--- In [email protected], Thomas Hruska <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Asim Khan wrote: > > http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,33303,00.html > > I used to be a _HUGE_ Borland fan. Used Turbo C and Turbo C++ back in > the day and then got their Windows compilers. However, I recently ran > into a MAJOR problem with their Builder series and was forced to switch > compilers (the Builder 5 Enterprise compiler absolutely refused to > build some 100% ANSI C++ code I wrote with no alternate way of writing > it and it wasn't going to work under any newer Builder version, so I bit > the bullet and switched). > > Borland was famous back in the day for writing a C compiler that was > solid, standards-compliant, created _very_ small executables, and was > _blazing_ fast. Even back then on those slower machines, you couldn't > get your finger off the hotkey that compiled the code fast enough before > it was done compiling. With my Builder 5 experience, it was > excruciatingly and painfully _slow_ waiting for it to finish even on my > Dual PIII 500 PC - and is still sluggish on my hyperthreaded 3GHz Intel PC. > > So, platitudes like "Borland is still committed to Delphi" or "Borland > is still committed to Builder" these days are meaningless to me if I > can't compile code that should compile according to the Standards > specifications for C++ (for the latter) or if I can't get a reasonable > level of support for Delphi Enterprise and especially if it takes > forever (longer than 2 seconds) to build on modern CPUs. I have a > feeling that article was released in reply to "Spybot Search&Destroy"'s > recent comments on their main website: > > http://www.safer-networking.org/en/news/page-6.html > http://www.safer-networking.org/en/news/page-3.html > > (Apparently the authors are so frustrated with Borland they are looking > to switch to Lazarus...i.e. Open source Delphi) > > Back when Borland merged with Inprise (eons ago), I got the distinct > feeling that something internally was going bad with the company. The > company hasn't been the same since. It isn't so much that Borland > doesn't update their software - it has to do more with the _quality_ of > the updates. The changes rarely address the serious issues that every > serious user is _constantly_ hammering on about (bugs still exist in the > latest Delphi that existed back in version 3). When they are addressed, > they are treated as "features" and a new version than a patch. Some of > you are probably wondering why I am on this list. I'm not anti- Borland, > I'm just not as big a fan as I used to be because I saw my favorite > company slowly lose its ability to make a solid piece of software. > > -- > Thomas Hruska
I've been using Borland since Turbo Pascal 1, though I've strayed to other products along the way. While Borland hasn't always made me happy, and I am NOT happy with current pricing, the problem is that there is little else out there except Microsoft. I am not happy with .NET (including Delphi 8) and have avoided using it in any form so far. When the point comes that I must switch (and that is very likely to happen), I must decide whether to use Delphi 8 or C# (which is largely Delphi with C syntax). Delphi presents less of a learning curve, at least. Let's face it - if Borland fails, Microsoft will have a pretty tight grip on the commercial compiler market and we'll have no choices left. Borland can at least be credited with making upgrades possible and usually not all that painful. Ask all those VB6 programmers how their switch to VB.NET is going if you want to see some real problems. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/T8sf5C/tzNLAA/TtwFAA/i7folB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----------------------------------------------------- Home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/delphi-en/ To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/delphi-en/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
