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WHAT'S NEWAugust 24, 2010: Some encouraging news for those of us waiting for an affordable "learners" version of Delphi. I ran across this report today at this Network World site and at several others:
I've tried for years to convince them that they need to do more to "spread the word", so this sounds good to me! August 23, 2010: Catching up on the backlog, here's some sample code posted in Delphi Techniques section showing how to Move String Grid Rows using arrow buttons to move a selected row up down by one row, one page, or to top or bottom of the grid.
August 21, 2010: There's no particular reason for the
delay between programs this month. Just slowing down I guess.
Today's program asks, How Many
Triangles? in this figure and takes a considerable amount of effort to answer
with pencil and paper or with a program. August 9th, 2010: As regulars know, there are no advertisements in DFF. I do get emails occasionally offering $ to place a link for this or that product or service. I decline because I would not want to promote what I do not know and I don't aspire to be in the evaluation business. Today however, I am recommending The Cat Connection as one of the "good guy" businesses because of recent experience. I had purchased a clever device called the Loc8tor Pet from them several months ago ($99, free shipping). It consists of two small tags that fit on the pet's collar and send a radio signal response when they receive a locator request from a hand held radio direction finder device. It works great for tracking the cat down when it's time go come in for the evening, although I'll admit that it is more for our peace of mind than his. One of the tags stopped working last week while under warranty, the hang-up being that the device is manufactured in the UK and that's where the customer support is located. I was dreading sending the tag across the big water for a replacement and before doing so, called Erin at the Cat Connection. To my surprise, she offered to send me a replacement tag and a prepaid label to return the broken one, which she did. When you call, a real human being answers the phone who actually wants to help! That deserves a no charge recommendation. If you have a cat (or dog, or other items you don't want to lose) check out the Cat Connection and the Loc8tor Pet.
August 6, 2010:
Drag the lettered blocks onto the template to form valid words reading across
and down crossword style. I only have this one example of this type of
puzzle, but Version 2 at some future date will use our dictionary unit to help
generate more. In the meantime, Fit the
Pieces, Version 1.0 was harder to solve (and to program) that I would have
thought. Maybe I am getting old!
July 22, 2010:
Here's a simple
Compass Drawing Demo
posted in our Delphi Techniques section today. I adapted it from an
aircraft instrument simulator which I never got around to post and demonstrates
a few useful techniques like smooth animation, drawing text at angles, and the
handy Sin and Cos trig functions. July 17, 2010: I have been working on a "railroad shunt puzzle" solver in my spare time for the past week or two. It's an interesting but challenging problem and I have ways to go. Fortunately a sharp user has given me something to post. Peg Solitaire Version 4.1 implements fixes for three bugs found and corrected by a sharp Delphi programmer from Sweden. (Last name spelled Andersson with "ss" led to the Sweden guess). July 7, 2010: Too hot here to do much outside so I have had an excuse to get back on the computer. It reached 86 degrees here today which is hot by mountain standards, but the flatlanders are suffering 100 degrees so I guess we shouldn't complain. Validate Numeric Input was one of the first programs posted on DFF and , frankly, I had not looked at it in years. It described a coding technique to validate numbers as the user entered them. A viewer wrote recently requesting the ability to validate multiple integers separated by commas in a single text string in the same manner. Version 2 posted today provides that capability. It also includes sample code to extract and convert multiple numbers from the string as required.
June 25, 2010:
Craps is a dice game with scoring based sum of rolling 2 dice.
Craps Odds calculates the
theoretical chances of winning or losing for each of the eleven possible initial roll
outcomes (2 through 12). It also has a page which simulates a million
games to verify that the theoretical probability results are valid.
June 15, 2010:
Have you seen a modern sawmill with a computer controlled saw on TV? The computer analyzes and displays for the operator's
approval, the optimal sawing pattern for converting each log into boards based
on laser measurements taken. Smaller sawmill operators without computers
or lasers to control their mills must perform the same task using their
experience or some other strategy. I'm not privileged to own a sawmill,
but as a woodlot owner with a woodworking hobby, a small band mill
is sure tempting. Here is a program,
Log Sawing Patterns, which I
imagine could be developed into something useful if I ever succumb to the
temptation. June 5, 2010: Last month's posting prompted viewer Erich to play with our Logic Problem Solver and expose a bug which has existed for years. Did you know that given propositions "A implies B", "B implies C", and "A and C cannot both be true", then one can conclude that A is false? My logical brain knew that back in 2002, but my programming finger slipped and I was declaring A to be true. Logic Problem Solver Version 3.2 fixes it.
(Click to expand)
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I'm not sure of the definition of
"Dog days" but the hot, humid. weather recently seems to qualify. The
month has flown by as I work on planning a family reunion vacation over
Christmas holidays. As grandchildren grow up it becomes more difficult to
coordinate availability around school schedules (three different states), summer
jobs, band camps, etc. etc. We're apparently not alone which explains why,
for example, cruise prices tend to double for the week between Christmas
and New Years. But it looks like it's going to happen! Whew!
