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Why I Choose Delphi

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Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#2
Yeah but isn't there a risk of losing support? I work in perl a lot and find it's getting harder and harder to work with modern databases as the dbi driver slowly get bit rot. Is there nothing similar going on in Delphi?

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#4
post #2

Yeah but isn't there a risk of losing support? I work in perl a lot and find it's getting harder and harder to work with modern databases as the dbi driver slowly get bit rot. Is there nothing similar going on in Delphi?

[deleted]

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#6
post #3

I liked Delphi a lot, as I liked Clipper a lot, but technology moved on.

Funny that you mentioned Clipper. It's a language that you don't hear about a lot anymore, but it was the first language I learned as a kid (my Dad built point of sale and inventory applications in it for local companies as side work), so it holds a special place in my heart.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#8
Sadly, Embarcadero's chokehold on Delphi is what turned me off of it back then, and still does nowadays. You could argue FreePascal/Lazarus is an alternative, but it's really not the same.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#9

Does Delphi justify its cost? As far as I can tell, there are no free compilers - seems like a pretty high hurdle when most languages can be used for free.

If you are doing commercial work the cost is easy to justify.

My main concern would be whether you can continue to activate it if Embarcadero drops support or goes out of business.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#10

Does Delphi justify its cost? As far as I can tell, there are no free compilers - seems like a pretty high hurdle when most languages can be used for free.

> Does Delphi justify its cost? As far as I can tell, there are no free compilers - seems like a pretty high hurdle when most languages can be used for free.

The bigger problem is that you are stuck with whatever features Embarcadero thinks are important.

For example, Delphi didn't have a 64-bit version for an excruciatingly long time. How many companies using Delphi got run over by a competitor during that window?

At this point, if a language isn't open source, I simply won't use it. I have been burned too many times on the proprietary front to ever give in on that anymore.

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