Here are my types and variables, which are the same for both examples.

type
  TMyEnum = (my1, my2, my3, my4);

var
  myEnum: TMyEnum;
  val: Char;

Here are the two examples, side by side, with assembly code to follow.  BTW, compiler optimization was turned on.

  myEnum := my1;
  case myEnum of
    my1: val := '1';
    my2: val := '2';
    my3: val := '3';
    my4: val := '4';
  else
    val := '?';
  end;

  myEnum := my1;
  case myEnum of
    my3: val := '3';
    my1: val := '1';
    my4: val := '4';
    my2: val := '2';
  else
    val := '?';
  end;

Same number of lines of assembly code. There may be some internal CPU optimization, but I don’t expect there is any.

Conclusion: Order of the enum in the case statement does not change performance.  Anyone else have any details I missed, or evidence to the contrary?  I guess the next step is to test it in .NET and IL. . . .

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  Additionally, I can quickly see if some of the files are out of date or corrupted.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.

• The building I work in is owned by Embarcadaro Capital Partners (See picture of the directory in the lobby.)
• Our company headquarters is moving to the corner of The Embarcadaro and Harrison in San Francisco, CA.
• The primary tool I use at work is Delphi, which was just purchased by Embarcadero Technologies.

Seems to be a theme here. . . .

My second old friend I bid farewell to is bsdg.org.  I registered the doman name when I took over as president of the Boise Software Developers Group back in 2000.  In that time it also became my first blog site, which I found quite enjoyable.  At my high point I broke the news about PDC 2005 thanks to an email from the organizer, and that resulted in links from Robert Scoble as well as many others.

As of October 2007 I moved away from Boise, and Chris Brandsma took over as president of BSDG.  At one point I debated changing to to the Borland Software Developers Group and keeping the domain name, but Delphi was already dropping the Borland roots at that point.  All my old blog posts are still there someplace, but they are hidden behind a wall of cryptic 404 errors provided by the ASP.NET CMS that was recently installed.  Rather sad.  Maybe I will migrate some of the content here. . . . .

¡ʇǝʎ ǝpoɔıun ɹoɟ ǝsn ʇsǝq ǝɥʇ

Well, maybe the best use for those of us who typically only need to use standard ASCII characters. . . .

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.

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.

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.