I think I should preface my following comments with my background. I started programming with Turbo Pascal 5.0, Turbo C++ 1.0, and moved to Delphi when it came out. I used Delphi exclusively until about 2002 (or whenever Delphi 8.0 came out). I have been around the list group since about '99 and was active in the Delphi community and a member of JEDI admin team around 1998/99. I love Delphi and still use it today for Win32.
The following view is all IMHO and I'm not trying to say it is fact. I welcome reasoned rebuttal. Here Goes: I think the problem with Delphi these days is the world has moved on. Delphi was/is great at Desktop DB Apps, Client/Server db apps, Utility apps - that sort of thing. The problem with Delphi these days is two-fold: Internet Apps - The fact that there is no real easy and good way to make websites is an issue. Sure you can use ASP.NET in Delphi, but 2.0 leaves 1.1 .NET in the dust, which leads me to the second issue. Delphi is playing catch up to Visual Studio in the .NET space. Even if you love Delphi, which I do, there is no real reason to use Delphi to build .NET apps. C#/2.0 is better. That is an unfortunate fact. By the time Delphi catches up to 2.0 Visual Studio will probably be at Orcas and .NET 3.0 and believe me some of the features of 3.0 are show stoppers for any IDE that isn't using it. I consider myself a C# developer these days. The following items are just a few things off the top of my head, why I moved to C# - extensive class library, - connectivity to databases, - garbage collection, - ability to develop Compact Framework, ASP.NET and Windows Apps (32 and 64bit) using .NET 2.0 in the same IDE - Ability to easily connect to Office apps and use managed code rather than VBA - MSDN with articles and webcasts freely available - The fact the language is evolving and new features included with each release However, I think with the passion the DevCo team have, I think going forward Delphi can regain a lot of what it used to have. They just probably need to look at the market and find a niche. IMO I think they probably should look at cross platform or emphasizing and marketing the Win32 side of things. Maybe some kind of inbuild wizard that takes VB6 apps and converts them to Delphi - there are heaps of disgruntled VB6 developers who would look at switching to something non Microsoft. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matthew Comb Sent: Thursday, 27 April 2006 3:43 p.m. To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List Subject: Re: [DUG] More Delphi news... I have to say, after 10 years of Delphi programming, its a bummer to think that Delphi would drop away. I would love to think that once all this DevCo stuff is behind them, they could kick on, however Im currently working for a large scale company that are looking to migrate from Delphi to C# and so have been learning C# on the side. I'm sad to say but its just miles ahead. instantly debugable webservices, instant integration with SQL Server and instant creation of underlying schemas. Within 4 hours, I had a Client Server setup with a database backend. Server was WebService based, communication was in xml. It has Anders written all over it, and everything we like that Delphi had is still there, its just been completed. Interested to know what other people say about C# the question is: If you were the CEO of a company that developed a product, and saw your competitors release a product that was so far ahead of anything that you had in the pipeline, what would you do ? My answer would be refocus. Which appears to be what Borland has done. Thoughts? _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list [email protected] http://ns3.123.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/delphi _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list [email protected] http://ns3.123.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/delphi
