Archive for April 2010

Adding non-data fields to a client dataset

A lot of the UI design for the TURBU editor is based on data-aware controls bound to client datasets.  I was trying to build a new form this morning that required me to filter one of the datasets.  Problem is, that would break other things that expected it not to be filtered.  Well, that’s not such a big problem, because TClientDataset has an awesome method called CloneCursor that lets you set up a second client dataset that shares the first one’s data store, but with independent view settings.  So I used a cloned dataset, and immediately got an exception when I tried to run.  The control I was using couldn’t find the field.

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Personal property and computing

I’ve always been a big fan of Apple’s.  My first computer was an Apple IIe, and finding a copy of BASIC on there was what first got me into programming.  A good percentage of the modern user interface concepts we take for granted today were invented by Apple back in the 1980s.  (Yes, I know, they got the basic concepts from Xeroc PARC, but a lot of their work was their work, not Xerox’s.)  They’ve always been one of the major drivers of innovation in the computer industry, and they’ve done a lot to hold the line against Microsoft’s campaign for complete domination of the computer industry.  They’re one of a very few companies that have actually had any real success in that area, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude for that, if nothing else.

Apple released the latest iPhone development license yesterday, and I suddenly find myself a lot less grateful.

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