The title might give you the idea that there’s any. Well there is, sort of. I haven’t done any development lately, partly because there’s a lot of other stuff to do, but also because we had a lot of visitors coming to peek at the Surface unit.
Besides all that it is, it is also a very good marketing instrument for our company. Simply having it make the crowds turn up. And if we show the small examples on it that we have, probably convinces people already.
We now have two developers working on it full time (that also is a reason for me not to really press for development time on it for myself). One of them will be working on a Concierge-like program (using a map to display information about buildings) and the other will be working on moving stuff around on a 2D-map of a building, calculating all kinds of things doing that.
I will be focusing on marketing and finding business partners for the development on the Surface unit.
So, if you have any suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
I am a programmer since day one of the PC. However, I have always been working on business applications, mostly working on documentation software. I recently started work on a MS Surface unit and that involves programming using WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) or XNA. Since we also do a lot of web stuff, I chose WPF for my current development work.
Programming in WPF is a much more visual experience than what I was brought up with (Cobol, Fortran, Basic, Pascal, C, C++, Smalltalk, et cetera, et cetera). An important part of WPF are the definitions in XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language). This XML file defines the objects in your window and application. I am currently using Microsoft Blend to edit the XAML files, but you can of course edit them with Visual Studio too.
I’m just beginning with C#, .NET, WPF, XAML and Surface. Our company software is written in Delphi/Win32, but we will make a transition to C# and .NET this year.I won’t be programming on that myself (that much) anymore, but I want to know all about the technology we will be using of course. So, I’ve taken up the challenge to write some software for our MS Surface unit to learn our new environment. I might use some ‘wrong’ terms and concepts. I will make some beginner mistakes. Bear with me though: I’m learning along the way. This blog shares my experiences doing so for you to learn from or laugh at…
As said, I’m not brought up with a lot of graphics in my software, let alone handling or animating them. So, I’m not that comfortable (yet) with the way WPF-programmers work. But, I will learn along the way and will share my thoughts and experiences for others to learn or to laugh at.
My first program
I am targeting the MS Surface unit and I thought it would be nice to begin with a small game: Memory (I’m assuming here that everybody knows the Memory game). The logic in that is simple, it’s quite suited for the MS Surface unit, it will be a nice gift for new Surface customers, but most of all, it will be a good subject for my learning experience.
So, the functional specs are:
The images used for the memory cards will be taken from the clients computer
The difficulty can be set using a slider
The memory cards animate when flipped.
(there’s a couple of more specs, but those will come later)
So, how to start? The first steps were easy. Create a board with images. The actual flipping will come later.
Update #1: I was writing this while working on my game. I have now proceeded a bit more, but I got word that Microsoft had planned for a programmers course coming week. So, I’ll be going to Paris a bit later this week and I hope to get a bit of a head start. I will finish this game and I might even make it open source. I’ll let you know how I get along.
Update #2: I am also really not introduced to the world of 3D. However, I found this great little article that helped me on my way. So, the first hurdles are taken. Maybe I will be able to do some nice stuff on my own to coming days.
As mentioned, yesterday our surface unit arrived. It was my day off, so it was not until today that I could get my hands on it. Now, fact is that I am swamped in regular work, so I have to work late to get some extra stuff done. And, of course the family suffers, because I won’t be at home at night.
So, the family has to come to me, which has the added benefit of having a representative test user group around me:
The guy is four years old, doesn’t own a Wii, Playstation or Xbox (or any other electronic equipment). He can however handle the remote DVD control. The images show him only a mere minute after first laying his eyes and hands on the Surface unit.
I think it’s quite amazing and a good advertisement for the technology that a kid this young can start working with it immediately without any help. It won’t be too difficult to convince our clients that usability is not an issue.
We got word that our Surface unit will be arriving on Tuesday. All preparations are done. We also learned that MS will reuse the package material (40kg or so in weight :-|). I think that’s a good thing: package material that large in size would be a waste when simply disposed off.
Tuesday is my day off though, so it will be Wednesday before I can lay my hands on them. Our new programmers will be working on other things for the next 4 weeks now (we had it planned that they could start at the very beginning of the year). A bit of a set back in our planning, but we’ll have to take it as it comes.
I just upgraded my Vista Ultimate 64 bits installation to Windows 7 beta, build 7000. All is well and running smoothly I might add. It already feels like Win7 is much faster and responds quite a bit better than Vista does.
Also, good to find that Bitdefender simply continues to run, which was a concern to me.
All our own software runs fine too, so I’m happy for now.
Starting real work on this system starting tomorrow.
This helps a lot, as it will make virtual earth a 'normal' control. And it is now also pretty easy to use it on the surface unit (or at least the simulator). For our demo stages, this is good enough.
As you might know I will start work on a MS Surface unit shortly. Now, I've come up with a couple of ideas to implement. Some are more obvious (photos from one of our projects presented on a map) but others are more intriguing (using the unit as an aid for biological determination work). I also want to do some work on a 'social networking' application which can be used by 'customers' to interact with each other, even when they are not in the same location.
However, a client of ours came up with another idea. This client works in the 'office cleaning business' and would like an application that will scan a map of a building and by adding information to the map (dragging people to rooms, coloring floors to indicate complexity) the application will calculate the price for cleaning that building.
So, I think that will be the first application I will be working on. I will keep you posted - for as far as the MS license agreements allow me to - about the progress.
Some time ago I wrote about the poor support on a component that I'm using (ProfDHTMLEdit). For some time now, it seems the component (or the author) is dead and buried. I've given up hope for a D2009 version of the control any time in the future.
Now, for me that doesn't matter, since I won't be porting my software to D2009 after all (at least, that's the current thinking). But, what about the other customers? As you can read in the newsgroup the customers are getting more desperate and - if I were allowed to - I would like to help them.
So, what would my (legal) position be? I think I could offer my services as a consultant to an individual ProfDHTMLEdit user. No problems in hiring somebody that will do some work on a component that you purchased with the sources included I think. But, to most people that won't be an option, because it would become too expensive (the control itself only costs $100 or so).
Another matter would be if I would make a D2009 version of the component available for all to download. Let alone if I would sell it. I think there would be some legal problems if I did.
But, when would enough be enough? When would I (or anyone) be allowed to publish a new version of a control that no longer is supported? What are your thoughts?
Regular visitors to my blog know that I have been working with Delphi for the last decade or so. The love between Delphi and I has grown, although my old love (just about everything that Microsoft did and does) never died out. At regular intervals I did some things with VB, C++, C#, ASP and ASP.Net.
For me, 2009 will be a year where I will say goodbye to Delphi (for new things that is) and will move to C# and .Net for all of our software. There is just too big a gap between development in the C#/.Net world and the Delphi world, despite the recent releases of Delphi 2009 and Prism. Of course, that's IMHO only, but in my company that's what counts.
So, I will be writing more and more about C# and not that much anymore about Delphi.
The first new product that we will do will be using the MS Surface unit, which will be installed in my office the first week of 2009. I can't wait to get going with that. I'll keep you posted (as far as I'm allowed by MS, because I'm bound to a pre release agreement for the MS Surface unit).
Bye,
Bart
Ps: From now on I will only tag postings that are about Delphi only with the Delphi tag. Other postings (not tagged Delphi) won't get picked up by delphifeeds.com, so if you want to stay in touch, please RSS subscribe or come back on a regular basis.
I have fallen in love with Twitter. Somehow it's interesting to know what people are doing. I find myself simply picking random Twitterers to find out what they are up to. I also found it very entertaining to follow Stephen Fry on his trip to Madagascar.
Is it voyeurism? Yes, probably, though not in a sexual way :-) I mean, watching the Delphi Twitters arouses only the geekiest of geeks ;-)
I also found that the astronauts on the Endeavour are twittering. That reminded me of a project of many moons ago that I did for Nasa.
I developed an application that used an Apple portable computer and a pen table of some sort. A Hypercard stack contained a lot of information (images, text, maps, et cetera). We developed a nice little application to browse that information. The table was used to draw something on top of the pages displayed.
Now, the fun thing was that there was one portable in the space shuttle and one on the ground. Whatever page was navigated to on either end, the others got to see too. And whatever was drawn on top of that page was shown on the other end too.
This helped communication between the astronauts and the ground people in explaining what to do at certain times. People on the ground would simply find a photo of the door to open and mark an X next to the lever to pull.
As someone that only failed to make a pilot due to a stupid motor cycle accident, you can understand that this little project (it wasn't that hard to do) is one of the dearest to me. I even got some memorabilia sent to me when that flight was over.
So, every time I see a little twitter from outer space, I think back to the time when I was still hacking my way through Hypercard. Sometimes it's fun being the older guy in the room :-)
Would that be Obama, or would it be McCain? I think Nader, as an independent, would be the best choice.
Ok, so I’ve got to make this a more interesting posting. Here goes one attempt.
If you would go for McCain, you’ve got an oldy with a lot of experience (much like myself I might add). You would probably get an excellent programmer, but not going beyond the possibilities of the VCL. He would stick to the VCL, maybe buy a component pack or two, but the single EXE would be his target. He’s heard of webservices and code injection, but doesn’t really know what it means. He just manages to get a setup program out (of course using Installshield, not writing something himself). The freakiest thing he does, is implement skinning using DevExpress.
Now, when you look at Obama, he probably would write his own VCL components from scratch. While programming he would have a couple of visions in sight. The client should be satisfied, but maybe the components are good enough to sell later on to another client. He’d keep his eyes open to other platforms all the time, but would stick to Delphi as his primary development tool. Unless, there is some major upset. Then, after careful deliberation, he would drop Delphi. The first attempt will be with a couple of softening arguments, but when there is another upset, it’s out with the tool all together. The end result would be a set of well designed components, all working together on various levels. Of course, one component can crash, but that’s all part of the development strategy. The one that crashes, is out of the door and the next one can be developed.
And Nader? Well, of course he would stick to using Smalltalk. All very well designed, but commercially not very viable.
I’ve been blogging about the Microsoft PDC the last week and, although it strictly didn’t have anything to do with the Delphi community, I still think it is interesting to know what happened there. I will do one last summing up tomorrow on the event, but there was one presentation I would like to highlight.
I attended the talk on the WorldWideTelescope Research project. I had installed the software earlier and was really amazed at its quality. At the presentation I found out that it basically was a one man project by a guy named Jonathan Fay. I didn’t know that before and my respect goes out to that guy. I regard myself as a pretty good programmer, but what he has come up with is out of my league. So, respect to you Jonathan.
You can watch the presentation at http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC48/. And, if you think of killing the video after a couple of minutes of watching, at least skip through to about 27 minutes and watch him talk about a presentation by a 6 year old kid, all done with his software. The passion that Jonathan shows after that really sums it up. That moment made this presentation the highlight of the conference to me.
The TcxLocalizer component helps you localize those of your applications that use our controls, as well as third-party or standard controls. This component provides centralized control over an application’s UI language or locale. Using this component, switching to another locale is as simple as changing a single option.
Todays keynote was exceptional. The topics were coming from Microsoft Research and although the first half hour or so was full of stuff mentioning how important Microsoft Research is to Microsoft and to the world, the remainder of the presentation was unbelievable good.
Sorry about the lack of pictures and videos this time; I didn’t have the camera ready. Sorry. The most cool stuff is at the end of the article so keep reading.
Keep reading to read about SecondLight
There was a talk about how MSR works in the field of medicine, helping researchers analyzing fast amounts of data. And although you really got the point that Microsoft’s technology is helping in that field, it didn’t feel really special.
There also was a talk about very tiny measuring devices for temperature and humidity and things like that, that are actually installed at the convention centre. The devices itself use about 4K of memory (remember that from the old days?) and only have a circuit board that’s the size of a quarter coin. It has a radio transmitter and, to give you a sense of things, there are about 100 of those sensors installed in the main hall. Microsoft has gathered the data about temperature and such during the last couple of days and presents the (vast amount of) data in nice graphical form. It really showed how the cooling system works and what the impact of the equipment, audience, and the cooling system is to the conditions in the hall.
Next, a new programming language for kids, called Boku, was shown. It uses a XBox console to let kids program a ‘games world’ and do really fantastic cool stuff using iconized commands. The speaker spoke quicker than a rapid firing machine gun, but what he showed was really AWESOME and I want one of those for my kids! This will be a very good reason for me to by an XBox (not quite sure if it was a PC or XBox that was used). Go look up the videos on Boku that are probably out there. It really was amazing to watch.
But, the real highlight of the key note was the stuff on what Microsoft calls SecondLight. Really DO GO find videos on that. It comes down to this. It uses a special kind of LCD and infrared cameras. The LCD can be made transparent by applying some kind of current to the screen.The effect is that the LCD will not only display the images as you know, but also lets a second image go through, to be projected on a simple piece of paper. And the fun thing is: this second image can be totally different from the image that is shown on the LCD. The effect is that you can display secondary information about (pieces of) the image on the primary LCD. (Side note: I just hear a fellow programmer calling home about this and he calls it “Freaking Cool”). You can hold a piece of simple paper just above the screen and show some detail information about the stuff that’s under that.
I find it hard to express in words, but really, really, go find videos and other information on this. It is freaking cool.
It really made me ponder about my own work. What a amazing boring job I have! I want to be working for Microsoft Research!
I installed the pre-beta Windows 7 that we got. About the Windows 7 client itself: it looks a lot like Vista but has a couple of nice new things. You will find others blogging about all the new things found in there, so I won’t.
But, here’s a little tip. It runs excellently in a Sun’s VirtualBox box. Just point to http://www.virtualbox.org to get your copy and try it. I got it up and running within the hour without a hitch and that’s on a good but not very modern portable. VirtualBox feels a lot faster than Virtual PC. I will need Virtual PC though, because the Visual Studio 2010 copy that we got is made available as a VirtualPC image.
The goodies are delivered on a very nice and small 150Gb hard disk that I probably keep using because of its physical size. It’s nice and small yet very useful.
I also got to shake hands finally with Nick Hodges, Allen Bauer, Marc Hoffman and Jim McKeeth. My Dutch accent prevents me from taking part in the little interview that Jim did (I’m just too embarrassed), but I will definitely listen to it when it’s online.
We are getting ready to go to the party at the universal Studios now. And some people were already getting ready for that :-)
I just watch a presentation on the PDC on MS Azure and Windows Live by Chris Anderson and Don Box. These guys had a great presentation prepared and it was pretty fun to watch. They showed a bunch of great techniques and demo-ed how Azure will host your stuff (applications and data alike). They also showed how easy it is to get something going with techniques and languages that we already know like C#, LinQ, et cetera. In my mind it shows the counter part to the Google Apps platform (and probably beyond that).
However, they hardly got any applause which I think was very funny in itself. Although the stuff they showed was excellent and pretty ground breaking. Now, why didn’t they got the applause that they were quite obviously expecting?
A couple of reasons are possible:
The audience didn’t get it. Nah, there are a couple of thousand developers in the audience and probably all very smart programming on a day to day basis. That can’t be it.
The stuff isn’t that special and people thinking: what’s so special about that? That can be it, but that would probably because the stuff is so easy to do. From within Visual Studio and with a couple of easy mouse clicks you can deploy your software out there and the same goes for your data.
Now, the third reason might be it (and it is the reason why I didn’t clap my hands a lot). This is ground breaking stuff that gives companies and developers a lot of power to create new solutions quickly and much faster than before. But, would you trust your applications and data in the hands of Microsoft?
I think that for applications that provide public services, like route finding applications, this all is great stuff. You can very quickly create your app, deploy it out there in the cloud for others to use. However for you business application you would like to keep your stuff on your own machines.
Now, what was shown in the demo, and maybe wasn’t emphasized enough, is the lack of needing to know where stuff is. It might be in the clouds or on your own machines, it might be in an Azure SQL Server database or in your own: it doesn’t matter. Simply by changing a root URI you can use the stuff from where ever it is.
So far I think Azure and the like is great stuff and I will certainly be thinking on how to use it. It is just not clear to me yet how I can use it in our software (which creates documentation solutions). But, maybe I should give myself a bit of time to think about that.
After a wonderful Sunday at Venice beach, having a beer and fish and chips at a Irish pub, the jet lag hit us and we had a hard time staying awake. It made us miss one of the parties of the PDC, but after all, we are here for work, aren’t we?
So this morning we got up at 6:30 AM but still didn’t make it to the start of the key note speech on Monday. But, when we got there, I felt we hadn’t missed much. Key note speeches don’t make a successful conference. We sat it out, but next time, I will leave early if the speeches are that boring.
I attended a (what turned out to be) basic demonstration of Sharepoint and having learned my lesson at the key note speech I did leave that early this time.
I visited the CodeGear booth, got a t-shirt, and was told the Prism DVD doesn’t have anything that I don’t already have. I got to speak to my family using Skype (which was a first to me) and was able to kiss my son to sleep which was a great bonus.
I had a chance to catch up with the ‘Partner manager’ for MS Surface and later attended a presentation on MS Surface. And to me, that was the absolute top of the Monday. The presentation was pretty funny, and the stuff the guys showed was really awesome. If you never had your hands on a MS Surface table: try to do so. It’s a fun and exciting experience.
The presentation showed what Microsoft has done to make the life of the developer easier and it appears they have done an excellent job on that. It is amazing to see how good the assembly for using the MS Surface library matches the things you know already about programming in the modern MS languages. It’s looks to be very easy to sit down and write your first Surface program.
And if you were there, you will get the Surface SDK and you can do so. And I for one will definitely will, because I have some great ideas for it. I will also try to use it from Prism (no reason why we couldn’t). I will let you know the results when doing so…
We've just decided that I will be visiting the Microsoft PDC. That is, if there are any tickets, hotels and flights still available :-
I'm sure I will have a peep at the place where Prism will be available. Since I am always on the look out for new technology, and looking for opportunities to move our software to the .Net platform, I will definitely want to have a look at Codegear's product in that market. I really hope to get my hands on a trial version and/or have a close look to see why I would choose for Prism and not for C#.
Also, I'm pretty interested in Windows 7. So, that I will give that a close look too (and maybe even try our software on it).
If any of you want to schedule a meeting or demo of our Sevensteps Studio product or any other Sevensteps software product, please let me know and we'll schedule a meeting. I'm always on the look out for new business partners to setup a new product. If you want to get first hand knowledge about what our software can do for you, this might be a right time.
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