console.WriteLine(PathEx.Message)
    end;
  end;
  Console.ReadKey;

end;

Enumerating file names in all directories – this sample search all TXT files which contains the word “license”

class method ConsoleApp.Main(args: array of System.String);
begin

  try

    var files :=  from sfile in Directory.EnumerateFiles('c:\', '*.txt', SearchOption.AllDirectories)
                  from line in File.ReadLines(sfile)
                  where line.Contains('license')
                  select new class( File := sfile, Line := line);

    for each f in files do begin
      Console.WriteLine('{0}'#9'{1}', f.File, f.Line)
    end;

    Console.WriteLine('{0} files found.', files.Count().ToString());
  except
    on UAEx: UnauthorizedAccessException do begin
      Console.WriteLine(UAEx.Message);
    end;
    on PathEx: PathTooLongException do begin
      Console.WriteLine(PathEx.Message);
    end;
  end;

  Console.ReadKey;

end;

Enumerating a collection of DirectoryInfo objects – this sample list all directories created before April of 2010

class method ConsoleApp.Main(args: array of string);
begin

  var dirPrograms: DirectoryInfo := new DirectoryInfo('c:\program files');
  var StartOf2010: DateTime := new DateTime(2010, 4, 1);

  // LINQ query for all directories created before April of 2010.
  var dirs :=  from dir in dirPrograms.EnumerateDirectories()
               where dir.CreationTimeUtc < StartOf2010
               select new class (ProgDir := dir);
  // Show results.
  for each di in dirs do begin
    Console.WriteLine('{0}', di.ProgDir.Name)
  end;

  Console.ReadKey;
end;

You can download the Delphi Prism 2011 Trial here.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse

LINQ is a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that encompass language-integrated query, set, and transform operations. It extends all .NET Language like Delphi Prism with native language syntax for queries and provides class libraries to take advantage of these capabilities

There are many ways to use LINQ, querying objects, XML and database, there are other implementations which allow you to query other artifacts.

To start to understanding LINQ, I will exemplify the use of LINQ to Objects querying a list of objects.

The source code used in this post is part of the Delphi Prism demos, folder Linq under Delphi Prism demos. I developed these samples and later we added to the product.

The following example shows a simple query over an Array of String.

type
  Words = public class
  private
    words : Array of String := ['hello', 'Delphi Prism', 'wonderful', 'linq', 'beautiful', 'world' ];
  public
    method SimpleSelect;
    method ComplexSelect;
  end;

The following code shows the implementation for the methos SimpleSelect using LINQ to return a list of words whose length is less than or equal to five characters.

implementation

method Words.SimpleSelect;
begin
  var shortwords := From word in words
                    Where word.Length <= 5
                    Select word;

  Console.WriteLine('Simple select statment');
  Console.WriteLine;

  for each word in shortwords do begin
    Console.WriteLine(word);
  end;

end;

Let’s step by step on this code.

  var shortwords := From word in words
                    Where word.Length <= 5
                    Select word;
end;

Using a simple for..each syntax you will be able to interact through the collection shortwords collection, see the code below.

  for each word in shortwords do begin
    Console.WriteLine(word);
  end;

So far you ask about the capability to order, group by, etc. Simples answer, YES you can. The following example return the words grouped by length, ordered descending and returning a class and not more a string.

  var groups := From word in words
                Order by word asc
                Group word by word.Length into lengthGroups
                Order by lengthGroups.Key desc
                select new class (Length:=lengthGroups.Key,Words:=lengthGroups);

We add the clause Order by and Group, where Key represents the string Length for each collection element.

One of the most powerful feature is the ability to create dynamic classes using the syntax new class, beyond that we are using the lambda expression.

Lambda expressions are a special type of expression that can be best thought of as mapping a set of one or more values to a result, using a function, sample below Length:=lengthGroups.Key .

select new class (Length:=lengthGroups.Key,Words:=lengthGroups);

In case you need to interact through the group, just loop the variable groups, where the property Words represent the list of words for each group.

  for each grupo in groups do begin
    Console.WriteLine('Words of length ' + grupo.Length);
    for each word in grupo.Words do
      Console.WriteLine('   ' + word);
  end;

Next post I will explain LINQ to XML, see you soon.

Andreano Lanusse | Technology and Software Development Follow me on Twitter: @andreanolanusse