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Delphi still exists and is actively developed

embarcadero.com

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Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#32
post #26
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just get Lazarus.

Lazarus? Do you have a reference/link?

Here: https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

It is basically open source and cross platform Delphi (there are a bunch of differences but from a high level perspective i think that it describes it fine for people who already know Delphi).

Also check this video i made a few years ago[0] making a simple puzzle game in Lazarus. You can skip to 11:30 if you don't care about downloading, compiling and configuring it and just want to see it in action.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_01Xhd2EJM

Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#33

I remember, as a kid, looking up examples of malware. Bots and trojans and such. Invariably, much of it was in Delphi. Why was this so?

At least in the ex-soviet countries, a lot of the legally-questionable software we used to write was in Pascal because that's what we learnt in school. It was an easy transition to go to Delphi - nice RAD IDE for GUI RATs or keygens/cracks, familiar OO language.

Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#34
I'm working with the Delphi libraries every day in C++ Builder, bucause my company bet on Turbo C++ and Builder in the 90s, when Microsoft technologies seemed primitive compared to it.

At a recent meetup in my country, 90% of Delphi developers were over 60 years old. Also, Embarcadero licenses aren't cheap.

Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#35

I remember one of the great things about delphi was that it statically linked everything into the single .exe making it totally self contained. A Windows GUI program could be a couple hundred KB, no other DLLs required. C/C++ could do the same but you were stuck with nasty raw win32 calls and a lower level language.

FWIW C++ Builder could do the same and had access to VCL too. AFAIK (never tried it) you could mix Delphi and C++ in the same project if you wanted.

Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#36

I still have the feeling it's the most productive way to create beautiful native Windows desktop programs. Rapid application development is not an empty promise here. All my other endeavours with UI programming (Java/Swing, HTML/JS frontends, QT) felt way less productive. Maybe MS C# is the closest to Delphi nowadays.

I wonder if anyone here has experience with both Delphi and SwiftUI. I'd be curious to know which one is more comfortable.

Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#37

Embarcadero was acquired by the same jackasses that bought out a company where I used to work. The new owners had a bunch of attitude and kept crowing on about "their playbook". It turned out that the primary technology that they were buying us for was the one part of our product that we actually licensed from another vendor. I believe they spent millions and didn't get what they were looking for. They had an offshor…

So in your opinion, this should be avoided? Looking to try something new ( old ) and this got me excited but your comment has soured it a bit for me.

Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#39

I remember one of the great things about delphi was that it statically linked everything into the single .exe making it totally self contained. A Windows GUI program could be a couple hundred KB, no other DLLs required. C/C++ could do the same but you were stuck with nasty raw win32 calls and a lower level language.

FWIW C++ Builder could do the same and had access to VCL too. AFAIK (never tried it) you could mix Delphi and C++ in the same project if you wanted.

yes, you could/can. The VCL itself was written in Delphi and seamlessly linked with C++Builder C++ (they had some language extensions to make it work)

Re: Delphi still exists and is actively developed

#40

I remember, as a kid, looking up examples of malware. Bots and trojans and such. Invariably, much of it was in Delphi. Why was this so?

At least in the ex-soviet countries, a lot of the legally-questionable software we used to write was in Pascal because that's what we learnt in school. It was an easy transition to go to Delphi - nice RAD IDE for GUI RATs or keygens/cracks, familiar OO language.

Makes sense. Thanks.
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