Re: .NET and Delphi's future

From: Roger Lascelles (r.o.g.e.r.l.a.s._at_optusnet.com.au.removedots)
Date: 10/28/03 

Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 23:24:40 +1100

"Thomas Miller" <tmiller@bss-software.com> wrote in message
news:3f9d92b9$1@newsgroups.borland.com...
> JQP wrote:
>
> Win32 api is dead. .Net is the future. So what would people want in
> their next version of Delphi 8, bug fixes!!!
>

"Everyone" is saying this. I used to think it. But I wonder what will
happen to the Win API ?

- MS have to support it for at least 10 years, so its not a platform that
will evaporate.
- Big name products are still being built for API. Wordprocessors. CAD
programs. Games.
- How would you write a resident AntiVirus with .NET and no API?
- What about device drivers in .NET with no API?
- Do we need an operating system with all that complexity or will .NET cover
it all ?

I put real effort into programming for .NET and after the excitement died
down, I was left with the impression that for the crowd who tagged along
with VB, .NET is the future. Real objects, decent languages, business apps
using databases, internet. Its big strength is enterprise apps, internet
and cross platform. All good stuff, but not the whole universe.

Perhaps .NET will take over completely. I don't know, and I bet Microsoft
don't know. Think how many times MS changed course in the past.

Right now, my customers can't use .NET apps. They haven't even heard of it,
they don't have the runtime and they wouldn't get a new version runtime if I
required it.

The world's best kept secret is that an experienced programmer when writing
desktop apps gets the most value for $ with Delphi.

Sometimes, .NET is too high level. With the Delphi debugger, I can watch my
API calls disappear into the Windows DLLs, knowing that at this low level,
programmers have written just about any app you care to name. However, .NET
is so high level that you can not know what to do in a situation. For
example, a programmer got a wrong TCP FIN sequence. I don't know how or if
he solved the problem, but I know the Winsock32.dll documentation covered
the whole issue. In fact, .NET will call Winsock32.dll, won't it ?

I'm suggesting we keep our options open.

Roger

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