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Why I Choose Delphi

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Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#121

Post by rodgerd »

true_religion wrote: post #65
Untit1ed wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ta…

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

https://aeon.co/essays/how-work-changed-to-make-us-all-passi...

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#122

Post by razakel »

omnibrain wrote: post #57

The IDE is just so far behind the competition. Crashing all the time an slow. Theming support ist very limited (to date). Delphi Code Insight ("Intellisense") is slow and sometimes just refuses to work and is generally not on par with other offerings. Error Insight (the wiggly red lines thing) is even worse. Delphi still uses a single pass compiler which makes for great compilation speed but seriously limits the lang…

>SAP

IIRC the average SAP deployment is in the region of $10 million.

Sure, for enterprise-level things that's justifiable, but most businesses don't have that sort of money to throw around.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#123

Post by rodgerd »

theGimp wrote: post #86
coldtea wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said he wouldn't say those things in a face-to-face conversation? And what's uncivil about them?

What is the purpose of the parent comment? To score a point? To show us all the commenter is smarter than the vulgus? It passes the "gratuitous negativity" test to me. The same point could have been made without the condescension.

Yet you didn't feel the need to lecture the parent comment for s snide dismissal of a programming language and everyone who uses it.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#124

Post by wila »

bsder wrote: post #10
taberiand wrote: post #5

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? A…

For macOS there still isn't a 64 bit compiler from Embarcadero. They promised it will come in a future release and then you can port your firemonkey (FMX) apps. But of course that will set you back a couple of thousand in upgrades and put you on an subscription model. For several years I hoped that FMX would get mature, even ended up building a product with it. You must sit on their subscription model if you want updates/fixes and yes you need those as the (macOS) product has plenty of issues.

Meanwhile freepascal/Lazarus already has a 64 bit compiler and their LCL (like VCL) does have a cocoa (not mature) and carbon (mature) port. I'm sure it has its own issues, but at least it uses native controls, can compile to Linux desktop right now and doesn't cost an arm and a leg if you want a fix.

So yes, pascal is still awesome, not too sure on the commercial version where you don't get fixes unless you pay regularly (anecdote: I bought XE8, couldn't debug on latest macOS about 4 weeks later, that was never fixed in XE8, ended up debugging via an earlier OS X)

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#125

Post by probablybroken »

Untit1ed wrote: post #32
protomyth wrote: post #23

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.

Tends to be something more mature developers are better suited to; though there might be higher salary expectations.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#126

Post by wila »

snarfy wrote: post #117

Native Windows COM applications is one area Delphi was really good at. If that's what I was building I'd probably use Delphi. That was Delphi 7 though. I'm not sure where it's went since.

The native Windows COM part is still good, you can create your own controls very fast and integrate it with other Windows programming languages easily.

That part certainly has improved since Delphi 7.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#128

Post by nurettin »

skrebbel wrote: post #45
klipt wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried the Delphi compatible but open source https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

Admittedly, I haven't. I've Read On The Internet(tm) that it isn't as good as plain Delphi, but in all honesty I really should give it a chance indeed. Thanks!

There is an online package manager and a docking IDE package (if you are into single window IDEs) in the latest Lazarus 1.8rc3, so they are slowly getting there.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#129

Post by wila »

jeffdavis wrote: post #54
analognoise wrote: post #34

I'm going to make the same comment that comes up every time I see Delphi and Lazarus/FreePascal: If you haven't tried Lazarus/FreePascal, you're missing out. It's really amazing, and it's truly free.

Can you give a couple examples that you think are amazing?

It compiles to just about any platform you can come up with. You can build a GUI app for any platform and backend without having to change a lot of code.

Builds to Linux, ARM/x86/x64, macOS, iOS, android, Windows, freeBSD and I'm sure I'm missing a few.

Re: Why I Choose Delphi

#130

Post by hdhzy »

bruno2223 wrote: post #47

I still compile a old project in Delphi 7 once every 3 months just to add 5 lines of code, and they pay me monthly for it. It's cheaper than porting the whole system to any other language. It is a project that I've built 8 years ago. Delphi was already a "strange think" on that time, it was declining fast. I think Java killed Delphi - "One codebase for all platforms, even your freezer will have Java!" - this was the…

I wish I could upvote this several times. That's my exact experience as well.

I would like more people to experience what was the way of creating software with Delphi, seamless and easy, really closing the loop between creating and the resulting application and then look back at what unnecessary complexity we are dealing with every day when working with software. (nb I think there was a blog somewhere by one of Delphi's creators where they explicitly mentioned that the language and IDE were designed to be simple to use).

If I will be teaching programming to my children I will dig up old installation of Delphi 7 and just let them play.

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