I am a great fan of the Microsoft Coding 4 Fun blog and feel that there should be something similar for Delphi Progammers. I am trying to get something similar started as a way of boosting the relevance, appeal and attraction of Delphi to novice, hobbyist or student programmers.
Why?
The aim of it would be to encourage developers to dabble in a series of fun projects and technologies which they might not get the chance to use in their everyday work. It will also have the aim of trying to encourage more novice/student/hobbyist developers to take up Delphi by demonstrating that it can be used for more than Enterprise N-Tier Database Applications. This also ties in nicely with my Open Letter to CodeGear about the Turbo Delphi family last week (Short update on that article at the end of this one).
What sort of articles would it include?
It will publish articles in 4 very broad categories, but not be strictly limited to those categories, which may intersect each other at various points:
- Hardware – Interacting with any kind of hardware gadget. Examples would include interacting with a USB Bluetooth Lock, WiiMotes or controlling your home.
- Software – Interacting with other software. Anything that solely interacts with other software such writing plugins for Windows Live Writer (ok – I was short of ideas on this one!).
- Web Services – Interacting with plenty of Web 2.0 APIs. Examples such as getting pictures from Flickr, Updating Twitter or Writing a Facebook Application.
- Gaming – Interacting with or Writing Games. Good Example: Revenge of the Robot Rage contest which Jim McKeeth held over on the Podcast at Delphi.org (which incidentally I did win
). Please note that this would not aim to replace the many excellent resources on writing games in Delphi.
I realise that there is a lot of overlap between those categories but I wanted to demonstrate the types of articles and example projects that I was thinking of. Many of these projects could simply be a simple translation of the C# or VB.NET version on Coding4Fun as even just having the code in Delphi would still add value.
This wouldn’t simply be an extension of my personal blog, I would ideally like to see articles being contributed by lots of Delphi Developers who may have played with projects like this in the past and wouldn’t mind putting their experiences into Article form. I have a domain and I have a draft site running but I consider this post a call for Delphi Developers to suggest, contribute or request articles that they would like to see.
Why not write all the articles yourself?
Whilst I have a few articles which I am in the process of writing I feel that as a resource it would be much better with Developers contributing on areas of their own interest and expertise. Many more developers than myself would be able to contribute much more adventurous tickerings.
How can I get involved?
It is nothing urgent but please give it some thought: have you had any projects recently which other people might find fun? Have you bought any new gadgets recently that you’d like to try to tinker with in a Delphi environment? Is there something you would particularly like to see an article written about?
If you have any thoughts then please contact me by email or through twitter (@jamiei).
Update on my Open Letter to CodeGear about the Turbo Product Family.
I had a lot of great (and supportive) feedback from my Open Letter to CodeGear last week but I saw the below information in my Google Analytics statistics for this blog and it made me laugh. It would seem that either the folks at CodeGear HQ (in Scotts Valley) are miraculously fast readers or they read just the title and immediately became bored enough to click away.
Did they really consider it? The great people at CodeGear HQ must be very fast readers!
Being able to read that quickly is something that I would love to learn to do, if anyone knows their secret, please let me know!
I am a Delphi Developer, .NET and Web Developer and General Geek. I am an enthusiastic advocate of hobbyist development and in particular tools which allow for hobbyist development. Please have a good look around and enjoy anything that you find useful on this site. 
Although I’ve purchased myself an upgrade of the bundle Delphi/C++ Builder 2009 Pro, I’m a supporter of the release of a free/low-cost license of Delphi! Embarcadero should release a Turbo 2009 version of Delphi, C++ Builder and Prism just to allow access these tools to hobbyists and students. Embarcadero should not go away by stating that there are student licenses, since they aren’t allowed for hobbyists: you have to prove that you are a student.
The new Delphi should also be friendly for open-source developers:
1. Basic database programming
2. Component usage both commerical and own components
3. VCL
4. Basic reporting or charting tool
5. More to come!
You could team up with Gary Darby
http://www.delphiforfun.org/
There’s lots of whine blogs, the short visit doesn’t surprise me.
I have used Delphi to set up hardware for most of my programming life, both at work and at home. Current home project is a Yamaha DX7 FM Synthesizer editor (yes, another one). Don’t know if anyone would be interested in something as ancient as that, tho’.
@Tom van der Vlugt – Would have preferred this comment on my other posting so that all discussion on this subject is in one place but thanks!
@Jan Doggen – Good idea, he probably has a few fun projects up his sleeve that he might be able to contribute
@Ken Knopfli – That’s interesting, is that how this blog comes accross – as a place for whining – because that certainly wasn’t my intention. I’m very supportive of the CG guys (see my comment in response to an outburst on that post: http://jamie.op-i.net/blog/2009/02/turbo-delphi-an-open-letter/#comment-60). I would like to think that my post was a little more level-headed and unemotional than the usual ones that we’ve all seen before.
As to your Synthesizer Editor project then yes, If the hardware is still available on eBay then absolutely! Older hardware can be better for these projects because it’s generally available much more cheaply! If you wanted to do an article on it then I’d love to add you to the blog?
You wrote:
…The great people at CodeGear HQ must be very fast readers!…
Just consider a centralized structure, a server that could spider the Delphi Blogs Galaxy at once. It could gather all articles really fast, build an archive (!) and share them per intranet using a kinda Search engine.
I personally would setup such a service in my company …