>investment in components for Delphi that will not be of any use were I to >begin doing all new work in C# or even Chrome. Take the Jedi lib for >example. I use that every day! And then there are the great string >functions in SysTools...also open source. Where or how will I replace >these?
Not a bad idea sitting in here actually. Converting systools and the jedi library to .Net would be a worthwhile endeavor. I have to agree that the Jedi library is one of the most powerful libraries I have ever used in any language and the fact that it is free is incredible. I can't even fathom how many people would use such a library in C#. > The second most worrisome problem is that were I to move to C# or >Chrome, I'm locked into .NET. And from what I hear, .NET doesn't run any >better than Java did the first couple years. 100% of the work I've gotten >has been in the client-side or desktop application area. Can programs >written in .Net compete on the "personal" or small business desktop? I >seem >to get nothing but ambiguous replies to this question and that scares me! Couple things here. WinForms aren't going to blaze any trails in performance compared to Delphi and WinAPI, but in VS2005 WinForms are better and by Longhorn I believe WinForms will be on par with WinAPI built forms. Which brings us to why .Net will win out in the long run. Microsoft and their ability to quietly build performance that only their tools can readily take advantage of. The API is well built and solid now, but in Longhorn you are going to find several "features" only accessible through the .Net framework and probably a few annoying API bugs introduced. Also, Longhorn will likely be optimized for the framework. It is already possible for the framework to be much faster in certain instances because of the way it works and this is only going to become more so in the future. MS wants to deprecate the WinAPI and replace it with the framework. As we have seen with VB, they have no problems pulling the plug and telling everyone tough luck. As for being locked in... well you are locked into Borland more or less now with some side offerings that mimick Delphi. dotNet already has a twin of sorts called Mono (www.mono-project.com). Mono allows development in dotNet for Solaris, Mac, OSX, Windows, Linux and Unix outside of VS. When MS created dotNet they did something actually kind of wonderful by creating layers in the "compile" structure that are fairly portable. Check out more on the CLI and CLR by googling it. It is a very un-MS layout and allows for a lot of portability. BTW if you are developing web apps, Atlas is a great technology shipping with VS2005. __________________________________________________ Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk
