Charlie, In my opinion you have to look at three main factors - what you want to do now, what you want to do in two years and whether you want to make a career of it.
If you want to write something like games I would recommend staying away from .NET unless someone suggests that GDI+ under .NET is fast. In the case of simple games as an educator, go with Delphi for example due to its speed. If you want to write business applications and small utilities the path is more open. The case for what you want to do in two years is down to operating systems. Will Longhorn be a major platform shift, removing the viability of the Windows API ? Will Linux make inroads into the desktop. Personally I think the Windows API will still be here in two years, and anything I write now can be ported to the new operating system. If I write a utility now for a customer, that customer should still be able to use it in two years time, providing I do not have to give them the source. Finally, the career. This is the major decider for most people on this list. The most unfortunate thing is that people are rarely lucky enough to do this purely as a hobby. The companies paying us to do our jobs are continually being sold change, and managers are afraid to change too quickly or be left behind. Microsoft just adds to everyones fears by changing things to suit their own requirements of the market and to ensure that their shareholders are kept happy. So, although it may not provide a clear cut answer, this note may provide direction. At the end of the day, you can't blame anyone for your own decisions so good luck in whatever you decide. Kind regards, Darren -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Charlie Sent: 23 May 2005 16:41 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Ignorance Importance: High Thank all for your input into Delphi, Delphi 2005, .Net, VS.Net etc. Interestingly I haven't hear comments about Java except for Darren's statement - similar to Java debacles now One on the things that bothers me is, Will Microsoft become the present day IBM? What I mean by that is IBM would bring out a computer/os model only to abandon it two years later (mainframe and/or PC). Thus far Microsoft has kept OS's backwards compatible; but are we on the verge of that no longer being the case? Are we on the verge of resorting to Open Source? Or are we going to either continuing paying Borland for upgrades or Microsoft for new languages? Perhaps a more simple question is. "Can one do with Java what one can do with .Net?" Again I admit my ignorance; so that is why I've turned to you folks. I have a second motivation. My oldest son has expressed interest in learning a programming language and I don't know what to suggest to him. Know what you now know but you were just getting started what would you do. Thanks to all of you. Charlie Kerscher Williamson GA 30292 __________________________________________________ Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk __________________________________________________ Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk
