Where are the Examples in Delphi 2007?
Folks are getting their downloaded version of Delphi 2007. Sweet. It’s really satisfying to work on a product and see folks using it.
One of the things we worked hard on was making Delphi 2007 and your applications produced with it work on Windows Vista.
Now, Vista is a different sort of operating system. I’m not really that excited about it — I’ve found it to be, well, a pain in the ass. It constantly is telling me that I can’t do anything that I want to do. It changes all kinds of things that I was used to — like the Control Panel. It’ looks cool and all, but when you can’t access stuff you should be able to access and stuff is all over the place and different from what you are used to, it gets tiresome. I kept looking for the checkbox that had the “Good grief! I’m the bloody Administrator on this machine, let me do what I want to do!” option. I finally found out that was the UAC option.
Anyway, one of the things that Vista no longer lets us do is to write to the Program Files directory — and Delphi does a lot of writing to the Program Files directory. So we had to change all that. One fallout from that is that we had to move all the demos applications. When you open one up and try to compile it, the IDE will write out the DCU files and other project related stuff to the directory where the project resides. Well, if the demo project resides under Program Files…… yeah, no can do.
So we moved all that stuff to the c:\Documents and Settings directory — which is what Microsoft recommends we do. Thus, the demos and other similar items can be found here:
C:\Documents and SettingsAll UsersDocumentsRAD Studio
So, that’s where you need to look for the demos. (The exact directory name could differ on your computer, depending on how you logon, etc.)
Added: I should also add that this new directory is also where you’ll find the dbExpress INI files, specifically:
C:\Documents and SettingsAll Users.WINDOWSDocumentsRAD StudiodbExpress
I really hope you mean C:\Users …
March 17th, 2007 at 5:43 pmVista’s "improvements": I hear ya…that’s why I found this ad so funny:
March 17th, 2007 at 10:10 pmhttp://tinyurl.com/yudkhn
That’s why it would be great to have Delphi on other platforms.
I’m not against MS (still a satisfied Win2000/XP user), but Vista is just braindead.
March 18th, 2007 at 12:47 amSome points I have to add:
IIRC storing user data "not in program files" was also recommended in Windows XP. Anyways BDS will run better under domain accounts, by using the recommended storage scheme.
AFAIK The "real" administrator account is hidden under Vista, normally you have a user account with administrator privileges.
UAC is annoying sometimes, but now I have the chance to work with a normal user account, and if I have to do administrator level system changes the OS automatically asks my admin password. Under XP I had to switch to the administrator account or start the explorer as administator.
AMK
March 18th, 2007 at 1:10 amHi Nick,
I always wondered why the examples were installed under program files because Microsoft has advised against that since at least Windows 2000.
But since you moved them from where people are used to expect them, why not do one or all of the following:
1. add a shortcut (.lnk) from the place under program files to the actual place they are located.
2. add them to the list of recently used projects in the IDE by default, so it doesn’t start emtpy
3. Add a item to the ide’s open menu or the project open dialog that takes you directly to that folder.
twm
March 18th, 2007 at 3:25 amYeah, you gotta love that Mac advert.
March 18th, 2007 at 6:08 amThus I think that some code in BDE needs to be fixed because of Vista. When some complex SQL queries are executed on Paradox or DBase tables, one or more temporary table and/or index files may be generated in the directory where the EXE file lives. So if a developer deploys a product which uses BDE in the \Program Files directory on Vista, BDE may create temporary files in \Program Files\ProductPath when a user uses that product.
March 18th, 2007 at 6:47 amSurely, a way to work around this defect is to set the Session.PrivateDir property to a folder in \Users\xxx.
March 18th, 2007 at 7:18 amIs the link for D2007 Download available? I couldn’t find it anywhere in the codegear.com
March 18th, 2007 at 8:47 amI couldn’t find it, too.
March 18th, 2007 at 12:54 pmWhere is it? And when?
On Vista Ultimate 64 bit, the C:\Documents and Settings folder is restricted. I haven’t found the open sesame as yet, but will try logging in as Admin. If that’s the trick, I think it’s not a great place to put things.
March 19th, 2007 at 9:55 amAny plans on releasing the equivalent Turbo Delphi 2007? or am I right in guessing that there may not be a Turbo Delphi 2007 at all as this version of Delphi 2007 is not a "studio" edition which includes the other .NET languages as well?
I haven’t tried out Delphi 2007 so far.. would appreciate a trial of some sort. From what I hear, it is much faster - so fast infact that people are comparing it with Delphi 7!! great work guys!
Now, if you could just drop the prices a bit …
March 19th, 2007 at 11:11 pmAny plans on releasing the equivalent Turbo Delphi 2007? or am I right in guessing that there may not be a Turbo Delphi 2007 at all as this version of Delphi 2007 is not a "studio" edition which includes the other .NET languages as well?
I haven’t tried out Delphi 2007 so far.. would appreciate a trial of some sort. From what I hear, it is much faster - so fast infact that people are comparing it with Delphi 7!! great work guys!
Now, if you could just drop the prices a bit …
March 19th, 2007 at 11:11 pmWhy not keep the examples under Program Files, but set the default DCU output path to something under Documents and Settings\UserName\?
That way, people wouldn’t be able to accidentally make changes to the examples — they’d have to make their own copy before making changes, which is the Right Thing anyway.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:52 amThomas pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Instead of posting where they are, a simple link in the start menu seems to be the conventional method (under the delphi folder o’ course).
Another thing I’ve seen done (and I really liked the idea to be honest), was to put a menu item under the Help menu. This means the user can access the examples straight up from the application.
Even better: Include the examples with the documentation, as dynamic links. This way I don’t have to fire up Google every time I need to use an obscure call (or as often happens, a less-often-used procedure).
March 28th, 2007 at 5:24 pmJust one note: it may not be installed in All Users but instead in the current user’s documents if one chooses to create the "shortcuts" for the current user when installing…
April 12th, 2007 at 12:52 pmNick, I read alot of good suggestions here as to how to make this issue better. So what is the plan of action that is going to be taken?
April 17th, 2007 at 9:54 amGood info for me, very helpfull, when update?
July 5th, 2007 at 1:12 pmI hate Vista!
July 30th, 2007 at 8:27 am