The undoubted fact that you can learn a new language quickly does not necessarily mean you can use it to develop software efficiently. We need a lot more than the syntax to fulfill our tasks, such as, for example, our tool-units in which there are all the carefully tested classes and functions that we may have been using for years. There are often tasks that may cost others several days of work when we can make them done perfectly by some simple function calls. In fact, I believe the longer you stick to a certain language, the more efficient you will be. But if you just program for fun, it is totally another thing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are no guarantees that any particular company will stay in business. TurboPower went away, as did Dave Baldwin's HTMLviewer (although parts of both continue on at SourceForge).
There is no guarantee that Embarcadero (or anyone else, I'm not singling them out) will stay in business. The choice of a language or environment should not be based on the longevity of the vendor. It should be based on whether it is the right tool for the job. If D6 is the right tool for the job, then no reason to change. If it becomes obsolete (unusable) at some time in the future, then you can look for a new tool then. As software developers we should be malleable enough to pick up a new language and/or environment quickly. Re learning to program: Pascal is a great language for learning how to program, so D6 might work, but Lazarus is probably better because it's able to target mobile OS, which is more likely what your son will be interested in (if he's like most kids today ;-) ). I've always thought that to truly understand programming, one should learn 3 languages from 3 different families. This way you can get away from syntax issues to the "germ" of what programming is about. To my mind (there will be other voices on this, I'm sure :-) ), I'd pick: 1) A language from the Algol family (I like Pascal, but Algol-W was fun) 2) A language from the C family (Javascript is becoming more and more commonplace, especially with node.js; I've also been looking at D lately, which looks like a nice evolution of the C family, although I think someone who learns it first then has to go program in Java or C++ is going to pull their hair out over having to write lots of extra stuff that [from their perspective] serves no purpose) 3) A lesser-used language, say a functional language or assembly language, or perhaps a unique language such as Forth or APL (I used to include Snobol, but with the advent of regular expressions in Javascript, PHP, et al, I think Snobol's uniqueness is less now than it used to be). If he's a history buff, COBOL or Fortran might be interesting to learn. My 2 cents... At 02:51 AM 7/2/2014, [email protected] wrote: >I am in no way affiliated with the Lazarus team, >and can make no promises about future >availability or suitability on, as yet >unwritten, future operating systems. All I CAN >say is, the project has been running since 1999 >has an incredibly busy forum, and a dedicated >fanbase, and gets regular updates. > >It's as likely to disappear as Linux is ;) > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Delphi [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tony Foale >Sent: 30 June 2014 10:37 >To: Moderated List for the Discussion of Delphi >Programming excluding Database-related topics >Subject: Re: Running Delphi on 64-bit machines > >On 30 June 2014 08:29, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > If you don't want to upgrade, then Lazarus is a good alternative. > > Pascal language, 64 bit compatible, and it's FREE > > > > ​​ > > http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/ > > > >​I have been using D6 for sometime and I do >not have any need for additional features and so >I have no plans to upgrade, my needs do not >justify the upgrade prices either, but I am a >little concerned that future Windows "improvements" might render it obsolete. >Would I be correct in assuming that Lazarus and >free Pascal will keep ​up to date with >on-going features? My son also wants to start >programming and it looks like it would be a good option for him to work with. > > >Regards > >Tony Foale > > > >[email protected] >http://www.tonyfoale.com >http://picasaweb.google.com/tonyfoale >https://www.facebook.com/tony.foale.5 >https://www.youtube.com/user/MotoChassis >_______________________________________________ >Delphi mailing list >[email protected] >http://lists.elists.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/delphi >-- This e-mail may contain confidential and/or >privileged information. If you are not the >intended recipient (or have received this e-mail >in error) please notify the sender immediately >and destroy this e-mail. Any unauthorized >copying, disclosure or distribution of the >material in this e-mail is strictly forbidden. >_______________________________________________ >Delphi mailing list [email protected] >http://lists.elists.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/delphi _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list [email protected] http://lists.elists.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/delphi _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list [email protected] http://lists.elists.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/delphi
