Re: Delphi and the .Net platform

Bruce McGee wrote:
Honestly, I wish Microsoft would spend more of its considerable
resources giving me what I need (and what they promise) and less time
trying to convince me that I need what they eventually decide to give
to me. These are some of the ways Microsoft keeps falling behind
companies like Borland and CodeGear (and Google, Apple, etc...) over
the past 10 years.

I actually tend to agree with you here; which is why I have ambivalent
feelings towards the whole .NET package. (I'm actually far more
interested in Ruby development at the moment)

I'm curious if you ever feel ambivalence towards .NET and if you do,
would you advocate a *truly* cross platform strategy for Delphi? ISTM,
considering that you appreciate the Delphi language, this would provide
another option beyond .NET, Java, etc.

But in regards to .NET, if CodeGear's new strategy has to be "pick and
choose", I believe there is *less* probability that CodeGear will
actually do the things that matter to you or me.

For example, many Delphi developers would like a CF solution. Well,
CodeGear has chosen not to support CF (blame MS, the reasons don't
matter, the fact still remains). I don't believe the Delphi community
has seen a coherent plan for WPF or LINQ support. It's *nowhere* on the
roadmap.

So how does choosing Delphi for .NET make sense for .NET development?
IMO, it's far more risky to do that than simply to use VS.NET and look
at interop when needed.

These are some of the reasons I think keeping Delphi close at hand
helps me hedge my bets better than jumping entirely to Microsoft's
tools. I prefer to decide for myself when to adopt and abandon
technologies.

I agree, and one of the things I look at when choosing technology is
vendor independence. The irony is that I don't believe the Delphi
community as a whole applies that same notion to Delphi itself. I do.

Much of the angst felt within the Delphi community over the past few
years is directly because there is one vendor for Delphi. Some people
are hedging with Free Pascal; which is really taking a page from the
CodeGear marketing plan: vendor choice within a technology stack.

But IMO, all that stuff only matters to a degree. When it all comes
down to it, it's very simple: I want to use the best tools. Which is
why I still use Delphi for Win32 development, and exactly the reason why
I don't for .NET.

--
Brian Moelk
Brain Endeavor LLC
bmoelk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: ECO, Delphi, Codegear, and CapableObjects (Delphi for VS!)
    ... chasing around every new technology. ... If you see CodeGear as a "solutions" company, I suspect you'll end up as ... focusing on providing solutions for Delphi developers. ... IMO, the way forward is to embrace native code development, but expand ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Delphi as a Web development Tool?
    ... Delphi is a single vendor closed-source solution; we're at the mercy of Codegear. ... One .Net reaches maturity M$ will be forced to release some new technology because the have to keep the stock price up by constantly changing the technology and then the .Net folks will be left high and dry. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: My longest lived program retired after 22 years.
    ... >> compatibility of your Delphi code for future computing platforms. ... > suitable technology for this product as it requires optimal performance; ... > vendors with control of a language who don't necessarily have the best ... > proprietary language OWNED by a single vendor, then make your best effort to ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: My longest lived program retired after 22 years.
    ... > (support for one future platform) relates to John's question, ... > compatibility of your Delphi code for future computing platforms. ... will be "deprecated" technology at that point. ... proprietary language OWNED by a single vendor, then make your best effort to ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Attention doomsayers
    ... I am very worried where Code Gear, and more importantly Delphi will be in 3 years. ... One, is to seed the market with low to zero costs (not sure CodeGear can afford to do this), The Turbos are a good idea and can aid with this introduction. ... start making deals with third party vendors to create plugins for their environments. ... MS apps are at the point with VS 2008, ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)