Comparison about Win32 / DotNet / CSharp on Delphi, and a wish ...

I am a loyal Delphi customer, since Delphi 1 I have registered all versions but Delphi 8.

I don't care Delphi team develop .NET or C# stuff, but as a lot of Win32 delphi users, I've been so frustrated to see all the negative impact it has caused to the Win32 part of Delphi.

I am a 15 years experienced Win32 programmer, and with all that experience, I still can't see where is the benefit of switching to .NET, or even starting a new big project with this framework.

..NET *is* slow, seems to be adapted only to the need of very big company businesses, incompatible with the next/previous framework, it doesn't have the same look and feel, it's unsafe and it's patent-encumbered.

So I have tried to see what was the weight of each camp: Delphi Win32 Vs ..NET and C#.

Just to have an indication on the importance around both communities, I've counted the number of messages in Delphi forums taken from Borland newsgroups, with a period of 180 days from Today.

for the Delphi .NET specific forums, 18 groups for a total of 1366 messages

for the Delphi Win32 specific forums, 8 groups for a total of 6876 messages

and for C#, the total message rises up to a whooping 109 messages over the past 6 month, dispatched on 44 groups

the comparison doesn't stop here. On 18 .NET group, only 2 of them seems to be alive. Theses figures are for the past 6 month...

* 2 groups with less than 70 messages,
* 5 groups with less than 30 messages,
* 5 groups with less than 10 messages,
* 4 groups with 0 message

the database.dotnet group has 66 messages. wasn't DOTNET best for database access ?

the csharpbuilder.aspdotnet.components.writing has 0 message - no one seems to find any interest in writing asp .NET components !

csharpbuilder.adodotnet.discussion has also 0 message. Probably there is nothing to discuss about this !

speaking of C#, 36 groups over 44 have 0 message on 180 days. no group speaking on C# has more than 100 message (borland.public.csharpbuilder.language.csharp has the most with 59 messages). No one seems to have the faintest interest on that ... stuff.

for Win32, 2 groups can be considered as low activity, and none of them have 0 messages.

so the whole .NET and C# messages represent a little bit more than 16%. Thinking the changes that have caused 4 years of delay before getting a stable Win32 version of delphi has led to 16% of the perceivable user activity on the Delphi IDE give me the impression of a massive waste of time and effort.

And so comes the wish: As now you exactly know what is the interest and the impact of the .NET or C# delphi users, just consider putting the right time on the Win32 part of Delphi. for example, by providing *asap* the native 64 bits compilers everyone's asking for and no one at codegear's talking about.

this Delphi 2007 for Win32 is something a good company would have shipped as a free update - as a loyal delphi customer and knowing all the Borland's bad decisions until now, I understand that CodeGear is weak and need to have a commercial success quick for its living. So I'll pay as usual my entreprise edition hoping it'll be for the best. I would really be unhappy if I see the next Highlander version pushing on .NET and without the 64 bits native Win32 compiler. We win32 users had to wait 4 years to get something useful, so .NET users could wait their turn now!

Jacques, A true Delphi fan.

PS: And I would love also to see an updated Kylix, a Delphi for MacOs, and to be able to link to GCC object files or libraries... how awful dreamer am I ?
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: 64-bit Windows for AMD 64 is here...
    ... Of course the VCL for NET is ... classes (or structs in Win32) around. ... although not as extreme as the Win32 API. ... Delphi is also very strong on native compilation. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Delphi 2005 Win32 development stopped
    ... improve Win32 development or make a significantly better product for the end-user. ... Delphi, they wouldn't even merit a foot-note in marketting. ... someone from Borland or TeamB mentions for-in loops. ... and inherit all the bugs. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Thinking Clearly
    ... a case where MS is sticking it to DevCo. ... The question I have is if it will support ... interop and the core win32 API are bedrock. ... Was Win32 "bedrock" when Delphi 2 was released? ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Comparison about Win32 / DotNet / CSharp on Delphi, and a wish ...
    ... You definitely don't have the community you have here. ... I don't care Delphi team develop .NET or C# stuff, but as a lot of Win32 delphi users, I've been so frustrated to see all the negative impact it has caused to the Win32 part of Delphi. ... Just to have an indication on the importance around both communities, I've counted the number of messages in Delphi forums taken from Borland newsgroups, with a period of 180 days from Today. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Comparison about Win32 / DotNet / CSharp on Delphi, and a wish ...
    ... jobopenings vs the number of pure Win32 jobopenings. ... I don't care Delphi team develop .NET or C# stuff, but as a lot of Win32 ... delphi users, I've been so frustrated to see all the negative impact it ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)