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Title:	ITtoolbox' "prem" comments on Delphi
Author:	Bob Swart
Posted:	8/15/2007 9:08:37 AM (GMT+1)
Content:	On the ITtoolbox website, a certain "prem" has written an article about his idea for "reviving Delphi" which starts of with a discussion of "the problem of Delphi" which is just full of incorrect claims and facts that I couldn't just let go by. So I responded, and below is a copy of my comment in his blog: Bob Swart writes: You write that "the professional version of Delphi does not even include drivers for RDBMS such as Firebird, Interbase, MS SQL Server etc." which makes me wonder if you've actually even installed the professionsl version of Delphi, since it surely does include drivers for InterBase, SQL Server, MySQL, etc. Even without installing, you could have know this by reading the information at http://www.codegear.com/products/delphi/win32 When you write that "the support for .NET 2.0 is going to be in Delphi only in 2008", I wonder if you really know the contents of the CodeGear RAD Studio 5.0, with the currently released personalities (or identities) Delphi 2007 for Win32 and C++Builder 2007, with the Delphi 2007 for .NET 2.0 (and 3.0) to follow shortly. Still in 2007, and no surprise, since this was communicated to the Delphi community a long time now. Playing catch-up with Microsoft may sound like a good idea to you, but to me it's more important to be able to re-use existing code and projects. With the VCL - available for 12+ years now, I have been able to move applications from Win32 to Linux (with Kylix) and .NET 1.1 and soon to .NET 2.0 and higher. Tell that to a MFC or WinForms developer. Oh and in case you didn't know it already, let me tell you a little "secret": Delphi 2007 for .NET will no longer offer design-time support for WinForms. You can probably still compile them (just like C# and VB projects), but for designing applications, the VCL is the way to go. At least that will prevent us from having to rewrite applications when Microsoft releases the Next Holy Grail. I guess you haven't been really using Delphi for a while, but just watch the things that are cooking. As far as I recall, Delphi 2007 for Win32 was the first native development environment for Windows Vista. And you can read the roadmap to see more information about native 64-bit development (for Delphi as well as C++). Feel free to leave your own comments to his article as well.
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5 Comments

Author Posted Comments
Roland 07/08/15 09:54:13 >At least that will prevent us from having to rewrite applications when Microsoft >releases the Next Holy Grail. Tell that to those who followed the same CodeGear(Borland) when they entered the .NET as a first class .NET citizen. I mean they are left stranded with their Delphi .NET Winform apps in .NET 1.1 and will eventualy, not follow, but enter the Holy Grail. ;-)
Liz 07/08/15 10:07:23 Nothing is worse than when whats written isnt true, well done for making a counter letter. Many many years ago a magazine did a comparison between foxpro for windows and Access, and claimed you couldnt change fonts, colours blah blah.. At this point even then, both products were microsoft. It seriously annoyed me, as Foxpro was far faster and could do all the things they said it couldnt..
Bob Swart 07/08/15 11:17:01 @Roland: I'm sorry for those who used WinForms to enter .NET as a first class .NET citizen, but at that time Microsoft had already published about about XAML and the "next wave" of technologies to make it clear that WinForms was a dead end. Reminds me of MFC and VB6. To maintain (code and design) .NET 1.1 WinForms apps in Delphi for .NET, you will have to stick to Delphi 2006. Just like having to stick with Visual C++ 6 to maintain an old Win32 MFC application (I know people who do). The choice for VCL will mean a more secure path.
People may fear CodeGear will not live forever, but history tells me I'd rather worry about (the future of) MFC, WinForms and - five to ten years from now - WPF / XAML.
Roland 07/08/15 12:42:03 @Bob:VCL is the best choice for Delphi, no doubt about that. For small software consultants, like me, VCL.NET will/can not be an option (probably) I will explain why I think that: 1. If my customer ask me to use .NET he will for 99% mean the latest/greatest .NET version. (He asks it, so he is familiar with the stuff) 2. If I can choose the tool and framework I would choose VCL win32. (Can not think of a situation where I would choose VCL.NET over VCL Win32). Iow if a Delphi developer has a choice he will probably choose VCL Win32 over VCL.NET. Somehow I feel it is a mistake not to bring Winforms upto .NET 2.0 It would have been another case if CodeGear said we will not provide a WPF desinger. I think dropping Winforms forces all those developers to move to VS (Delphi .NET is not an option anymore). On the other hand every new technology from VS seems to be a dead end. But you are right Delphi VCL is the most secure path out there!
VT Venkatesh 07/08/15 15:26:53 Codegear has promised in its road map that there will be vcl.net ECO applications.I am sure this would make people move to vcl.net from win32 since there is no ECO for win32.Codegear has also spun off ECO team into a separate company & we should certainly hope to see more innovative solutions from CapableObjects(the new ECO company)

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Roland	07/08/15 09:54:13	>At least that will prevent us from having to rewrite applications when Microsoft >releases the Next Holy Grail. Tell that to those who followed the same CodeGear(Borland) when they entered the .NET as a first class .NET citizen. I mean they are left stranded with their Delphi .NET Winform apps in .NET 1.1 and will eventualy, not follow, but enter the Holy Grail. ;-)
Liz	07/08/15 10:07:23	Nothing is worse than when whats written isnt true, well done for making a counter letter. Many many years ago a magazine did a comparison between foxpro for windows and Access, and claimed you couldnt change fonts, colours blah blah.. At this point even then, both products were microsoft. It seriously annoyed me, as Foxpro was far faster and could do all the things they said it couldnt..
Bob Swart	07/08/15 11:17:01	@Roland: I'm sorry for those who used WinForms to enter .NET as a first class .NET citizen, but at that time Microsoft had already published about about XAML and the "next wave" of technologies to make it clear that WinForms was a dead end. Reminds me of MFC and VB6. To maintain (code and design) .NET 1.1 WinForms apps in Delphi for .NET, you will have to stick to Delphi 2006. Just like having to stick with Visual C++ 6 to maintain an old Win32 MFC application (I know people who do). The choice for VCL will mean a more secure path. People may fear CodeGear will not live forever, but history tells me I'd rather worry about (the future of) MFC, WinForms and - five to ten years from now - WPF / XAML.
Roland	07/08/15 12:42:03	@Bob:VCL is the best choice for Delphi, no doubt about that. For small software consultants, like me, VCL.NET will/can not be an option (probably) I will explain why I think that: 1. If my customer ask me to use .NET he will for 99% mean the latest/greatest .NET version. (He asks it, so he is familiar with the stuff) 2. If I can choose the tool and framework I would choose VCL win32. (Can not think of a situation where I would choose VCL.NET over VCL Win32). Iow if a Delphi developer has a choice he will probably choose VCL Win32 over VCL.NET. Somehow I feel it is a mistake not to bring Winforms upto .NET 2.0 It would have been another case if CodeGear said we will not provide a WPF desinger. I think dropping Winforms forces all those developers to move to VS (Delphi .NET is not an option anymore). On the other hand every new technology from VS seems to be a dead end. But you are right Delphi VCL is the most secure path out there!
VT Venkatesh	07/08/15 15:26:53	Codegear has promised in its road map that there will be vcl.net ECO applications.I am sure this would make people move to vcl.net from win32 since there is no ECO for win32.Codegear has also spun off ECO team into a separate company & we should certainly hope to see more innovative solutions from CapableObjects(the new ECO company)