News
Keep up with all that’s new in the world of Delphi and Kylix development.

Windows Management Instrumentation
Michael Mravinec uncovers WMI: Microsoft’s implementation of WBEM, a platform-independent standard for retrieving all sorts of hardware and operating system information.

The .NET Application History API
Marcel van Brakel explains how to read the .NET CLR application history programmatically: very useful as a debugging aid, or perhaps to restore an application to a known good state by means of configuration files.

Under Construction: Database Normalisation
Bob Swart provides some helpful database design rules, formally called database normalisation, but you can also call it common sense! Most developers have worked with databases in one way or another, maybe also designing databases and creating tables, but how many of us have taken the trouble to ensure our designs are efficient and effective?

Firebird Conference 2003
Jason Chapman reports back from the first conference on the Firebird open source database system.

An Introduction To Endo-Testing Using Mock Objects
Sascha Frick has seen problems arise when applying unit testing and test driven development principles to complex projects. He describes how to overcome the problems with endo-testing and mock objects.

Delfhead Interview: Helen Borrie Of Firebird
Will Watts quizzes one of Firebird’s leading lights to get an insight into what goes on behind the scenes of this open source project.

Directing DirectX Part 4: The Sound Of Music
Erik van Bilsen explains how to use DirectX’s sound facilities. DirectSound is used to play sound effects stored in WAV files, whilst DirectMusic allows us  to play interactive background music stored in MIDI files or DirectMusic segment files.

What’s New For Developers In Windows Server 2003?
 Jani Järvinen dives head-first into Microsoft’s new server operating system, the successor to Windows 2000 Server, to discover what is new and interesting for us as software developers.

Review: Developer Express ExpressQuantumGrid Suite 4.2
Craig Murphy checks out Developer Express’s claim that this is ‘the most capable Grid and Data Editors Library ever created for Delphi’. How does it match up in reality? Read on!

The Delphi Clinic
Brian Long with more answers to your own queries on Kylix and Delphi, including: using watches, skipping instructions, and browsing forms in EXEs.