For you Borland C++Builder developers out there, I’d just like to mention that my first-ever technical article has just been published in this month’s issue of C++ Builder Developers Journal. My article got the top slot in the issue, as well as the cover art, and I got some major praise from the journal’s editor:

Let me first say that your article was, hands down, one of the best we’ve had. It was *extremely* well-written, both grammatically and technically, and the demo application was just perfect (not too simple, but not too loaded with irrelevant features). You should take pride in your technical writing skills. I sincerely appreciate the time and effort you put into providing such a well-polished submission–thank you. And, I hope you will consider writing for us again.

Not too bad for a first-time writer, huh?

Ok, enough bragging for now. That made my day. Now on to other news.

With the recent announcement that Microsoft Agent has been updated in Windows Vista to finally support SAPI 5, I have begun updating my AgentCB application to support it as well. More on this to follow when a new version is ready for testing.

My Microsoft Agent processing/rendering engine is coming alone nicely.  Being able to display and run ACS, ACF, and ACA files without using Microsoft’s products is quite refreshing, from a programmer’s standpoint. I recently updated my engine to use GDI+ on Windows systems. This will allow me to support transparent images, as well as resizing images (such as when the character window is stretched), much easier. I’m also working on incorporating the engine into a new application now (adding a Preview tab to the Properties dialog of ACS files) to help me iron out the interfaces better so that I can then start incorporating the engine into the other appications that I have planned (which are listed on my website).