From the official Synapse site:

This project deals with network communication by means of blocking (synchronous) sockets or with limited non-blocking mode. This project not using asynchronous sockets! The Project contains simple low level non-visual objects for easiest programming without problems. (no required multithread synchronisation, no need for windows message processing,…) Great for command line utilities, visual projects, NT services

“Installing” it

Firstly, you’ll want to download the stable release of Synapse, and place them somewhere. At the time of writing, the latest Synapse version is release number 38. Once you’ve downloaded it, extract the files somewhere (it doesn’t matter where you extract them to, as long as you remember the directory name. I’d suggest to create a directory for all your Free Pascal library code). Next, we need to edit the config file, so that Free Pascal can find these libraries. Open your Free Pascal configuration file (on Linux, this is at/etc/fpc.cfg. On Windows, this should be in the directory you installed Free Pascal to). Search for this:

# searchpath for libraries

Right before that, add -Fu followed by the path to the directory you made earlier. In my case, I added:

-Fu/home/daniel/fpc

Using it in your code

In most cases, you’ll be using the TTCPBlockSocket class. This is included in the blcksock unit, so add this unit to the uses clause of your application:

uses blcksock;

Example

Connecting to a server

This is probably the most common way you’d use a socket — Connecting directly to another server. The functionality for this is contained in the TTCPBlockSocket class. Firstly, we need to define a variable to store the socket in:

var
	sock: TTCPBlockSocket;

And then we need to actually create the socket:

sock := TTCPBlockSocket.Create;

This creates a socket named sock that we’re able to use. The next step is to connect to the remote server, using the Connect method:

sock.Connect('66.79.183.71', '80');
// Was there an error?
if sock.LastError <> 0 then
begin
	writeLn('Could not connect to server.');
	halt(1);
end;

At this point, the connection to the remote server has been established, and we may send and receive data.

Sending Data

Sending data is done via the SendString method. Note that this is slightly different to some other languages; it does not add a carriage return and linefeed to the end of the line, you have to add this manually if required.

sock.SendString('GET /blog/ HTTP/1.1'#13#10'Host: www.daniel15.com'#13#10#13#10);

Receiving Data

There are several methods for receiving data, but the two main ones are RecvString and RecvPacket. RecvString reads a single string (terminated by a carriage return and linefeed) from the socket, and returns this string without the carriage return. RecvPacket reads all data waiting to be read, and returns it unmodified (all carriage returns and linefeeds will still be there). Both commands take one parameter: A timeout. If the socket doesn’t contain any data within this timeout, it returns a blank string.

buffer := sock.RecvPacket(2000);

Putting it all together

Here’s an example application that connects to a web server, does a simple HTTP request, and writes the response to the console:

program TestApp;
 
uses
	blcksock;
 
var
	sock: TTCPBlockSocket;
 
procedure Main();
var
	buffer: String = '';
begin
	sock := TTCPBlockSocket.Create;
 
	sock.Connect('66.79.183.71', '80');
	// Was there an error?
	if sock.LastError <> 0 then
	begin
		writeLn('Could not connect to server.');
		halt(1);
	end;
	// Send a HTTP request
	sock.SendString('GET /blog/ HTTP/1.1'#13#10'Host: www.daniel15.com'#13#10#13#10);
 
	// Keep looping...
	repeat
		buffer := sock.RecvPacket(2000);
		write(buffer);
	// ...until there's no more data.
	until buffer = '';
end;
 
 
begin
	Main();
end.

The loop is needed because the data may come in multiple packets.

Not that this is not really a good example, as there’s a HTTP library built-in to Synapse. The in-built HTTP library has several advantages, including the ability to use HTTP proxies. Perhaps I’ll cover that in a future blog post

The only problem now is my lack of blog posts. I haven’t really had time to blog, but I’ll definitely try to write some more posts here soonish

Additionally, a few minor bugs with the Import a Flash “embed” code were fixed as well. FlashVars in <embed> tags should now work properly.

As usual, please report any bugs to me

1. Set your system clock to a date in the future (something far in the future; eg December 2030).
2. Create a new file (anything, a blank text document will do).
3. Set the system clock back to the real date.
4. Open the directory containing the newly-created file.
5. Choose the View → Arrange Icons By → Modified option.
6. Tick View → Arrange Icons → Show in Groups.
7. Look at the group heading of the newly-created file:
   

Of course, that should be “Millenium”… Millennia is plural

So yeah, I’m soooo glad that exam is now over; it was the one exam I was really dreading. The exams I have left are:

Monday 5th November
3:00 PM–4:15 PM — Specialist Maths Exam 1 (non-calculator)

Friday 9th November
9:00 AM–10:15 AM — Maths Methods Exam 1 (non-calculator)

Monday 12th November
11:45 AM–2:00 PM — Maths Methods Exam 2 (calculator)

Wednesday 14th November
11:45 AM–1:30 PM — Physics

Thursday 15th November
9:00 AM–10:45 AM — Chemistry (ewwww )

Friday 16th November
3:00 PM–5:15 PM — Specialist Maths Exam 2 (calculator)

So yeah, after that, No more school! On to University next year. I’m hoping that I get an ENTER score above 87, that way I’ll get into Computer Science at Melbourne University

Edit: Some people were asking about the title of this post. It was referring to my MSN Messenger display name, which I had set to “It’s Survivor: English Exam Edition. 46000 students, 4 hours, 3 essays. Who will survive?” for a while

The code is quite ugly, but, well, so is MySpace. That’s my excuse.

1. Guys are more emotional then you think, if they loved you at one point, it’ll take them a lot longer then you think to let you go, and it hurts every second that they try.

2. Guys may be flirting around all day but before they go to sleep, they always think about the girl they truly care about.

3. Guys go crazy over a girl’s smile.

4. Guys will do anything just to get you to notice him.

5. Guys hate it when you talk about your ex-boyfriend or ex love-interest. Unless they’re goin for the let-her-complain-to-you-and-then-have-her-realize-how-wonderful-and-nice-you-are method.

6. A guy who likes you wants to be the only guy you talk to.

7. Boyfriends need to be reassured often that they’re still loved.

8. Guys are more emotional than they’d like people to think.

9. Giving a guy a hanging message like “You know what?!..uh…nevermind..” would make him jump to a conclusion that is far from what you are thinking. And he’ll assume he did something wrong and he’ll obsess about it trying to figure it out.

10. Girls are guys’ weaknesses.

11. Guys are very open about themselves.

12. If a guy tells you about his problems, he just needs someone to listen to him. You don’t need to give advice.

13. A usual act that proves that the guy likes you is when he teases you.

14. Guys love you more than you love them if they are serious in your relationships.

15. Guys use words like hot or cute to describe girls. We rarely use beautiful.If a guy uses that, he likes you a whole hell of a lot.

16. No matter how much guys talk about asses and boobs, personality is key.

17. Guys worry about the thin line between being compassionate and being whipped.

18. Guys think WAY too much. One small thing a girl does, even if she doesn’t notice it can make the guy think about it for hours, trying to figure out what it meant.

19. If the guy does something stupid in front of the girl, he will think about it for the next couple days or until the next time he spends time with the girl.

20. If a guy looks unusually calm and laid back, he’s probably faking it and is spazzing inside.

21. When a guy says he is going crazy about the girl, he really is. Guys rarely say that.

22. When a guy asks you to leave him alone, he’s just actually saying, “Please come and listen to me.”

23. If a guy starts to talk seriously, listen to him. It doesn’t happen that often, so when it does, you know something’s up.

24. When a guy tells you that you are beautiful, don’t say you aren’t. It makes them want to stop telling you because they don’t want you to disagree with them.

25.When a guy looks at you for longer than a second, he’s definitely thinking something.

26. A guy has more problems than you can see with your naked eyes.

27. Don’t be a snob. Guys can be intimidated and give up easily.

28. Guys talk about girls more than girls talk about guys.

29. Guys really think that girls are strange and have unpredictable decisions and are MAD confusing but somehow are drawn even more to them.

30. A guy would give his right nut to be able to read a girl’s mind for a day.

31. No guy can handle all his problems on his own. He’s just too stubborn to admit it.

32. Not all guys are assholes. Just because ONE is a jackass doesnt mean he represents ALL of us.

33. They love it when girls talk about their boobs.

34. When a guy hits your butt it means that he wants you sexually

35. Even if they refuse it all guys are ticklish on the ribs.

36. Guys love neck rubs and if he lets you keep doing it ..it means that he really likes you or his neck really hurts.

37. When a guy sacrifices his sleep and health just to be with you, he really likes you and wants to be with you as much as possible.

As usual, please report any bugs here as a comment, or via email.

• The animations display with a transparent background, even if a background colour has been specified in the Flash animation. [Unconfirmed]
• The icon for the application does not have a transparent background. [Fixed on 2nd October 2007]
• The dimensions of the Flash animation need to be entered manually. I’m not quite sure how to fix this, though (as I don’t think there’s a way to automatically detect how big the animation is).

If you find a bug in the application, please tell me about it (either by posting a comment here, or emailing me at facebook -[at]- daniel15.com)

Thanks guys!

Enjoy!