Brian Long's Online Articles

Downloads

Note that in addition to the files listed here, the various articles on this Web site have links to their own files that can be downloaded.

Archaeopteryx for Delphi and C++Builder
Archeopteryx source code

Files that accompanied my Building a timesheet application in Mono for Android talk in London (April 6th, 2011).
Files that accompanied my .NET Internals: Profiling .NET Applications talk in Reading (27th November 2003).
Files that accompanied my .NET Language Interoperability talk in Reading (26th June 2003).
Files that accompanied my Subjectively Useful Information Resources talk in Reading (3rd April 2003).
Files that accompanied my Digging Deeper Into .NET talk in London (11th February 2003).
Files that accompanied my .NET Interoperability talk in London (14th January 2003).
Files that accompanied my Speech Synthesis & Speech Recognition talk in London (20th August 2002).
Files that accompanied my Lists talk in London (21st November 2000).
Files that accompanied my Drag & Dock talk in London (17th October 2000).
Files that accompanied my Delphi Clinic talk in London (15th August 2000).
Files that accompanied my Actions talk in London (23rd May 2000).
Files that accompanied my Drag & Drop talk in London (21st March 2000).
Files that accompanied my Messages In A Bottle talk in London (25th May 1999).
Files that accompanied my Messages In A Bottle talk in Glasgow (19th March 1999).
Files that accompanied my Interfaces talk, in Dublin (6th May 1999).
Files that accompanied my Class Creation talk in Dublin (6th May 1999).
Files that accompanied my Component Creation talk in Dublin (6th May 1999).
Files that accompanied my Class Creation talk in London (23rd February 1999).
Files that accompanied my Component Creation talk in London (23rd February 1999).
Files that accompanied my COM talk in Dublin (23rd April 1998).

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Archaeopteryx

In the spirit of T-Rex, Raptor (now called CodeRush) and GExperts which you may have heard of, Archaeopteryx is my own prehistoric creation.

This is in the file called DinoSaur.Zip (58kb) and is a Delphi/C++Builder package. Like the other products, it is designed to customise and enhance your Delphi/C++Builder IDE.

The following files are in the ZIP file:

ARCHAEOPTERYX.DPL is a Delphi 3 package
ARCHAEOPTERYX.BPL is a package that works with Delphi 4 and C++Builder 4
ARCHAEOPTERYX50.BPL is a package that works with Delphi 5 and C++Builder 5
ARCHAEOPTERYX60.BPL is a package that works with Delphi 6 and C++Builder 6
ARCHAEOPTERYX70.BPL is a package that works with Delphi 7

Archaeopteryx offers the following features:

It unhides some otherwise hidden menu items (Delphi 3 version only):

          Search | Show Last Compile Error
          View | View as Text
          Help | How to Use Help
          Help | Windows API

It adds component palette page names onto the component palette's popup menu (right click the component palette to see this) (in Delphi 3, 4 and 5)
It adds support for multi-line component palette (right click the component palette and choose Options to see this)
It adds support for hot-tracking on the component palette (right click the component palette and choose Options to see this). Incidentally, this feature isn't particularly obvious, but as you move your mouse over the component palette tabs, the tab caption changes from clWindowText (typically black) to clHighlight (typically blue)
It adds support for using buttons instead of tabs on the component palette (right click the component palette and choose Options to see this)
It adds a Window menu onto Delphi's menu bar (right click the component palette and choose Options to see this) (in Delphi 3, 4 and 5)
It allows the speedbar to have non-flat speedbuttons (right click on the speed bar to see this) (Delphi 3 version only)
It saves your settings in the Windows registry on Delphi exiting

Note: If you choose to use buttons instead of tabs on a Delphi 3 multiline component palette, the IDE window may not be drawn quite large enough (when you highlight a component, some of its icon may not appear in the Delphi IDE window). If you find this, define a new string registry entry Tab Height in Archaeopyeryx's registry subkey with a value of 19. It defaults to 16.

Note: Another possible registry entry to make is called Window Menu Caption. It defaults to "W&indow". If you don't like the Window menu caption, you can change it!

In the Delphi 3 version the registry subkey is:

        HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Oblong\Archaeopteryx

For the Delphi 4 and C++Builder 4 version, it is:

        HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Oblong\Archaeopteryx\4.0

For the Delphi 5 and C++Builder 5 version, it is:

        HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Oblong\Archaeopteryx\5.0

For the Delphi 6 and C++Builder 6 version, it is:

        HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Oblong\Archaeopteryx\6.0

For the Delphi 7 version, it is:

        HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Oblong\Archaeopteryx\7.0

Installation

Start Delphi 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or C++Builder 4 or 5 or 6
Choose Component | Install Packages...
Press Add...
Locate Archaeopteryx.Dpl or Archaeopteryx.Bpl or Archaeopteryx50.Bpl or Archaeopteryx60.Bpl or Archaeopteryx70.Bpl as appropriate (see descriptions above), select it and press Open

Known problems

If you have the Component Palette in multi line mode using buttons, select a tab on the right on the bottom line, then switch back to single line mode, you sometimes find one or more tabs not displaying on the left of the Component Palette. You can overcome this problem by toggling the Tabs as Buttons option off and on again.

In Delphi 3, if you have a multiline palette and resize the palette with the speedbar/palette splitter, the IDE window will not resize and it will look silly. Turn off multiline before doing this, and turn it back on afterwards.

In Delphi 3, if you define a component template and add it to the palette, it defaults to going onto the Templates page (which may not exist before). When this tab is added there is a possibility that a multiline component palette may need an extra line of tabs. Unfortunately Archaeopteryx will not have noticed and so the IDE window will then be too small. Try to remember to turn off multiline before doing this, and turn it back on afterwards.

If you install T-Rex, then Archaeopteryx, then uninstall T-Rex, certain IDE options will cause Access violations. You should uninstall IDE extenders in reverse order from which you installed them to avoid this problem, i.e. install T-Rex, then Archaeopteryx, then uninstall Archaeopteryx, and finally uninstall T-Rex

Any bugs, please email them to me

Archeopteryx Source Code

The complete Archeopteryx source code is in a file called DinoSource.zip (25kb). This contains all the Delphi source units along with package files for Delphi 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

C++Builder package files are not supplied, but should be easy to manufacture. Just make a new package and add all the Delphi units to it.

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