John Kaster in Milwaukee

Tonight JK gave a D2006 presentation, and as usual he did a superb job. I
use D2006 every day and went mainly for the purpose of hoping to win an
architect version of D2006. But I ended up learning quite a few things, like
about TFlowControl, and several other goodies. Personally I think JK should
do more to emphasize how easy D2006 makes it to share code between Win32 and
..NET through the wrappers created by wizards in D2006, but he did show how
helper classes enabled CF development so he kind of was there, in a
round-about manner. (The problem with D2006 is that there is so much new
stuff in there that it is impossible to cover more than a small fraction of
it in a mere 3.5 hours.)

There was a good crowd, I thought. A few people in the crowd were visibly
impressed by what I and all the rest of us D2006 users have come to accept
as normal. If DevCo can get D2006 more exposure, they could maker a real
splash. A few of us asked questions about the DevCo sale. JK had started his
presentation by addressing it head-on, which is probably the most sensible
thing he could do. I have to be honest, though I asked him a couple of
rather impertinent questions on this topic, he didn't miss a beat. I was not
thrilled at the answer to the question about what plans were in place in
case no investors offer what Borland thinks DevCo is worth, which was
basically, in so many words, to paraphrase the quote "failure is not an
option". I personally would like to see that Borland has some kind of
contingency plan in place for Delphi, but, hey, there are no guarantees in
life.

In retrospect I realize that I am often too skeptical in general. My
skeptical tendencies have made me pessimistic about this whole DevCo sale,
but after seeing JK talking enthusiastically about the goodies in D2006
right now, and the roadmap going forward (which, among many other things,
had VCL for C# in it, IIRC), I feel much more optimistic about Delphi's
long-term future. In addition, it is hard not to get excited about D2006
after seeing a 3.5 hour demo and realizing that JK barely scratched the
surface of what this tool can do.

Better inter-language interfacing within the same project is something they
are working on or thinking about, so that you ought to be able to eventually
mix C++ and Delphi code in the same project and have Delphi take care of all
the plumbing. If you take a good look at the project options in D2006 you
see a tittlating suggestion of this as well, in the form of a disabled
checkbox labelled "Generate All C++ Builder Files". Presumably this checkbox
will be enabled in the future.

I also noticed an interesting statement or slip of the tongue when JK was
talking about the DevCo spin-off and why it was a good idea. Now, maybe I
misheard this, but I could swear that I thought I heard JK use the phrase
"What Microsoft and Borland wanted" when referring to the plans/vision for
ALM at Borland and how it differs from what DevCo wants. There are those
here on non-tech who have speculated that Borland may be priming the pump
for a sale or acquisition not so much of the IDE's as the ALM business, to
someone like MSFT. This little slip of the tongue or simple statement would
appear to bear this out. Now, before anyone runs for the hills crying that
MSFT is buying Borland, it is important to remember that this could have
been a meaningless mistake that really has nothing to do with any of this
stuff, and maybe more to do with accidental incidentals.

Well, that's my wrap-up of the meeting. I sure hope DevCo gets some good
financing and can build on the excellent foundation laid in D2006. I'm
reminded every day what a superb tool it is.

[JK--if you are reading this, I now remember what question I wanted to ask
but forgot, and that is if DevCo had any plans on possibly replacing
Together with a more robust and less resource-intensive
modelling/refactoring engine like ModelMaker. I think I speak for more than
just myself when I say that Together seems to be the thorn in Delphi's
side.]


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Relevant Pages

  • Dont cut the umbilibal
    ... It seems to me that since DevCo is getting on just fine even before ... prospects of Delphi and the other Borland tools. ... DevCo becomes a Borland subsidiary, ... prosperity of Delphi. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Devco to encourage VB users to migrate to Delphi
    ... that you don't control this DevCo creation process. ... in the past the phrase "Borland" included all that is now ... say, at that time, that Borland cared about Delphi. ... Delphi because people in DevCo care about Delphi. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: ruby on rails
    ... I'm describing a strategy to keep the IDE business profitable. ... So it is about DevCo, not Borland. ... I'm not a soldier in the holy war of Delphi. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Captain Jakes Top Ten List of what Id like to see in thenextversionofDelphi
    ... Instead, we have Delphi ... Borland missed a serious opportunity to capitalize on the anti-MS anger ... DevCo needs to continue developing ECO and do more things ... Well, they can and will dictate it, but IMO DevCo can offer a better ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: New Company - new ideas ?
    ... Borland was packed with new ideas and milked Delphi W32 ... If DevCo would do the same, ... I'm talking about functional languages that are getting more and more ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)