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22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

blog.marcocantu.com

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Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#261

Post by VLM »

willtim wrote: post #179
VLM wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a continuum of restriction of style. The Python guys say the same thing about Perl. "We can handle our diversity, but the Perl guys are completely out of control so I don't know how anyone can handle that." Imagine being a clothing designer and told to make something. The output could be anything from Beyonce's grammy dress to a famous deceased CEO who wore black turtlenecks all the time. That extreme diversi…

I'm not sure I like your clothing analogy, it implies that Haskell deliverables are somehow restricted in functionality, which isn't true. The "style" that Haskell prohibits is hiding side-effects and mutable state behind something that pretends to be a function. If you are honest and upfront about what you are doing, i.e. you fully understand what you are doing, then Haskell has no problem letting you do it.

I actually agree with you and any disagreement we have is solely my fault, as that's mostly what I was trying to write.

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#263

Post by wirrbel »

mseebach wrote: post #153
marcosdumay wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so I learned as much English as I could so I could understand that manual. :) I started learning English as a kid to understand what was happening on the MS BASIC programs I could get on my computer by the time.

I remember the penny dropping when I learned what "if" meant in English (I already knew what it did in BASIC).

Same here

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#264

Post by amadeusw »

alex_duf wrote: post #91

I remember using Delphi 2 when I was younger, that's how I learned programming. If you don't mind hearing my personal story, keep reading, otherwise move on to another comment. By an interesting coincidence I was given a CD with tons of software on it, including Delphi 2. I started playing with it and quickly realised I could create my own programs using that tool. Later I went to the book store and found a book abou…

Ditto! I feel the same way. I learned both English and programming on Delphi 3. The first program I wrote showed and hid a picture on the screen. I wrote a few games, but didn't understand types and generics until years later.

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#265

Post by kofejnik »

mamcx wrote: post #187

I'm moderator in one of the oldest/largest delphi forum in latin-america: http://clubdelphi.com/ Ironically, I don't use Delphi anymore. Yet, I still help people with it and defend it when is possible. Delphi is amazing . It only have a HUGE problem: His owners. You can re4ad why Delphi fade away here: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Borland-fail?share=1 "Borland lost its way when executive management decided to change…

yep, just checked, minimal useful Delphi license is ~$1500, which is a non-starter for most people outside of corporate environment

consequently, you can never just pick it up and grow into it, you only learn it on the job which already uses it

or maybe, you torrent it

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#266

Post by dfox »

barrkel wrote: post #241
ptero wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clients having a shock after seeing a prototype says a lot about the author and very little about the language the code was written in. Can you clarify "coding it all together" part. I have no idea what you meant.

Delphi GUI building is drag-and-drop - no coding. Of course for more than trivial built-in behaviours you'll be writing code, but for a UI prototype, especially if it's just CRUD forms etc., you can get it built in a few minutes with no code. Drop a database connection component and set the connection properties, and you'll get live data and properly typed and bound controls on the form too. Compilation takes fractio…

Problem with Delphi-style RAD tools is that there is huge step in complexity between things that can be done in the designer and these that can not. And this invites particular style of "programming" that consists of searching the internet for existing components and connecting these components together with horrible hacks. It is perfectly possible to write well-structured application in Delphi, but most are not.

[Edit: hit reply too soon] Tk model of UI programming does not promote this that much, because causing stuff to happen by writing code is the default way. Also Tk-style approach of writing GUI definitions in code and letting the toolkit to deal with details like positioning (in fact, using HTML for UI is mostly similar) is more productive.

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#267

Post by desireco42 »

alex_duf wrote: post #91

I remember using Delphi 2 when I was younger, that's how I learned programming. If you don't mind hearing my personal story, keep reading, otherwise move on to another comment. By an interesting coincidence I was given a CD with tons of software on it, including Delphi 2. I started playing with it and quickly realised I could create my own programs using that tool. Later I went to the book store and found a book abou…

This is such an awesome story! Good for you and your initiative, going to bookstore every day to read the book.

I came from Turbo Pascal, it was never the same but Delphi was such an awesome environment that I enjoyed making things with it.

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#268

Post by vic20forever »

ptero wrote: post #76
yoodenvranx wrote: post #43

Delphi is still unrivaled when it comes to rapid GUI prototyping in combination with easy deployment. It's much easier than QT/GTK and you usually get a standalone .exe with no external dependencies. I really want to cry when I see the current alternatives... Node/Electron with dozens of MB of runtime and all that Javascript stuff? What went wrong that we end up with this?

IMO Pascal is a good, clean language and Borland was a top engineering shop that built Delphi as a rapid development tool that supported Windows . At the time there was nothing comparable for Windows development. There was a huge marked for Windows consumer applications and games (Linux was not a household name yet) and very little outside of clumsy Visual Studio to write them. I recall reading at WSJ at the time tha…

In 1994, I was looking at languages for a Windows GUI project, and I narrowed my options down to Borland ObjectVision (a sort-of "predecessor" to Delphi) and Visual Basic 3.0. I went with VB3 because the userbase was larger, but I've always wondered how my career would have played out if I'd chosen the other path.

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#269

Post by craigvn »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #240
yoodenvranx wrote: post #43

Delphi is still unrivaled when it comes to rapid GUI prototyping in combination with easy deployment. It's much easier than QT/GTK and you usually get a standalone .exe with no external dependencies. I really want to cry when I see the current alternatives... Node/Electron with dozens of MB of runtime and all that Javascript stuff? What went wrong that we end up with this?

> Node/Electron with dozens of MB of runtime and all that Javascript stuff? What went wrong that we end up with this? I'll tell you. Microsoft and Apple need to protect their native app license revenue, so they hobbled Netscape, brought browser development in house, and made a prohibition on allowing web pages to be integrated tightly into the OS. If those electron apps could get the same OS integration in the browse…

2005 called and want's it's arguments back. Microsoft has been moving a lot of products to the web where possible, for example Office 365.

Re: 22 Years of Delphi and It Still Rocks

#270

Post by craigvn »

marvin wrote: post #72
yoodenvranx wrote: post #43

Delphi is still unrivaled when it comes to rapid GUI prototyping in combination with easy deployment. It's much easier than QT/GTK and you usually get a standalone .exe with no external dependencies. I really want to cry when I see the current alternatives... Node/Electron with dozens of MB of runtime and all that Javascript stuff? What went wrong that we end up with this?

Windows Forms is still a completely decent option that gives you the same advantages.

Windows Forms is ok, but pretty slow and clunky if you come from using Delphi.
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