My experiences

From: Chris Buckett (chris.buckett_at_dsh.co.uk)
Date: 01/12/05 

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 09:46:31 -0000

Hi All,
Ok, Here's my experiences (that I feel compelled to share with you all).
WinXP sp2, Compaq P2.4 768mb ram, 2 monitors, Diskeeper for defragging.
W32 development with D2005
Also used delphi 1-7 & Visual Studio (for ..net dev)

Out of the box back when it was first released, I thought it was very slow
and stopped using it after about an hour. I was comparing it with my
experiences with Visual Studio.net (for c# development) and Delphi 7.

Patch 1 made things a little better.

I persevered with it, even got to like to the new pallet and the Ctrl-Alt-P
to quickly find a component.
But it was still too slow compared with D7. I can live with slow startup
times and slow project load times, but it was too slow switching between
forms, entering code, code insight etc...

Defragging made no difference.

So last week I wiped my Pc. Format Hard drive, fresh install of XP etc...
When I installed it this time, I did a custom install of D2005 and didn't
install the Code Visualisation (which I believe is Together support).
Applied the patch. Didn't install D7.

I installed my 3rd party components (DevExpress and LMD tools).

And finally, D2005 was usable! The speed, whilst still slow on loading, and
not as fast as D7 for switching between code and form, it wasn't TOO slow.
So I started deving a test app that contained a form and a frame and a
couple of classes, not using any of my third party components.

And in less than an hour of (almost) enjoying D2005 it got an AV. When I
tried to load a project I got an AV. When I tried to create a new project I
got an AV. When I tried to create a new .net project I got an AV. Even
after restarting my PC I still got the same AV. (I did manage to log a
private QC from within Delphi)

I reinstalled D2005, patch, 3rd party components etc.... and that fixed that
AV.

So I continued with my test project, and after an hour I get another AV. I
think I was adding a new datamodule or something. Anyway, since then, I got
AV's randomly, but usually less than 1/2 hour after restarting my PC &
D2005. I could be typing and I get an AV. I could be adding a component
and I get an AV.

So, I've finally sorted out the performance, and now it crashes.

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

So I went back to D7, but I remembered I'd read someone's post on one of
these NG's about Castalia, so I had a look at their website, and downloaded
the trial and realised that apart from the code folding, Castalia gives me
pretty much what I expected from D2005 (as far as Win32 development goes).
Add GExperts to sort out the palette, and I'm nearly happy (apart from the
money that we've spent on D2005, of course - I'd still rather be using
D2005).

How do these experiences compare with you people? Am I wrong for expecting
to be able to use 3rd party components? Am I wrong for expecting it to
perform as well as Visual Studio? Is there something I've not tried (short
of cloning one of the TeamB's computers, because I get the impression that
D2005 works just fine for them!).

I've spoken to Borland representatives who've called me for feedback -
they've promised to pass my thoughts on :)

I used to be a big Delphi advocate, but I couldn't recommend D2005 as it
stands at the moment.

Thank you for letting me share my thoughts with you - this must be what
counselling is like (do Borland provide counsellors for D2005 users - there
should've been a voucher in the box!).

Chris.

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