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Why I Choose Delphi

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61–70 of 307 posts

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I want a UI that works on Windows and macOS out of the box. Plus I want it to have a tiny memory/CPU footprint and while .NET/WPF is better than the average Electron app I still notice a difference.

Definitely a good reason to use Qt, but you wouldn't get that with Delphi either. Qt is probably the best looking build-once, run with an acceptable UI package anywhere in that market. EDIT: Just saw your second addition... not so sure I'd agree though, the performance on startup of .NET applications these days is quite excellent and I haven't been able to tell for years, but I've been on SSDs with lots of RAM on rec…

Delphi footprint is actually less than Qt in many cases (at least of older versions, don't know about the new ones). Don't forget that VCL wraps native widgets, so there's a lot less code in there.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#62
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the same guy behind both Delphi and C#? Anders Hjelsberg if memory serves.

Let me offer my apologies on behalf of the Danish nation for what we have foisted upon the world: Hejlberg's C#, Stroustrup's C++, Lerdorf's PHP, and Heinemeier Hansson's RoR. TP and Delphi, obviously, require no apologies.

Nothing's wrong with C#. When it came, it was a "better Java" in many respects, and that was a niche that was desperately begging to be filled. Over the years, it became even better at it.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#63
post #3

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

dBase-derived languages in general were a lot of fun. And incredibly productive, basically taylor-made for cranking out CRUD apps.

I do ponder sometimes why we don't have something quite like that these days. Oh, people do try, but it's never that simple, and there are always a lot of moving bits with plenty of friction between them. The ease with which I could collect a bunch of data from a form and shove it into a record in a table somewhere in FoxPro is still unmatched (remember SCATTER/GATHER MEMVAR?).

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#64

I'm very sad that Delphi is so inaccessible for hobbyists. In some spare hours I'm building a native app in Qt, but I'd have definitely built it with Delphi if I wouldn't have had to cough up 3000 dollars just to get started. In all frankness I don't get why Embarcadero doesn't copy Qt's licensing. If they make a free GPL version, Delphi-based open source could thrive while just about everybody who buys a license now…

If you're looking for something more Deplhi-like, why don't you just use .NET? Mostly open source now, tons of 3rd party libraries and component packages available for it, just like Delphi in its glory days.

The UI construction on Delphi is a pleasure. Does something comparable exist for .NET?

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you hire by checklist then yes. Otherwise, I would expect any competent programmer to be able to grasp Delphi.

I wouldn't expect them to want to though. Not because it's a terrible language to program in, just because it's not going to look as good on a resume for later jobs.

Wow. Is this actually a major concern with some people?

Around D.C., there's this tendency for employers to be very open with what languages you've used before.

Have you only used Ada? Welcome on-board, though we have no uniforms here.

Only used Erlang? Are you guys still saying you can see the whitehouse from your building?

And for some reason C#/Java are considered almost the same language, depending on whom you talk to.

Honestly, good people are good, and we don't have enough of them to become picky about demanding 5+ years experience in exactly what you are already doing. It'll take a month to onboard someone regardless of if they've used the language or not before.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#66
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me offer my apologies on behalf of the Danish nation for what we have foisted upon the world: Hejlberg's C#, Stroustrup's C++, Lerdorf's PHP, and Heinemeier Hansson's RoR. TP and Delphi, obviously, require no apologies.

Nothing's wrong with C#. When it came, it was a "better Java" in many respects, and that was a niche that was desperately begging to be filled. Over the years, it became even better at it.

I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it. It's just me being old school and curmudgeonly - not really hot on runtimes and complex dependencies. Although of course, if I really need it, Nim will compile my wonderfull code to js. Otherwise just singe, compact, standalone executables for any platform I care to imagine.

And yes, the language itself is a joy to code in. Which is opinion, not fact, I realize that.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#67
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the same guy behind both Delphi and C#? Anders Hjelsberg if memory serves.

Let me offer my apologies on behalf of the Danish nation for what we have foisted upon the world: Hejlberg's C#, Stroustrup's C++, Lerdorf's PHP, and Heinemeier Hansson's RoR. TP and Delphi, obviously, require no apologies.

C#, for all the platform limitations, is probably the best designed and evolved mainstream language out there.

And C++ powers Google, Facebook, 100% of AAA games, 90% of mainstream OSes, and 90% of all top-of-the-line commercial programs (from browsers and office apps, to Photoshop and AutoCAD).

Nothing to apologize about RoR either.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#68
post #3

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

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

You'd be surprised. Technology might have moved beyond Clipper, but Delphi is even more modern than things in fashion today...

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#69
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am glad a lot of people think like this. Less competition.

Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face-to-face conversation. Avoid gratuitous negativity. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Who said he wouldn't say those things in a face-to-face conversation?

And what's uncivil about them?

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