Whether or not 'Delphi/Object Pascal' includes the largely compatible Lazarus + LCL + Free Pascal combo is a very big question here. Just 'Delphi' would be clea

Whether or not 'Delphi/Object Pascal' includes the largely compatible Lazarus + LCL + Free Pascal combo is a very big question here. Just 'Delphi' would be clearer, FPC refers to itself as an 'Open source compiler for Pascal and Object Pascal' : https://www.freepascal.org/ https://www.freepascal.org/ Because of FPC, arguably, if you use Delphi you're not exactly stuck in the unlikely event that it dies since in the worst case there is Free Pascal to move to, LCL and Lazarus (although I have no idea how it compares to modern late 2010s era Delphi and RAD Studio but it's at least something). Delphi also has a more or less proven track record, costs a lot, is pretty much enterprise tier item and has a multi million company behind it. I'd argue Object Pascal is not a closed language but a language that has few implementations, one major open one (FPC) and one major closed one (Delphi) and that the situation is even better than C# vs. Mono was, since Mono had a murky legal/patent situation (or maybe it was FUD, I'm not too into C#) and the situation was basically 'closed language with a closed implementation that happens to have an open implementation' while FPC and Delphi are more like brothers with Delphi not 'owning' the concept of Object Pascal in itself nor any patents that could threaten it in any way AFAIK.