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> Can't we just make a proper, easy to use portable desktop application framework please? We should just go back to Delphi, it was/is one of the best ways of d

> Can't we just make a proper, easy to use portable desktop application framework please? We should just go back to Delphi, it was/is one of the best ways of doing GUIs.

alkonaut 9y ago
Isn't delphi procedural just like e.g. Swing/AWT or Windows Forms? (Been a long time since I worked with Delphi). I think XAML/XUL and similar declarative GUIs are better.
- JustSomeNobody 9y ago
  I’m so over XMLish and it’s declaritiveness. So please, no, don’t wish for this.
- memsom 9y ago
  No. (Caveat, last version I used was version 5 from 1999.) Delphi forms are in one of two formats. 1) Binary serialization of the form data (this is the older versions, pre 4/5) 2) A textual representation. The code for a Delphi form was pre-XML, but it looked like a set of standard markup. There were resources (Form, Button, Edit, Label - these types of control) and they were laid out in a hierarchical developer readable form in blocks. The form code was streamed to/from the file (the files were embedded as resources in the Eve, and the form was read and re-constituted at runtime as well as design time.) Borland made a massive deal about the "two way editing" one could do to the forms. The developer was able to cut and paste controls, and the controls were cut/copied as straight text, which could be pasted to notepad (for example) IIRC.
j_s 9y ago
The usual problem is that the various cross-platform UI toolkits not only fall into the uncanny valley but also only support one programming language best (in this case, Pascal). Only the incentives of the biggest cross-platform browser vendors align in such a way that they pursue native UI effectively. Recent discussion: Why I use Object Pascal | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15490345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15490345 (2017Oct:268points,233comments)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

> Can't we just make a proper, easy to use portable desktop application framework please? We should just go back to Delphi, it was/is one of the best ways of doing GUIs.

alkonaut 9y ago

Isn't delphi procedural just like e.g. Swing/AWT or Windows Forms? (Been a long time since I worked with Delphi). I think XAML/XUL and similar declarative GUIs are better.

JustSomeNobody 9y ago
I’m so over XMLish and it’s declaritiveness. So please, no, don’t wish for this.
memsom 9y ago
No. (Caveat, last version I used was version 5 from 1999.) Delphi forms are in one of two formats. 1) Binary serialization of the form data (this is the older versions, pre 4/5) 2) A textual representation. The code for a Delphi form was pre-XML, but it looked like a set of standard markup. There were resources (Form, Button, Edit, Label - these types of control) and they were laid out in a hierarchical developer readable form in blocks. The form code was streamed to/from the file (the files were embedded as resources in the Eve, and the form was read and re-constituted at runtime as well as design time.) Borland made a massive deal about the "two way editing" one could do to the forms. The developer was able to cut and paste controls, and the controls were cut/copied as straight text, which could be pasted to notepad (for example) IIRC.

j_s 9y ago

The usual problem is that the various cross-platform UI toolkits not only fall into the uncanny valley but also only support one programming language best (in this case, Pascal). Only the incentives of the biggest cross-platform browser vendors align in such a way that they pursue native UI effectively. Recent discussion: Why I use Object Pascal | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15490345 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15490345 (2017Oct:268points,233comments)

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]