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ICS V9.1 is almost ready for release. Although there are no new components, there are many other SSL/TLS changes that will affect existing applications, but make ICS easier to use and support for the future. Before the final release in a week or two, I'd appreciate some feedback from user installing V9.1 using the new packages, and update one or more old SSL/TLS applications, it may help future users if I can improve the documentation. Please read readme9.txt and these note about V9.1 carefully when upgrading existing applications, you may get build errors that need minor code changes. But new applications should need be easier to create. 1 - Delphi 10.4 and later now use the same install groups and packages, IcsInstallFmx, IcsInstallVcl and IcsInstallVclFmx, making support a lot easier. Version specific groups remain for Delphi 10.3 and earlier, with new groups D(X)InstallVcl for VCL only replacing the old OverbyteIcs(X) groups, again to simplify support. 2 - The old samples directory has gone and many of the older and little used samples have been archived to a separate download. The active samples used to test and demonstrate all ICS components are now split into the following paths, in the ICS root directory: demos-delphi-vcl - 45 VCL samples for Windows. demos-delphi-extra - four VCL samples that need third party components to build. demos-delphi-fmx - seven FMX samples for Windows, not yet tested on MacOS. demos-cpp-vcl - all old C++ samples that have not been tested for 10 years, need help. demos-data - data files for samples, such as web pages. All these samples can now be built for Win32 and Win64 platforms. 3 - To ease development, linking and future support, some new units have been added by splitting existing units with multiple components, unfortunately this means many existing projects will need one or more of the new units adding to their uses section. Apologies for the pain, but this should have been done a long time ago. The main change is splitting out much of the SSL/TLS related code from the massive OverbyteIcsWSocket unit to a new unit OverbyteIcsSslBase. 4 - Distribution of the ICS OpenSSL files has changed. Earlier ICS versions required the OpenSSL DLLs to be distributed with applications, and a root CA bundle file to verify SSL/TLS connections, and these needed to be loaded using code. There was little standardisation over where the OpenSSL DLLs were located, applications tended to keep their own copies alongside other executables, leading to multiple DLL copies and needing the public variable GSSL_DLL_DIR set to a specific directory before OpenSSL was loaded. Likewise, root CA bundle directories had to be distributed with applications and loaded with code. ICS V9.1 allows five different ways of loading OpenSSL: 1 - DLLs linked into application as resource files 2 - DLLs loaded from common directory C:\ProgramData\ICS-OpenSSL\ 3 - OpenSSL DCU linked into application using commercial YuOpenSSL 4 - DLLs loaded from location specified in public variable GSSL_DLL_DIR 5 - DLLs loaded according to path, may be found anywhere on PC Which method ICS uses to load OpenSSL depends upon several defines in the .\Source\Include\OverbyteIcsDefs.inc file, please see the readme9.txt file for details. ICS currently includes resource files for three different OpenSSL releases, 3.0`13. 3.1.5 and 3.2.1, which version is linked is controlled by a define. If the OpenSSL DLLs are linked into the application, they are extracted to a version subdirectory, ie C:\ProgramData\ICS-OpenSSL\3012\ so different applications can use different OpenSSL versions. This happens only once if the files have not already been extracted. When updating existing projects without using any new defines, the ICS old behaviour of methods 3, 4 and 5 above remain with no changes needed. 5 - A common IcsSslRootCAStore component is now created at application start-up, to avoid different components needing their own CA stores to verify SSL/TLS certificates, and for applications to load those stores. The three different CA stores included with ICS are now supplied as resource files, with a define determining which is linked into applications. Another define causes OpenSSL and this store to be loaded at application startup, so OpenSSL is available for all components, without it needing to be loaded again, perhaps repeatedly. Without new defines, a CA Store can be loaded manually into IcsSslRootCAStore. The ICS servers use CA Stores now use IcsSslRootCAStore and no longer load any files specified. 6 - All SSL/TLS servers need a certificate and private key to start, even when testing. Previously ICS supplied some self signed certificates for testing, and also created such certificates automatically if they were missing or if the server was about to order a Let's Encrypt certificate. Accessing such servers for testing using browsers raised various warnings. ICS now has it's own SSL root certificate 'ICS Root CA' and two intermediates, 'ICS Intermediate' and 'ICS Intermediate Short', the last of which includes a private key so can be used to automatically sign new certificates by ICS server applications, rather than just self signed certificates as before. If the 'ICS Root CA' certificate is installed in the Window Store and browser stores, it should stop certificate warnings appearing. ICS applications automatically trust the ICS root, so will give no warnings. The short intermediate has a maximum 100 day expiry, so new versions will be issued regularly. There is a single function CreateSelfSignCertEx that created signed certificates, and another IcsInstallIcsRoot that installs the ICS root into the Windows Store, so easy to use. It is possible to replace the ICS root with your own private root certificate and have servers create their own certificates against that root, for internal networks. 7 - The TSslHttpRest component now allows TRestParams to be created as content type 'Form-Data Body' to create MIME multipart/form-data parameters that may include new TParamType of RPTypeFile that specifies a file name whose binary content will be added to the parameters as a file upload, allowing multiple files and extra parameters. TRestParams are now built into a TStream rather than a string to allow larger parameter sizes, tested up to 8GB. The ICS web server samples have improved MIME decoding to accept massive uploads. 8 - Several client and server components have a new property NoSSL which if set will prevent those components using SSL/TLS for HTTPS or FTPS, even if the application is linked with OpenSSL code. Beware the IcsSslRootCAStore component must not be initialised by the application. 9 - Updating projects to V9.1: Applications that have TSslContext on a form will need to be opened so the new unit OverbyteIcsSslBase is automatically added to the users clause. Units that reference TX509Base or TX509List mostly for the OnSslHandshakeDone event, may need OverbyteIcsSslBase adding manually if they don't also have TSslContext. The other new units are OverbyteIcsHtmlUtils (for TextToHtmlText, IcsHtmlValuesToUnicode, IcsFindHtmlCharset, IcsFindHtmlCodepage, IcsContentCodepage and IcsHtmlToStr), OverbyteIcsDnsHttps (for TDnsQueryHttp and IcsDomNameCacheHttps) and OverbyteIcsSslUtils (for TOcspHttp). Applications that use IcsExtractURLEncodedValue, ExtractURLEncodedParamList or GetCookieValue may need OverbyteIcsUrl adding to projects. When updating projects using a TSslContext component, setting the new property UseSharedCAStore to True causes the properties CAFile, CALines and CAPath to be ignored, and the new IcsSslRootCAStore component will be used instead, being automatically initialised if not done at program start-up. Don't use UseSharedCAStore for server components. High level ICS components such as TSslHttpRest that have an internal TSslContext component all set UseSharedCAStore and ignore properties like SslRootFile to load a root CA bundle. If a specific bundle is required, it may be loaded to IcsSslRootCAStore. With V9,1, the global variables GSSLEAY_DLL_IgnoreNew and GSSLEAY_DLL_IgnoreOld are ignored since only different minor versions of OpenSSL 3 are supported. V9.1 can be downloaded from SVN at https://svn.overbyte.be/svn/icsv9/ or the overnight zip at https://wiki.overbyte.eu/wiki/index.php/ICS_Download Angus

I have just built an installer for GExperts 1.3.24 Beta1 for Delphi 12. Note the word “Beta” in the release name! We are one step up from Alpha, there are still many bugs, but overall it seems to be stable. Most of the bugs manifest themselves as display glitches on high DPI monitors. Continue reading in the blog post

Look for the tfVerificationFlagChecked flag in the TTaskDialog.Flags property after TTaskDialog.Execute() returns true: if TaskDialog.Execute then begin ... Result.DoNotShowAgain := tfVerificationFlagChecked in TaskDialog.Flags; ... end And, if you want the checkbox to be initially checked when you display the dialog, enable the tfVerificationFlagChecked flag before calling TTaskDialog.Execute(): TaskDialog.Flags := [tfUseCommandLinks, tfAllowDialogCancellation, tfExpandFooterArea]; if DoNotShowAgainIsChecked then TaskDialog.Flags := TaskDialog.Flags + [tfVerificationFlagChecked];

Generics in Delphi don't work the way you seem to think they do. To use the generic type T inside a method of the generic class with a specific type the compiler needs some minimal information on what T can be. That is what generic constraints are for. Unfortunately the constraints supported at the moment are quite limited and will not cover what you intend to do.

The Delphi compiler is also a single pass compiler, unlike C/C++. Being a single pass compiler is one of the reasons that Delphi builds projects much faster than a similar C++ project. I would expect changing Delphi to support multi-pass compiling would be a huge task with few benefits. But I don't know much about writing a compiler.

Kudos on the just released update for Delphi 12, much appreciated! I have seen a previous reply from the dev that support for dark themes are not going to be done. Their choice of course, I understand. Regardless, I'm throwing my vote in for a change eventually. 😄 Imagine that you're running Delphi in Dark mode... on a really good size monitor... (55" in this case) It looks pretty good, except for the GExpert Grep results, which in contrast to the rest of the IDE, now tries to fry my retinas. LOL Anyway... Seriously, if there's any way a volunteer could help with this... I'd put my hand up.

I just extended my dzDebugVisualizer package to include a TColor debug visualizer for Delphi 10.2 and Delphi 12. With little change these will probably work for every Delphi Version that supports the neccessary ToolsApi functions, meaning >= Delphi 2010. This is completely different code than I used before, but it still shows the color name(s) and the RGB value rather than the integer value. read on in the blog post

Why not just use one of several open source serial port components for your communication? No-one will want to debug your code. I've been using Async Pro for 20 years, you can install it from GetIt. Angus

because a usb device can only be used by one machine at a time. Virtualhere presents the device on the remote machine as though it were local. I guess multiple remote PCs can connect, but only one at a given time. The connected PC must disconnect to allow another to connect. Just guessing.

because a usb device can only be used by one machine at a time. Virtualhere presents the device on the remote machine as though it were local.

Bookmarks is at the section Subscription only, I believe that is not available for the CE version.

You can't, as there is no way to get from the MenuHandle/HMENU to its dialog window. However, there can only be 1 menu active at a time, so you should be able to use FindWindow/Ex() to find the HWND of the active menu whose window class name is "#32768"/MAKEINTATOM(0x8000), Once you have the menu's HWND, you should be able to use GetWindowRect() to get its position and size.

I'd say they undo every change they did in the last 17 years and go back to the compiler speed of D2007.

I got a Lenovo P16 (i7)64Gb/ 1TB+500GB Workstation Laptop, and run "corporate" Windows 10 latest patches on the WS and Win11 Pro on a Hyper-V VM. This machine is my regular work machine and it runs an SQL Server instance on the primary OS as well. I also have a private MacBook Pro M1 16" with 32GB and 2TB, running Parallels and Win 11 for ARM on a VM, and RHEL on a VM. Delphi installs and runs just fine on both Win 11 VMs. Interestingly, the MBP is faster than the P16 for the VMs, staying cool and silent, while the P16 spins up the fans like a turbine. I haven't tried dongles on my VMs, since signing happens on the corporate build server, but both VM hosts can pass through USB ports, so I would expect it to work.

Because a Class instance is a pointer. And before you ask: You can actually have forward declaration for pointers to records.

In forward declaration of a class, compiler immediatelly knows the size of that type. For records, their size would be unknown in forward declaration.

Reporting error dialogs from thread pool threads sounds terrible. Stop doing it at all and then you don't need to think that one message box function is better than any other.

We all know maturity is not related to age 😏 I am living proof of that. 😜

I think you'll have to wait a bit; It's only just entered puberty. 13 years old....