DaVinci Unlimited Software

One of my favorite tools for software development beyond Delphi is Beyond Compare.  It is the best tool for comparing and merging files, directories, etc.  It is also written in Delphi.

They happen to have a Beta for version 3 available now.  Beyond a whole slew of new features for comparing and merging source files, they are also now running natively on Linux.  I sent them an email about the Linux support and they are using Kylix along with some GUI wrappers of their own to make development smoother.

They have a full list of the cool features in version 3, along with upgrade information.  One of the really cool features I am looking forward to is the 3-way text merge.  I also really like the image comparison plug-in they offer.

I have found it is an indispensable tool when I am moving files between one computer to another.  If the process fails part way through do to network issues or whatever, Beyond Compare effectively lets me resume where I left off.  Additionally, I can quickly see if some of the files are out of date or corrupted.  A great way to trouble shoot system differences in testing software.

Ever since I discovered PasswordMaker.org, I’ve been recommending it, especially in my cryptography trainings.  What it does is take a hash of your super secret password with the url of current site and creates a password.  Your super secret password is never transmitted, and since the hash is secure, it cannot be reversed to your password.  So each site has a different password, so if any one of them is compromised, then you only need to reset that one password.

Joel was looking for a solution to his password storage and syncronization issue over at StackOverflow. So I sent him an MP3 quote and they played it on their podcast.  Joel liked the solution, Jeff not so much, but his solution is to just memorize a few passwords.

Their podcast is hosted by IT Conversations now.  They played at 57:14 - The audio quality isn’t great.

Nick just posted an updated Delphi Road Map.  Check it out.  This looks to be one of the most significant Delphi releases in a long time.  This road map is just covers native code, not .NET - that will be in a future road map I guess.  Anonymous Methods, Generics and Unicode stand to be huge langauge and framework improvements.

I must say, Delphi Live Templates and the Scripting Engines are REALLY amazing.  I wanted to make a new scripting engine, but then I got to thinking that my scripting engines had a lot of similar code, so I figured I would make a Live Template to create Scripting Engines.  I based it on Nick’s BaseScriptingEngine from his article on Creating a Live Templates Scripting Engine.

I then created a Template Project for the Scripting Engine Package.  So I can pop out a scripting engine now faster then you can say “Delphi Rocks”.

I thought I would share my Scripting Engine Unit Template.  You will probably want to make your own Scripting Engine Package Template Project, but if there is enough interest I will share mine out.  You will most likely want to modify this template to suite your own framework.

[Scripting Engine Unit Template]

Note: This references my general scripting engine to create a new GUID.  You will need to do that manually until I dress up my general scripting engine for public consumption.

Ever wonder what class to write next in Delphi?  Well, combine Delphi Live Templates (including a custom scripting engine) with www.ClassNamer.com and you never have to wonder again.

Although how to implement that class is another question.

If there is any interest in the code let me know and I will polish it up and post it.  I created a random HTTP parser script engine and then the live template does the rest.  I figured this would be a fun way to get familiar with Live Templates and the custom scripting engine.  This is a really powerful feature of Delphi.

I’ve compiled all my Advanced Downloads links into a single page to make it easy to find for anyone who was in the Seattle Code Camp session on Advanced Downloads.

When it comes to screen capturing, Techsmith’s products Camtasia and SnagIt are probably the best, but there are good free alternatives. It would appear if you know where to go (links at the bottom), you can get a legitimate free license for Camtasia and SnagIt (earlier versions at least, that are eligible for a discounted upgrade.)

Camtasia is a screen video capture tool. It produces a video (animated GIF, SWF, AVI, etc.) from a series of screen shots over a period of time, usually with audio. It has a lot of nice extras and a good editing system. DebugMode’s Wink is a great tool for free. While Camtasia is more like a video editor, Wink is more like a slide show editor. It will take a screen shot at a keypress, mouse click or automatically at specified intervals. Then the editor is based on individual screen frames instead of a sequence of video. While it some regards it competes with Camtasia, it serves a different purpose as well. Worth checking out, especially at the price.

SnagIt is a single frame screen capture tool. Typically I just use [Print-Screen] or [Alt] + [Print-Screen] to capture the whole screen, or just the current window respectively. Then I paste it into IrfanView (a great quick image viewer, editor and converter) to make any changes necessary. Honestly though, SnagIt offers a number of additional features that are worthwhile. However I have found that MWSnap has most of the features I need available free. I haven’t done a side by side comparison of the tool, but I imagine MWSnap would hold up quite nicely.

With free versions of SnagIt and Camtasia though, that provides some stiff competition to the other free versions. Granted these are previous versions, which is risky on Techsmith’s part, since the biggest competitor to most products is its previous version - why pay the upgrade fee when the old version still works?  If you want an older version of many freeware / shareware titles, check out OldVersion.com.

Camtasia Studio 5 (the version I have) is $300 and has a lot of nice feature upgrades from version 3.  You can still download version 3 and then get your free license straight from Techsmith.  It appears it was a promotion offered to PC Plus Magazine readers in the UK, but the form lets you specify any country and I don’t see anywhere it says “only” a limited group.  Not sure how long the promotion is good for either. [Source]

Check out Digital Inspiration Technology guide for the details on downloading and getting a free license for SnagIt 7.2.5 (current version is 8). It appears to be a free promotion for UK .NET Magazine.