Re: (Microsoft) The Future of Delphi?

Tom Corey wrote:
So, quite a lot of documentation available - online. Which actually is
much the same case with Delphi.

No, that's not quite how it works. When you install a Ruby gem (think component/package), it typically generates RDoc's for it. IDE's can hook into that. For example, Netbeans display tooltips with RDoc information as you code:

http://blogs.sun.com/tor/entry/ruby_screenshot_of_the_week1

In my experience the documentation for frameworks in Ruby are more complete and consistent than in the Delphi community. This is because there is a standard way of producing documentation for code: RDoc.

It's also because there is more emphasis on community involvement. For example, netbeans has a wiki full of good information about the IDE. How long have we been asking CodeGear to do something like that with their help?

Putting aside any question of the
quality of the helpfile,

That really can't be put aside since that's what you want to compare to open source projects. :)

Most of what I want from Delphi's help is a good VCL reference and example usages. I can typically find it in less time using Google than the built in help.

With Ruby, the RDoc integration is really nice and the first thing that I look at, but I can google just as easily.

whenever I have some technical question or
thorny problem to solve in Delphi, I hit Google Groups as my first, and
usually only, resort.

Sure, and google searches for open source project typically yield good answers as well.

--
Brian Moelk
Brain Endeavor LLC
bmoelk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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