Ya, you know, that application I submitted more than THREE YEARS AGO when I was at Borland experimenting with writing .NET CF apps for my smartphone with Delphi. At first I thought this confirmation email was evidence that somebody was trying to create a fake Handango account (but why would they use my real email address?), but upon closer examination of the account contact info, it’s all mine.  My previous home address (I moved three years ago), previous phone number, previous employer, the whole previous nine yards.  I immediately changed my previous password, just in case.

Thanks for letting me in, Handango! Look for a new smartphone app from me in, say, 2011.

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Hey!  It’s Delphi Variants all over again!  ;>  In Delphi Win32, you can assign an IDispatch COM interface to a Variant, and then make method calls using that variant.  The method calls were reduced by the compiler to a call to GetIDsOfNames, passing the method name in as a string param, and then a call to Invoke, passing the explicit arguments wrapped up in Variants.

Dynamic invoke is certainly a powerful construct for dynamic languages, but it is oft maligned by compiled languages for inherent performance problems and nail-biting ambiguity.  For JavaScript, ambiguity is the source of its seductive dark power.  In the highly structured, explicit, dare I say predictable universe of Delphi syntax, late-binding ambiguity is the entropy engine of insanity.

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Erwin also mentioned that the entire zeno.org site is implemented in Delphi 7.  Excellent choice!  :>

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HENDERSON, Kenneth W., 41, died Sunday. Services 1 p.m. Wednesday (Walker, Shawnee).

I presume the latter refers to Walker Funeral Services in Shawnee, OK.

Thanks to Allen Bauer for sending me a link to Kalen Delaney’s blog post.

I’ve known Ken for many years, starting with tech editing a few of his “Database Developers Guide with Delphi” books. We shared a beer at BorCon or two (or three). When I was in Dallas to speak at a Delphi Developers of Dallas mini-con, Ken took great pleasure in showing me around Dallas, his Arthur Anderson digs, and introducing me to his lovely wife and kids. Naturally, they insisted that I stay the night in their guest bedroom, and I was familiar enough with Southern/Texan hospitality to know better than to argue! We had a great time.

His role at Arthur Anderson was most intriguing to me. He was the database consultant’s consultant. He was the guy that Arthur Anderson hoped would never be called. It worked something like this: AA consultants in the field get into a difficult situation – database performance not scaling with the project, usually. The front line guys would call in the experts from the AA central office. When the experts ran out of options, they called Ken.

An example: An AA client needed to receive electronic files from a large number of customers and process them within 24 hours of receipt. The individual file sizes were not enormous, but with a daily volume in the millions and rising rapidly, the system was on the verge of collapse. New files were being received faster than the system could insert them into the SQL database. What to do?

Ken spent a day listening to briefings from the AA on-site team. He took the schema and a snapshot of the system on his laptop back to his hotel room that night.

The next morning, at 9am, Ken met with the AA on-site team. “It’s fixed.”

The team: “You know how to fix the system?”

Ken: “It’s already done. Your file backlog has been cleared. I rewrote your six month VB project in about an hour last night in Delphi. That was good for about a 100x perf improvement. Changing the SQL index to use a primary key on SSN was good for another 3 orders of magnitude improvement. And who’s idea was it to dump all the received files into one DOS subdirectory!? It takes 20 minutes just to complete a DIR listing on a million files!”

Heads rolled, I’m sure, but AA got the job done and quite likely retained the client.

After hearing a few of his stories (all fully anonymized, of course), it occurred to me that Ken had an analogue in cinema: Ken was Arthur Anderson’s “Victor the Cleaner” of La Femme Nikita! (“I am Victor. Victor the Cleaner.”) He was doubtful when I first suggested it to him, but after renting the video and watching it himself, he just shook his head and chuckled. “I’d like to think I actually solve problems, rather than just ‘erasing’ them!”

After Arthur Anderson, Ken took his field experience with MS SQL server to where it was needed most – the MS SQL team at Microsoft. As a fellow remote worker (he worked from his home in Oklahoma), I frequently pinged him for advice on how to grapple with the Microsoft corp net or VPN or Redmond-centrism.

I will miss his stories, his opinions, his writing, his wisdom. Farewell, Ken.

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m. Th. wrote:

First of all, Danny, I’m very glad to see you here… :-) …but let’s start a little ‘short story’ (dunno if you remember them) ;-)…

Danny Thorpe wrote:

Yes, I’m now working on core infrastructure for the PicLens plugin in its plethora of browser/platform combinations: IE/Windows, Firefox/Windows, and Safari/Mac. Firefox/Mac is on the horizon and Firefox/Linux is on the wish list.

You forgot Opera.

It’s a little difficult to build plugins for a browser that doesn’t support plugins, wouldn’t you agree?

m. Th. wrote:

But, imho, you forget other thing, much more important: You are a compiler guy. (At least from Delphi 1 since I know you, IIRC). God knows if you are good or bad, but definitely you are a compiler guy, imho.

Your memory transcends delerium, or you have been grossly misinformed.

I did not begin dabbling in the Delphi compiler code until around Delphi 5, after there was no one left to work on the compiler. I saw a vacancy, and I stepped into it. While it is true that I had passion and vision for where the Delphi language could be taken, and some small success in working on the compiler, that is only a partial truth, a selective filter in the eye of idolatry.

The whole truth is that I have worked on a wide variety of stuff in Delphi and outside of Delphi, moving from one technology area to another by “following my nose” ala Alice in Wonderland. For as many areas as I have dug into in software, there are twice as many creative outlets I tinker with outside of software: woodworking, metallurgy, ceramic flux chemistry, cider making, and other fields that blend science and art.

One of the worst things you can do to a creative person is brand them with a label. A label is the kiss of death for cross-discipline creativity.

I left Borland and Delphi not for lack of interesting things to investigate next, but because I was no longer allowed to follow my nose to explore new directions. In achieving small successes with the compiler, I received the “compiler guy” label, and was suddenly too valuable to the project to be allowed to work on anything else. At the same time, Borland corporate made it clear that while the company was burning down around us it had no interest whatsoever in investing in Delphi to push the envelope and advance Delphi’s thought leadership postion in the tools industry. So even within the compiler coffin, there was no room to breathe.

Even in a brief discussion concerning my getting involved with the tools group spinoff later retracted to Borland subsidiary, the only thing Borland brought to the table was the “compiler guy” label. Why would I return to the cage I had just mustered the courage to escape?

m. Th. wrote:

My son, WHAT are you doing out there??? Looked at cooliris.com – just cool, but com’on Danny, browser plug-ins? Isn’t, of course, something bad per se (in fact not at all), but, again, AFAIK you, doesn’t fit to your way of being.

I’m following my passion and fulfilling my need to grow and evolve.

Clearly, that does not fit the guilded cage you imagine for me.

Clearly, you don’t know me.

m. Th. wrote:

Some small recommendations: 1. open your browser 2. type in www.codegear.com 3. Choose from the menu ‘About Us | Jobs’ 4. Follow the instructions on screen. :-) I’m pretty sure that there’s something for you. (A R&D engineer perhaps? ;-) – as you were in D2 times?…) Then you’ll find your peace of mind, imho. Or, more directly, speak with Allen. Just my 2cents, you know…

An invitation to roll back time – you are truly generous! Ah, to be 20something again. To be a wide-eyed junior engineer working with Anders and Chuck, Gary and Zack and even Philippe, redefining the development tools playing field in perilous and exciting new directions.

Very tempting, your offer. Doubt it, I do. 20something, I am not. Borland of 1990, Codegear is not.

Time marches on. So shall I.

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