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The original title "Adobe Photoshop was written in Pascal" has been changed, and it's a pity - what is important in this story is the fact that the first commer

The original title "Adobe Photoshop was written in Pascal" has been changed, and it's a pity - what is important in this story is the fact that the first commercial versions of one of the most popular pieces of software were written in a language frowned upon by many programmers today. Moreover, it shows that you can successfully write the app in one language, then rewrite it in something else while maintaining a smooth continuity between versions.

paradite 8y ago
Indeed that seems to be the moral of the story for a lot of cases that I know of: - plain JavaScript/jQuery to React - Ruby on Rails/Node.js to Golang Many people might dismiss the former as an inferior language, but the point is, you might not have enough time to write a successful software in latter given the time and window of opportunity. And the initial boost of productivity with a simpler language might be important. Of course the reverse can be bad as well when you have an unmaintainable 50k lines jQuery app and nobody wants to rewrite that with a proper framework.
rasz 8y ago
One of the biggest industry standard PCB design packages, Altium Designer, is written in Delphi (wiki is wrong claiming C#) https://community.embarcadero.com/blogs/entry/altium-designer-15-000-000-codelines-1600 https://community.embarcadero.com/blogs/entry/altium-designe...
- vintagedave 8y ago
  There are many big and well-known software packages written in Delphi. Yet Delphi the language is not well known. I recently read an article on Flutter comparing to native Android layouts, and thought to myself: Delphi has had a x-plat framework that does all that, and more, in less lines of code, for six years. (*) Disclaimer: I work for the company that makes Delphi. I do that because I think it and its sister C++Builder are great products and want to see it better-known.
  - purerandomness 8y ago
    In an alternative reality, Delphi would have won and we would have native Delphi apps instead of Electron. But we can't have nice things.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      Specially when many devs refuse to pay for their tools, while asking to get paid for their work.
      - donatj 8y ago
        Good enough is the enemy of good. Good enough and free trumps good and for pay every time.
  - bitL 8y ago
    Lower the prices... Or make it more accessible like how JetBrains did before they switched to a subscription model? That would give you instant developer love.
  - Filligree 8y ago
    I'd love to try it... But my budget for hobby projects is $0, and a time-limited trial isn't useful. Therefore I won't try it, and I won't be advocating it to anyone else either.
    - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
      https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter
      - donatj 8y ago
        Even so, it’s pretty mediocre that it only builds Windows apps, and putting MacOS and Linux support on different tiers $1500 dollars apart is pretty cruel.
- Recursing 8y ago
  Can we edit the wiki? Edit: it seems that it was written in delhi and they rewrote it in C#
  - rasz 8y ago
    Seems Im out of the loop. 17 was the last Pascal release, switch was last year.
- ythn 8y ago
  The original GameMaker was written in Delphi, iirc!
ken 8y ago
It was Pascal and 68K assembly -- which is also what the Macintosh system itself was written in. "When you're writing desktop software, there's a strong bias toward writing applications in the same language as the operating system." --pg Would I be correct in assuming Photoshop was converted to C/C++ around the same time that its target platforms were?
- MontagFTB 8y ago
  I am a Photoshop engineer. Many years ago it was transpiled to C++ that looked very much like Object Pascal. Much of that original legacy survives to this day.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
    I had hoped you'd appear in this thread. Do you remember in what years/versions this happened?
    - MontagFTB 8y ago
      I don't know exactly. It was transpiled before I came on the scene, which was 1996. The transition probably happened around the same time the Macintosh OS transitioned from Pascal to C-based APIs, and/or Photoshop was ported to Windows (around the Photoshop 2.5 timeframe.)
TsomArp 8y ago
As far as massively used software, Skype was also written in Delphi.
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  You mean the previous version that was working fine? Because the current broken one seems to be written in Electron, doesn't it.
  - TsomArp 8y ago
    I meant the first versions of it at least: https://www.quora.com/Skype-product/What-programming-language-was-Skype-originally-written-in?mid=55546 https://www.quora.com/Skype-product/What-programming-languag...
paganel 8y ago
> in a language frowned upon by many programmers today. Adding to the list, lambda-the-ultimate.org itself is written in Drupal/PHP.
pvg 8y ago
has been changed, and it's a pity It's not, imagine the site with editorialized titles. It'd be a roiling, infinite pool of lava.
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  I'm not talking about titles in general, you're probably right, but in this particular case I think this was the crucial bit of information for me - the code was released many years ago, and I'm sure only a fraction of HNers read the articles in full so many would never notice this important piece of information.
  - pvg 8y ago
    The way generally HN works is - if you post something, you don't get to decide what the critical bit of information in it is - you aren't allowed to editorialize. So if you want to highlight something, you're supposed to do it in comments or write your own thing that highlights the bits you think are interesting and post that. This makes for some anodyne titles but it's not hard to see why it's probably saner than the alternatives.
zamalek 8y ago
I don't know why Pascal has such a poor name. I don't enjoy using it (only because I prefer braces or whitespace), but it's much higher level than C++ with compilers that emit pretty tight code. That is pretty rare nowadays. There are many reasons to praise it.

paradite 8y ago

Indeed that seems to be the moral of the story for a lot of cases that I know of: - plain JavaScript/jQuery to React - Ruby on Rails/Node.js to Golang Many people might dismiss the former as an inferior language, but the point is, you might not have enough time to write a successful software in latter given the time and window of opportunity. And the initial boost of productivity with a simpler language might be important. Of course the reverse can be bad as well when you have an unmaintainable 50k lines jQuery app and nobody wants to rewrite that with a proper framework.

rasz 8y ago

One of the biggest industry standard PCB design packages, Altium Designer, is written in Delphi (wiki is wrong claiming C#) https://community.embarcadero.com/blogs/entry/altium-designer-15-000-000-codelines-1600 https://community.embarcadero.com/blogs/entry/altium-designe...

vintagedave 8y ago
There are many big and well-known software packages written in Delphi. Yet Delphi the language is not well known. I recently read an article on Flutter comparing to native Android layouts, and thought to myself: Delphi has had a x-plat framework that does all that, and more, in less lines of code, for six years. (*) Disclaimer: I work for the company that makes Delphi. I do that because I think it and its sister C++Builder are great products and want to see it better-known.
- purerandomness 8y ago
  In an alternative reality, Delphi would have won and we would have native Delphi apps instead of Electron. But we can't have nice things.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    Specially when many devs refuse to pay for their tools, while asking to get paid for their work.
    - donatj 8y ago
      Good enough is the enemy of good. Good enough and free trumps good and for pay every time.
- bitL 8y ago
  Lower the prices... Or make it more accessible like how JetBrains did before they switched to a subscription model? That would give you instant developer love.
- Filligree 8y ago
  I'd love to try it... But my budget for hobby projects is $0, and a time-limited trial isn't useful. Therefore I won't try it, and I won't be advocating it to anyone else either.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
    https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter
    - donatj 8y ago
      Even so, it’s pretty mediocre that it only builds Windows apps, and putting MacOS and Linux support on different tiers $1500 dollars apart is pretty cruel.
Recursing 8y ago
Can we edit the wiki? Edit: it seems that it was written in delhi and they rewrote it in C#
- rasz 8y ago
  Seems Im out of the loop. 17 was the last Pascal release, switch was last year.
ythn 8y ago
The original GameMaker was written in Delphi, iirc!

ken 8y ago

It was Pascal and 68K assembly -- which is also what the Macintosh system itself was written in. "When you're writing desktop software, there's a strong bias toward writing applications in the same language as the operating system." --pg Would I be correct in assuming Photoshop was converted to C/C++ around the same time that its target platforms were?

MontagFTB 8y ago
I am a Photoshop engineer. Many years ago it was transpiled to C++ that looked very much like Object Pascal. Much of that original legacy survives to this day.
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
  I had hoped you'd appear in this thread. Do you remember in what years/versions this happened?
  - MontagFTB 8y ago
    I don't know exactly. It was transpiled before I came on the scene, which was 1996. The transition probably happened around the same time the Macintosh OS transitioned from Pascal to C-based APIs, and/or Photoshop was ported to Windows (around the Photoshop 2.5 timeframe.)

TsomArp 8y ago

As far as massively used software, Skype was also written in Delphi.

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
You mean the previous version that was working fine? Because the current broken one seems to be written in Electron, doesn't it.
- TsomArp 8y ago
  I meant the first versions of it at least: https://www.quora.com/Skype-product/What-programming-language-was-Skype-originally-written-in?mid=55546 https://www.quora.com/Skype-product/What-programming-languag...

paganel 8y ago

> in a language frowned upon by many programmers today. Adding to the list, lambda-the-ultimate.org itself is written in Drupal/PHP.

pvg 8y ago

has been changed, and it's a pity It's not, imagine the site with editorialized titles. It'd be a roiling, infinite pool of lava.

dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
I'm not talking about titles in general, you're probably right, but in this particular case I think this was the crucial bit of information for me - the code was released many years ago, and I'm sure only a fraction of HNers read the articles in full so many would never notice this important piece of information.
- pvg 8y ago
  The way generally HN works is - if you post something, you don't get to decide what the critical bit of information in it is - you aren't allowed to editorialize. So if you want to highlight something, you're supposed to do it in comments or write your own thing that highlights the bits you think are interesting and post that. This makes for some anodyne titles but it's not hard to see why it's probably saner than the alternatives.

zamalek 8y ago

I don't know why Pascal has such a poor name. I don't enjoy using it (only because I prefer braces or whitespace), but it's much higher level than C++ with compilers that emit pretty tight code. That is pretty rare nowadays. There are many reasons to praise it.