May

3

Dial-a-fix++

Filed Under Delphi, Dial-a-fix 

With each subsequent release of Delphi, Borland has put roadblock after roadblock up for me. I love the language, but not necessarily the VCL, IDE, or the company.

The latest is that Delphi 2007 has been optimized to work in x64 and Vista... but you have to pay expensive upgrade fees to get these features that should have (in my opinion) been released as a patch for Delphi 2005. It's $899 for a new user license. The VCL is very unaware of Unicode, too, which in a modern development environment is ridiculous.

I was using Turbo Delphi 2005 (which is free, but limited in that you can't install optional components and there's no command line compiler). Was. There are too many limitations for me to be able to continue.

TNTUnicode was just sold to TMS Components, so a once-free component (which I was going to use to add Unicode support to Dial-a-fix) is now a for-pay component. I was going to figure out how to purchase Delphi 2007 but I'm just too depressed to do so. One of the main reasons that Dial-a-fix updates have been delayed is my frustration with limitations. The other reason is my life, which has recently resolved into normality again. I'll be able to start working on this stuff after the upcoming radio show on Monday.

Also, there's hundreds of bugs in Delphi's VCL that cause stupid things to happen (double buffering isn't even supported very well, for instance. Unicode support is non-existent, as I said above).

I think I'm going to switch to C++. This is going to be a daunting task (especially since I don't know C++, but then again, I didn't know Object Pascal either, and I made the transition pretty easily even though it had been 10 years since I worked with Pascal) but it needs to be done.

Microsoft's free version of Visual C++ isn't very limited at all. That's okay though, as I received a free copy of Visual Studio 2005 Standard from Microsoft. Thanks Microsoft! I also got Office 2007 Professional for free. I've never seen an opportunity to receive a free copy of any versions of Delphi; if any have existed, I missed the opportunity. Still, Delphi, which is a great teaching language, isn't very accessible unless you're actually a student at a university (at which point you get a massive discount). I'm just a hobbyist trying to write freeware and there's no Turbo Delphi 2007 in sight. I don't know if they're going to release a Turbo edition of Delphi 2007, but it doesn't matter anymore - I don't want to upgrade. I've removed Delphi from my system and have installed Visual Studio 2005 Standard in preparation to start over again. Besides, even if there was a Delphi 2007, it wouldn't allow me to install things like TMSUnicode, etc. Installing third-party components to add support for something that should have been in Delphi since Windows NT 4 is always fun.

Besides all of this annoyance, I should be writing this in C++ anyway, as I'm starting to get deeper and deeper into Win32, having to translate C++ into Object Pascal every time I need to know how to do something lower level. MSDN was written with C++ in mind. I might as well use the language that Win32 was documented in and be done with it. No more translation required! No more trying to figure out what esoteric data type I'm supposed to use ("cardinal"? What the hell is that?)

This all means that Dial-a-fix will go even faster and will become more intimate with your system, letting you know about problems that no other software has ever tried to look for. The filter driver article I just wrote is only one example; The new (Codename) Dial-a-fix++ will scan all of your drivers for missing filters and even ask your permission to repair them for you.

Wish me luck.

—

PS: Carey Holzman of Computer America mentioned Dial-a-fix again! Check out the 1st hour of the May 2nd show.

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Comments

10 Responses to “Dial-a-fix++”

  1. # spud on May 3rd, 2007 2:56 PM

    good call on moving to c++
    can't wait to see those new features
    best of luck!

  2. # Fred on May 3rd, 2007 3:36 PM

    Cool++

  3. # Bertier Benny on May 9th, 2007 4:12 PM

    hi,

    keep up the good work....

    a bit nasty that you have to start al over again.

    but i'm qurious about the next version you make..

    this is always a + + version....lol

    i can't wait to see the new version...

  4. # Phil - Bi0haZarD on May 14th, 2007 3:24 AM

    Yo Dj, was wondering what Compiler you're gonna be using for C++, (Visual Studio, Command Line + Notepad, Dev-Cpp, or what).

    Just curious as i've been tryin all the compilers i could get my hands on since ya got Tarun and I into Delphi, and haven't really seen one that i personally liked.

    - Phil
    (Bi0haZarD / Synapse on lunarsoft)

  5. # yann on May 14th, 2007 9:00 AM

    Hi

    using C++ is a best methodology to hack hardware since you can add assembler subcode
    Also be careful using API , most of them are a mess
    Better to develop one on your side

    Good job anyway for the current release
    And have a good time for the new one

    Yann

  6. # DjLizard on May 14th, 2007 1:33 PM

    I have Visual C++ 2005 Standard (got it for free from Microsoft). I like it a lot so far.

    I'm reading Charles Petzold's Programming Windows, 5th edition.

  7. # Dave on May 17th, 2007 8:56 PM

    Is there a silent run option for dial-a-fix, where a user can enter a command line parameter "dial-a-file.exe /quiet", or something similar, that will run all options with no user input?

  8. # DjLizard on May 17th, 2007 9:26 PM

    Not at the moment.

  9. # TheLoneTech on July 30th, 2007 11:44 AM

    Couldn't find anywhere else to post this so it's here - feel free to move it somewhere more appropriate(!):

    Just "discovered" Dial-A-Fix after some intensive googling and it got me out of a hole - thanks! I can see it becoming part of my toolkit.

    I had a problem with it though, which is what this message is about: When you use the [fix windows updates] option, one of the steps is to stop the Cryptography service. In my case (XPHome SP2 in an almost repaired messed up kind of a way) this step hung and I eventually figured it was because there was a dependent service. I figured this because when I stopped cryptography manually it advised me that it would also stop the dependent service and wanted me to say it was OK. Presumably, Dial-A-Fix isn't passing these messages on and just waits for the never to be received "service stopped successfully" outcome. The dependent service is part of Panda Platinum Internet Security 2007. More details available if you want them.

    Thanks again for a useful looking utility.

  10. # TheLoneTech on July 30th, 2007 11:47 AM

    Looks like your server clock's wrong - I posted at 17:44 BST ;-)

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