Re: Delphi for Obsolete.NET - Microsoft's Plans Realised?

In article <440d51d8$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, none@xxxxxxxx says...
Delphi has always lagged behind Microsoft platform releases. Some lag is to be
expected, but with .NET, this has become terminally worse. The first Delphi to
actually support .NET 1 development, rather than hinder it, was D2006, released
after .NET 2. Highlander for .NET 2 is not slated for release until after .NET
3. How can Delphi be considered a serious contender for .NET development, when
it only supports a platform once it becomes obsolete?

I wonder if the penny is starting to drop among the development
community.....

With .net Microsoft have neutered the independent tools vendors.

Language features are so heavily dependent upon .net runtime support
that Microsoft have any particular language feature that they choose in
their gift - if .net doesn't support it, no .net language can provide it
(and remain .net compatible).

Indepedent tools vendors are relegated to providing little more than
alternative syntax interpreters.


And with their ownership of the .net specification, if an up-start
little ISV starts getting too much of a stake in the .net tools market,
Microsoft can choose to break something, having ensured in a prior patch
to their own tools that the breakage will not affect those, but only
tools from the up-start ISV.


I can't help but wonder if perhaps Borland saw the writing on the wall
and decided to get out while they still had their reputation as a top-
notch tools vendor (some would say, having rescued that reputation with
BDS2006), knowing that as .net gained presence in the marketplace, the
game was up for Borland and their ilk.


As far as intent and purpose goes, this is pure speculation on my part,
but the more I think about it, whether it was the intent at the outset
or not, the effect certainly seems to be to make ISV's more dependent on
Microsoft than ever before.

--
Jolyon Smith
.