I have upgraded Delphi from each version until D7. Usefulness of upgrades was D1 to D3, D3 to D5 and D5 to D7. Anything in between was a crap version. Can anyone remember D4? What an insult! If you look at this trend, D2005 should have been a good version. Reading threads on this list have indicated frustration with this version as have colleagues of my mine, who have cut their losses and gone back to previous versions of Delphi. Those of you that expressed frustration with D2005 and are just maybe getting over it. Get ready for the next dose.
I am tired of putting money into the Borland coffers to get bugs, time wasting to figure out if it is my bug or Borland's and having to wait for another update, which means going back to the previous stable version of Delphi because deadline have to be met. How many of you have had that BPLxxx problem? A pain in the butt feature that has followed quite a few versions. Nothing will convince me that Borland's high price annual upgrades to a new version is not a money grabbing exercise. Have a look at the frequency of new versions - every October an announcement is made. Do we need this one bit of new thing that has been included in the new version, is it cost effective to pay a couple of grand for. Are we going to use it? Do our customers want it? Can we pass on the cost to our customer and at the same trying to explain to them why the app is running at a crawl and that the exe is 5MB when it should be about 2.5MB. Do we have the time to learn new features when we probably don't need it and in a lot of cases no one, including the users, wants. Some of you use the Professional version, I use the Enterprise version because of the nature of my development. So an upgrade for a lot of you will not mean much of an outlay and this mail not mean much. A lot of people on this list don't like Microsoft too much. But how often do they do upgrades to new versions? Not often. I've been using VS 2003 for about 3 years, soon a new version is coming out. By the time it has settled in the market, Borland will have Delphi 2007 out. Since VS 2003 came out, Borland have released 3 versions of Delphi. Figure that out. Have you seen many Delphi books out on the bookshelves for a new version - the authors can't keep up with these new annual versions. I know Marco Cantu has recently put out Mastering D2005, how out of date this is going to be in the next few months. No one else is putting Delphi books out. Go to your bookshop and count the C++, C# and VB books on the shelves covering every single aspect of the compiler. Such as C# Design Patterns, C# and ADO.Net, C# and SQL Server, VB and Menu Bars etc. Now count the Delphi books. Maybe you'll be lucky and find one. Unfortunately MS has now got the developer market sewn up. Hundreds of 3rd party books, cheap product, infrequent new versions and quick patch updates. Look at products such as Installshield, DreamWeaver etc. No mention of Delphi there, all VS2003 stuff and seamless integration. I use DreamWeavers C# ASP.Net and it works like a charm. Why don't we have a Delphi option on the menu bar? Simple, these companies don't see no need for it, it is not a common product, these companies don't want it. Both Installshield and Macromedia are major players so why are they not including a Delphi interface? What is Borland doing about it? Nothing. Thank god Borland don't have an equivalent version of Office, MS releases a new upgrade every 3 years, Borland every year - I can't see any commercial companies wanting to pay for a new upgrade every year. But for a development product, MS provides better value for money than Borland who are in a smaller developer market and need to grab money from who ever is gullible enough to give it to them. My solution is, if you are happy with the Delphi version you are currently using, stick to it. Maybe upgrade to Delphi 2018 when it comes out in 12 years time. Your bank balance will look better and who ever you are developing for will still like and use what you have developed for them, even if you used D5 to do it. I have supported Borland for many years, my contribution plus everyone else helped to keep the stock holders happy. But my patience has grown thin. Their IDE was good. But do I need to sit here admiring their IDE when behind it there are problems. How many times have you read on this list about how good the IDE is? The end user doesn't give a stuff about the IDE, they want the deliverable. I now do quick and dirty stuff in D7 and the major stuff in MS C#. I am not a hobbyist, but make my income developing applications and have to use the tools that achieve that. Delphi was once the tool, but no longer. There are hundreds of great C# components on the market and they work as well as they did when they were available for Delphi. I can't keep up with Borland's constant version updates and refuse to. D7 was the last and that's how it will remain. I am finding productivity has increased with VS and if I eventually give Delphi the flick, it was not my doing, but Borland's. Mike __________________________________________________ Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk
