March 2007
A Beginner’s Look at VMWare Workstation – Jim Duff
An industry pundit recently declared virtualisation to be the big thing this decade.
Many Delphi developers use VMWare from VMWare Inc for a variety of reasons, and many have heard of it from List Postings or had occasional peeks during previous ADUG meeting presentations.
Jim will gave a demonstration of a Virtual Machine, plus cloning and using multiple Virtual Machines and elicited additional information from the other members in an informal discussion. The formal part of Jim’s presentation can be obtained here
Keeping Your Application Current – Don Macrae
Don conducted a “peer review” of the code used to update his application with the latest data and executables from an Internet Webservice. Don explained how his code improved the user experience by doing some download functions while the user is busy with other things.
The Webservice component was generated from the target site’s Web Service Definition Language using Delphi’s WSDL Import Wizard. If an update of the actual running executable was required, the Webservice would be used to obtain a new install file. The application then launches the install file and closes. The Inno Setup install file does a blind install before re-launching the original application with its new executable.
We’re thinking of making the ’20 Minute Code Review’ a regular or perhaps occasional feature of Melbourne meetings – so bear that in mind.