[DUG-OFFTOPIC]: Delphi 8 .net win32 et al

[James Sugrue]

Bit of a lazy Friday today, so I thought I might see the ground swell of opinion in the Delphi community on the recent developments at Borland…..   For those of you who don’t know here is a bit of a backgrounder….   The imminent release of Delphi 8 will be .NET only, not .NET and Win32. It has been said that the Win32 version of Delphi will receive an update, but no time frame has been given or any news on what the update will entail.     Basically, Delphi as we know it is being depreciated and moved to .NET platform, and Delphi 7 looks like being the last Win32 full release.   Kylix is officially on hold, and will not receive any updates for all of next year. The only official word is “sometime” in 2005. It also appears that Kylix maybe a dead duck.     I am interested to hear other peoples opinions on above and how it will effect them.   Personally, I don’t think it will effect me that much, I will continue to use Delphi 7 for as long as I need to create win32 apps, and use Delphi 8 + for .NET apps as needed. The only worry I have is Delphi may become just another .NET platform and getting lost in the wilderness. Hopefully there will be new and better things in Delphi .NET that will stand out from the crowd, the same way Delphi does today.   As for the Kylix issue, it would seem that it is doomed for the dustbin. I guess Borland is taking a wait and see approach, but it seems they are now pushing the BuilderX platform for multi platform apps.          James Sugrue   Software Developer WA Systems Timaru Phone 03 688-1131