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Mastering Delphi 5 2025 Annotated Edition Is Now Complete

blog.marcocantu.com

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Re: Mastering Delphi 5 2025 Annotated Edition Is Now Complete

#4

Post by okanat »

markus_zhang wrote: post #2

Interesting. Is it still runnable on Windows 10/11? I guess it would be still fun to use Delphi for personal projects.

Windows doesn't break backwards compatibility unless it is absolutely worse to keep it around. Think about old SMB protocol that caused security issues. The old Delphi programs continue to work since both the API design is more future-proof and Microsoft did a mind-boggling amount of work to keep ABI stable.

Re: Mastering Delphi 5 2025 Annotated Edition Is Now Complete

#6

Post by FeistySkink »

I feel like Delphi, along with maybe VB6 and WinForms, have been the pinnacle of easy UI development, and things have gone significantly downhill since then. Especially on the web side, where even a single view sometimes requires having multiple unrelated dependencies (packers, builders, transpilers, etc.), often implicitly-configured to produce output, in head-space. And due to this dependency hell, when porting a project like this to a new platform, or just getting it to run, a slight change in the environment silently breaks the build.

Re: Mastering Delphi 5 2025 Annotated Edition Is Now Complete

#7

Post by Tomte »

theamk wrote: post #3

the blog does not load to me, but is this really "Delphi 5"? As in Borland Delphi 5 "Argus" released in August 1999 which introduced XML support and ADO databases?

Yes: "I've been creating a free to download edition of my classic "Mastering Delphi 5" with footnotes indicating what is different today"

Re: Mastering Delphi 5 2025 Annotated Edition Is Now Complete

#9

Post by chungy »

okanat wrote: post #4
markus_zhang wrote: post #2

Interesting. Is it still runnable on Windows 10/11? I guess it would be still fun to use Delphi for personal projects.

Windows doesn't break backwards compatibility unless it is absolutely worse to keep it around. Think about old SMB protocol that caused security issues. The old Delphi programs continue to work since both the API design is more future-proof and Microsoft did a mind-boggling amount of work to keep ABI stable.

I recall some very nasty hacks and often-won't-work-at-all issues in trying to get Delphi 6 to run on Vista or Windows 7. Windows breaks backwards compatibility more often than "never".

Re: Mastering Delphi 5 2025 Annotated Edition Is Now Complete

#10

Post by okanat »

FeistySkink wrote: post #6

I feel like Delphi, along with maybe VB6 and WinForms, have been the pinnacle of easy UI development, and things have gone significantly downhill since then. Especially on the web side, where even a single view sometimes requires having multiple unrelated dependencies (packers, builders, transpilers, etc.), often implicitly-configured to produce output, in head-space. And due to this dependency hell, when porting a p…

It is the result of cheaping out by the entire tech industry. Responsive design to support multiple resolutions and pixel density was extrapolated to use a single framework (HTML+JS+CSS) for every single device that exists. Except for a few, most businesses deploy Web based apps on browsers, desktop apps and mobile phones. Usually from the same monorepo. Add developer laziness and unnecessarily tight deadlines, we end up in the current situation.
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