The Delphi IDE allows you to add fields to a TDataset (descendant e.g. TTable, TQuery, TAdoTable etc.) by right clicking on the component and selecting "Add Field" or "New Field". For a particular project I didn't want to do that because I kept changing the query for which I want to add the fields. But … Continue reading Adding fields to a TDataset in code →

I am sure you know about the useful controls TJvDirectoryEdit and TJvFilenameEdit from the JVCL. They come in handy whenever you need an edit field that should allow autocomplete for file or directory names. It always irked me that I had to include not only the JVCL but also the JCL in order to just … Continue reading AutoComplete for TEdits →

You know these innocuous file filters used by Open / Save dialogs? They usually look like this: First Filetype (*.ex1)|*.ex1|Second Filetype (*.ex2)|*.ex2|All Files (*.*)|*.* And since typing them is so difficult because you must remember to type all these pipe symbols, Delphi provides a property editor for it. Is there anybody who actually likes this … Continue reading Translating file filters →

At work and also on my private computer I am maintaining multiple Delphi projects that are (currently) managed in subversion repositories. They have a general structure like this: projectname \- buildtools (-> svn:external) \- src (project sources) \- libs \- dzlib (-> svn:external) \- some other libraries, all svn:external Being a lazy bastard (deutsch: faule … Continue reading Some Batch File Wizardry for Automated Builds →

Did you ever want to prevent the screen saver to start because your program is displaying something and you didn't want to force the user to move the mouse every now and then? Until Windows XP it was possible to prevent the screen saver from becoming active by just handling the WM_SYSCOMMAND message with wParam … Continue reading jiggling the mouse →

I am probably not the only one who has built his own utility library over the years. Mine is - of course - special because it is superior to all others. 😉 Just in case, somebody else is interested in it, I have put it under the MPL and hosted it on sourceforge. It now … Continue reading dzlib, my very own utility library →