I just stumbled upon this issue and while the solution seems very simple, I almost pulled my hair before I could fix it.

The symptoms: I had Firebird (installed with Morfik) working perfectly, then installed a Borland/CodeGear app that set up Interbase (client), and after that Firebird stopped working (“XNET error (xnet:2323) XNET server initialization failed”). Any amount of un-installations and re-installations did not help. Googling around did not reveal any pointers either.

The resolution: I had to manually replace GDS32.DLL in Windows\System32 with a version form Firebird.

The reason: both DB servers use the same file (GDS32.DLL) for client connections, but of course, different versions. Although the Interbase version was much older (6.5?, dated 2004 something) than the Firebird version (2.0, dated end of 2006) the version number inside the version resource is higher (6.5.something v.s. 6.3.something), so Windows was keeping the Interbase version, and did not allow Firebird to replace it (typical DLL hell:-) — and of course Firebird could not cooperate with this DLL.

Suggestion: I would recommend to the parties (most probably this should fall on Firebird) to use different filenames (e.g. add “fb” to all file names) OR improve the error message printed OR have a FAQ item somewhere on the Net explaining what to do (like this one :-). Of course, interoperabilitiy issues may arise (running Interbase and Firebird on the same system, using the same ports, etc.)…

Code Gear just announced two new products: Delphi 2007 for Win32 and Delphi for PHP.

A quick rundown on each:

• Delphi 2007 for Win32 is the latest release of good old Delphi with improved Vista and AJAX support (in the form of VCL for AJAX).
• Delphi for PHP is a RAD IDE and component set for PHP developers. This may be a BIG hit: it packs a powerful IDE with an architecture/component framework called VCL for PHP and adds on top of that professional debugging support and deployment wizardry. I will definitely have more first-hand news about this baby in the coming weeks.

It should be noted that Delphi for PHP is not strictly a CodeGear/Borland internal project, it is originated from qadram’s qstudio, but now it is developed together by the two companies. VCL for PHP used to be called WCL and as far as I see will remain open source.

You can read more here (a very good blog, BTW).

If you seem a little bewildered by all the Delphi for Xxxx (e.g. Delphi for PHP has nothing to do with Object Pascal) and VCL for Yyyy tags, don’t feel lost! It is just POBC (plain old brand capitalization) .

While I am at it PasWiki seems to be interesting, too: it is a simple Wiki engine written in “Modern Pascal”. The angle I am keen to learn more about is its performance claims, an important subject and an area where Morfik should shine.

Borland announced the establishment of CodeGear, a wholly owned subsidiary expected to come to life early in 2007. Read the press release here.

The original plan (from early this year) called for an investor buying the Developer Tools Group. It seems to me this did not work out, so Borland is executing Plan B. Fingers crossed…

Good luck CodeGear!

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Here is a farewell song form El Reg. Very touchy. There are other writeups from the same team here and here about the Borland IDE DevCo story. Not that optimistic.

While I was reading an interview with DavidI and Rob Cheng about the DevCo, I stumbled accross Rob mentioning Scrum in the context of agile software development. Scrum seems to be promising in making sure that the right product is built a little bit in the Japanese just-in-time style. It is a project management methodology, so it needs a softare development methodology and there it is most times accompained by eXtreme Programming (XP).

Read an introduction about it in Wikipedia.

Borland did have a BTP confcall a few days ago. They have a transcript of the chat and the recorded conference call on line for public access. They also have a roadmap for Delphi that includes two additional releases beyond Delphi 2006.

In a nutshell: the show is (supposed to be) going on. My take: we had these rumours Borland going out of business for over ten years. Now they seem to really try to get rid of the tools that made them the company we recognize. The complete development team is going into the new company (“DevCo”) too. This may play out well for the tools and for the customers in the end, since the new company can focus again on innovating in the area they are at home.

They don’t have an investor yet, though…

David I of Borland fame has this to say about the spinoff. Very optimistic. (Did I mention I have a Delphi 4 Enterprise CD signed by him and Charlie Calvert?:)

The question is who the buyer will be. It may be a competitor (there are not too many left) that will simply sink the tools and grab the customer base. Or it may be someone who keeps things up and running to milk the cow (not too likely, does not make much business sense). Or in the best case a company that continues in the best tradition of Borland to innovate and to excell.

This is completely insane. Delphi is the best development tool for Windows ever. I am not biased at all. (Did I mention that I wrote a great deal of an award-wining interactive electrical circuit editing/analysis application in Delphi among other things?) AFAIS they are spinning off all the IDE products and keeping the ALM business. Good.
On the other hand this might open some opportunities for Morfik. I suggested to Fuad to buy the stuff outright, but he said “Not yet”. Anyway what possible advantages do you see cooking there for Morfik?