Re: Delphi and smart-devices

From: Allen Bauer (abauer_at_spicedham.borland.com)
Date: 02/24/05 

Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 08:34:16 -0800

> With all due respect, your answer raises some questions:
> - Does your answer imply the only thing lacking is(are) the "CF
> Designer(s)"?
> (All other dotNet designers needn't be reverse engineered, so how
> expensive can it be?)
> - And if so, isn't Borland capable of building its own (improvised)
> designer
> anymore?

Yes, we could spend the requisite time to re-invent the wheel here. And,
who knows, it might actually work... However one dynamic that I'll mention,
is the notion of "bug compatibility." If we were to create our own CF
WinForm designer, it would have to *at least* share most, if not all, the
various bugs and shortcomings of the MS offering. It would always be
compared to that. It boils down to this as well, if our version of the
designer had 10 bugs and MS' version had 50, but ours were *different* bugs
than MS', then we'd be percieved to have 60 bugs. Never-mind the potential
for stepping on various IP toes...

> (Delphi Win32 designers always have been improvised if I'm not mistaken)
> - And is that the reason why Borland is waiting on Microsoft technology
> for
> three years now?
> ... :-( ...
> ..now I'm worried...

We aren't sitting around twiddling our thumbs waiting for MS here, but we
*are* evaluating and researching our options. This isn't an overnight
process, and we may not like the results. We only have a certain number of
folks to put into play and we have to make sure we're maximising our return
on investment. So far the ROI on a totally home-brew CF solution isn't
quite there yet.

> I can hardly believe its just a matter on the CF designer(s). I rather
> think
> it's a matter on debugging on a emulator or handheld device. That would
> explain why the technology is so tightly integrated with Visual Studio.

At this point, it is. It's possible that those other items might be an
issue, however unless you can actually build an application, what's the
point of worrying about where it will run or how you're going to debug it?

>> ...CF development would be a great feature to round out our tool suite
>> and
> would drive
>> additional sales of the tool suites, but it is not hugely lucrative
>> market by itself - certainly not as lucrative as Win32 or .NET
>> development as a whole.
>
> As you could guess I don't agree on this. Therefore I state the following:
> The way software-builders will support handheld devices may differ. They
> can
> use browser-technology, use Smart-clients or perhaps some other
> technology.
> **... lots-o-stuff snipped ...**
> download Business Information to catalog the picture before uploading. I
> think most Delphi-developers can think of useful applications like this
> for
> their own customers which can make all the difference in their sales.

This doesn't jive with information we're getting from those that are
actually on the front-lines, speaking with customers and potential
customers. Currently, CF is one of the hot-button items. I'm talking about
the product line sales managers, field SEs, and top-level executives who are
giving us this feedback... so the heat is on from all levels.

> Off course I can be wrong on the worth of the market and the actual
> technology-issue. But when I'm right, it will have implications.

To be brutally honest, the percentage of folks who actually stated that they
are going to start a CF project within the next 6-12 months is relatively
small. However this doesn't make the *perception* any less real. Remember
what I said above about perceptions? 

-- 
Allen Bauer
Delphi/C#Builder Principal Architect
Borland Software Corporation.
http://blogs.borland.com/abauer