The namespaces conception in C# seems to be exhaustive and insufficient at the same time compared with a strong module notation in Oberon-2 and even with a modular programming approaches in Free Pascal/Delphi.

Why insufficient? You cannot declare constants and functions within namespaces but you should add a class …

Here is a small description how to make your own pretty small headless server using Cubieboard A10 microcomputer and Ubuntu operation system.

Important points

My server uses Cubieboard A10, but A20 should works too.

Plug monitor, keyboard, mouse and ethernet cable to Cubieboard.

Cubieboard has Android installed by default. So …

Firebird doesn't support INSERT BULK command or bcp.exe utility. But the external tables can be a good replacement. Simple example is below.

Check that firebird.conf file allow to create external tables. Write or uncomment line like

ExternalFileAccess = Full

Create external table

CREATE TABLE BCP_DATA EXTERNAL FILE 'с:\temp …

The code below show how to implement very simple but cross-platform "old school" mutex (mutually exclusive semaphore)

interface

type
  TMutex = class
  private
    FFileHandle: integer;
  public
    constructor Create(const AName: string; const WaitForMSec: integer = 10000);
    destructor Destroy; override;
  end;

implementation

uses
  Classes, SysUtils, DateUtils,
  {$IFDEF MSWINDOWS}
  Windows
  {$ENDIF};

function GetTempDir: string …

How to insert fast a file (i.e. binary one) from disk to a SQL Server table?

Certainly the SQL Server account should have a corresponding permissions to access the file on the disk. For example I take the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\oembios.bin having the size about 12 …

There are many examples of user defined table functions generating the series of dates(times) between two specified values. Usually, in OLAP you can see a table filled by the date/time series, too. Such table avoid to generate the values "on the fly".

However, in some cases you may …

How to delete the rows having the duplicated values of one or more columns and considered as duplicates? The example in Transact SQL is below.

SET NOCOUNT ON;
CREATE TABLE #t (
  product_name nvarchar(20),
  vendor_name nvarchar(20)
)
GO
INSERT INTO #t (product_name, vendor_name) VALUES
('SQL Server', 'Microsoft'),
('Oracle', 'Oracle'),
('DB2 …

It's pretty easy on SQL Server but pay attention to the database/server rights of used connection. Usually, the preparing like sp_configure requires a system administrator privileges.

Activate "xp_cmdshell" option (only once)

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1;
RECONFIGURE;

Create and run wrapping stored procedure …

Many years ago we had a need to manipulate the data of types "date" and "time" (DateTime in C# and Delphi/C++Builder). I had developed the corresponding class for these purposes.

Here is the interface with comments:

/*
 * Initializes the object with the values taken from the formatted string like …

Let's see one simple example showing how the methods and the languages of graphical user interface (GUI) description are progressing (or regressing, it depends) during the last 15-20 years.

The primitive form description requires:

1996: Delphi 2

object Form1: TForm1
  Left = 0
  Top = 0
  Caption = 'Test form'
  ClientHeight = 131
  ClientWidth …