Re: There is no market for a Delphi for .NET compiler

"Brian Moelk" wrote:
I.P. Nichols wrote:

I have a sharp stick lying around and can narrow the wiggle room more if
you'd like. ;)

Ouch :)

I can see why consumers will like these things, *however* these are
applications that were built by large companies with quite a bit of
resources. These resources go beyond just a programmer, they require
designers. Very few people possess both talents and this is relevant
because many Delphi shops are small shops.

The small shop or individual developer needs to be able to walk and chew gum
at the same time. Unfortunately I'm not one of those guys, my skill set is
limited - I can do lip smacking meat and potatoes database business apps
'cause the GUI doesn't require imagination. As an old sea captain once said
about his success with the ladies, top side I ain't much but below the water
line I rings their bell. ;-)

So my answer to you is very slowly at first with Vista playing a big hand
but it will be 12-18 months to get to the tipping point.

So Vista adoption will be the driving force behind WPF demand? What do
you mean by the "tipping point"? Is that when most users (> 50%) will
be running Vista instead of XP? Is this in the consumer market or the
business/professional market?

Vista provides two critical things, it generates new consumer expectations
and .NET 3.0 is preinstalled As with most "tipping points" I think it's one
of those things like pornography, can't define it but know it when you see
it. That's a cheap shot answer but don't know a better one.

Yes, I agree that developers without the skills to leverage WPF are a
limiting factor. In some ways, I see WPF as being more relevant for
Designers than Developers.

I've thought a lot about this and think it's still the developer who needs
the visionary imagination and then the designer becomes a collaborating
"craftsman". Most of us just don't have graphic designer ability and wing it
on our own with the usual result ranging from ugly to damn awful.

I'm not saying that WPF isn't cool stuff, I'm just wondering if Delphi's
traditional strengths mesh well with my perception of WPF's strengths.

Time will tell...

Watching the demo here:

http://tinyurl.com/voq5a

I'm not overly impressed for standard business applications.

Well that's because the limited set of available standard WPF controls look
so similar to the tradition controls. Boy all those people who keep saying
WinForms is down the tube when WPF arrives on the scene have a rude shock in
store. ;-)

I've been exploring Cider for several months and it still has a way to go.
IMO it is the kind of designer that traditional developers will use. The
next step up is Sparkle but there you gotta twist you mind into more of a
graphical artist mode and it don't feel at all as friendly and instinctive
as the Cider designer.

Another thing that might work well for Delphi (.NET or native) is
hosting WPF/E and integrating with it from the outside. This is similar
to the approach of integrating Flash. http://www.delphiflash.com/ is
fairly interesting product that if I had a need to integrate "flashy
stuff" I'd consider using.

Don't have an opinion...

The point I'm trying to make here is that WPF is cool, but I don't know
if there's enough ROI for DevCo to support it completely in lieu of the
the other things it could be doing to drive upgrade revenue *and* win
new customers on the native side of the house.

It's that ugly ROI thing again...

FWIW, I'm reading Herb Sutter's "A Design Rationale for C++/CLI" in
hopes to gain some insight into the advantages/disadvantages of a
mixed-mode approach for Delphi. I should have a better informed opinion
at least.

Be sure to let us know your thoughts after you finish.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Disappointed in mr Hariri
    ... What WPF can do is make it *A LOT* easier for a developer (or UI designer or - even better, a team of both) to materialize a better user experience, once they designed it. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: usercontrol with readonly property that can be set at design t
    ... time via the designer, the exception worked wonderfully. ... If the developer tried to set the value elsewhere in code, ... Public Property WizardPageNumber() As Integer ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.windowsforms)
  • Re: Backgrounder needed. Why WPF
    ... WPF is redesigned while Windows Forms still builds on the good old concepts ... the template for a control you can customize its appearance much more easily ... There are a variety of enhancements to the WPF Designer that are not ... Margin lines and stubs: Margin lines around each control indicate that a ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb)
  • Re: Image on a Compact Framework Form
    ... The Intermec CK30A is not really designed to be used for "graphical" ... applications. ... > emulator, either. ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.compactframework)
  • Re: Backgrounder needed. Why WPF
    ... MS have clearly opted to invest into WPF, XAML, Silverlight, ... parallel control set for WPF and VB. ... There are a variety of enhancements to the WPF Designer that are not ... Margin lines and stubs: Margin lines around each control indicate that a ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb)