3 ms·

Turbo Delphi Explorer. It was a free version of Delphi 6. They still do have a Starter Edition, of course, with some restrictions, which TDE had too. But IIRC,

by vram22 8y ago

Turbo Delphi Explorer. It was a free version of Delphi 6. They still do have a Starter Edition, of course, with some restrictions, which TDE had too. But IIRC, TDE was available in both Win 32 and .NET versions. Borland Sidekick, a pop-up TSR productivity utility. Turbo C 2.x MS QuickC Probably a few others I need to remember.

Mister_Snuggles 8y ago
Have you tried FreePascal/Lazarus[0]? It seems like a spiritual successor to Delphi. [0] https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/
- vram22 8y ago
  Yes, I have, thank you. I like both of them (I was a heavy Turbo Pascal user many years earlier, and have used Delphi some, too), and have written some small programs in them (FPC [1]/Laz). (Commented earlier on HN in some relevant thread, about relative binary sizes of a few langs' EXEs, like C, D, Go, FPC, etc., too - FPC's are quite small.) Mean to do more with both over time. [1] I call Free Pascal FPC for short (for Free Pascal Compiler) to distinguish it from the common use of FP to mean Functional Programming). Here's a digital clock I created with Lazarus: Digital Clock created in FreePascal / Lazarus: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/digital-clock-created-in-freepascal.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/digital-clock-created-in... Also feel free to check out these other clocks I created earlier, both in Python: A simple alarm clock in Python (command-line) - this one has a good real-life use, see the post for details: https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2013/11/a-simple-alarm-clock-in-python-command.html https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2013/11/a-simple-alarm-clock-in-p... Jal-Tarang, and a musical alarm clock in Python: https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2016/12/jal-tarang-and-musical-alarm-clock-in.html https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2016/12/jal-tarang-and-musical-al... Here are two more I created earlier: Digital Clock v1.0 - in 3 lines of Delphi code: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2010/08/digital-clock-v10-in-3-lines-of-delphi.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2010/08/digital-clock-v10-in-3-l... A digital clock for Windows: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-digital-clock-for-windows.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-digital-clock-for-wind...
badsectoracula 8y ago
Note that Turbo Delphi Explorer was a free version of Delphi 2006, not 6 (which was released in 2001). TBH i think it made more harm than good overall since it disallowed installing custom components (which defeated a big reason for using Delphi) and it was based on perhaps the buggiest and slowest versions of Delphi ever released with a convoluted setup procedure (that among others required an obsolete version of .NET).
- vram22 8y ago
  >Note that Turbo Delphi Explorer was a free version of Delphi 2006, not 6 (which was released in 2001). Okay, I must have got that wrong. Thanks for the correction. I must have mixed up 6 and 2006, likely, since that Delphi Digital Clock v1.0 I mentioned elsewhere in this thread was written by me in 2010. >TBH i think it made more harm than good overall since it disallowed installing custom components (which defeated a big reason for using Delphi) Could be so. Yes, even the current Starter editions of Delphi 10.x (code named Berlin, Tokyo etc.) disallow that, IIRC. Or don't have the DB-bound controls (I forget which of the two it is, or whether both). I get your point about not being able to install custom components, which was/is one of the big plus points of Delphi, like VB before it (VBX and then OLE controls). It hugely increases the ecosystem and potential, and was one or the main reason for the runaway success of VB (the other reason being the drag-and-drop GUI creation and ability to hook up procedures to events by clicking on an event in the event list of a control, and writing a snippet of code that reacts to the event, in the window that popped up, so I've read (I did some VB projects earlier too)). But I do think that even the limited versions of Delphi are useful, to let beginners get entry to such a good RAD tool. Price is an issue for the full tool, I know. Of course, I'm somewhat aware of the meanderings and corporate missteps that have troubled the product over the years, every now and then, as it transitioned from Borland to Inprise to Codegear to Embarcadero to ... >and it was based on perhaps the buggiest and slowest versions of Delphi ever released with a convoluted setup procedure (that among others required an obsolete version of .NET). Didn't know that stuff. (Heard about the varying bugginess of different Delphi versions over the years, though.) IIRC, I installed and used the Win32 version of Turbo Delphi Explorer, since I prefer non-managed EXEs in general, having a background in compiled languages like C and Pascal from earlier.

by vram22 8y ago

Mister_Snuggles 8y ago

Have you tried FreePascal/Lazarus[0]? It seems like a spiritual successor to Delphi. [0] https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

vram22 8y ago
Yes, I have, thank you. I like both of them (I was a heavy Turbo Pascal user many years earlier, and have used Delphi some, too), and have written some small programs in them (FPC [1]/Laz). (Commented earlier on HN in some relevant thread, about relative binary sizes of a few langs' EXEs, like C, D, Go, FPC, etc., too - FPC's are quite small.) Mean to do more with both over time. [1] I call Free Pascal FPC for short (for Free Pascal Compiler) to distinguish it from the common use of FP to mean Functional Programming). Here's a digital clock I created with Lazarus: Digital Clock created in FreePascal / Lazarus: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/digital-clock-created-in-freepascal.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2017/04/digital-clock-created-in... Also feel free to check out these other clocks I created earlier, both in Python: A simple alarm clock in Python (command-line) - this one has a good real-life use, see the post for details: https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2013/11/a-simple-alarm-clock-in-python-command.html https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2013/11/a-simple-alarm-clock-in-p... Jal-Tarang, and a musical alarm clock in Python: https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2016/12/jal-tarang-and-musical-alarm-clock-in.html https://jugad2.blogspot.in/2016/12/jal-tarang-and-musical-al... Here are two more I created earlier: Digital Clock v1.0 - in 3 lines of Delphi code: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2010/08/digital-clock-v10-in-3-lines-of-delphi.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2010/08/digital-clock-v10-in-3-l... A digital clock for Windows: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-digital-clock-for-windows.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-digital-clock-for-wind...

badsectoracula 8y ago

Note that Turbo Delphi Explorer was a free version of Delphi 2006, not 6 (which was released in 2001). TBH i think it made more harm than good overall since it disallowed installing custom components (which defeated a big reason for using Delphi) and it was based on perhaps the buggiest and slowest versions of Delphi ever released with a convoluted setup procedure (that among others required an obsolete version of .NET).

vram22 8y ago
>Note that Turbo Delphi Explorer was a free version of Delphi 2006, not 6 (which was released in 2001). Okay, I must have got that wrong. Thanks for the correction. I must have mixed up 6 and 2006, likely, since that Delphi Digital Clock v1.0 I mentioned elsewhere in this thread was written by me in 2010. >TBH i think it made more harm than good overall since it disallowed installing custom components (which defeated a big reason for using Delphi) Could be so. Yes, even the current Starter editions of Delphi 10.x (code named Berlin, Tokyo etc.) disallow that, IIRC. Or don't have the DB-bound controls (I forget which of the two it is, or whether both). I get your point about not being able to install custom components, which was/is one of the big plus points of Delphi, like VB before it (VBX and then OLE controls). It hugely increases the ecosystem and potential, and was one or the main reason for the runaway success of VB (the other reason being the drag-and-drop GUI creation and ability to hook up procedures to events by clicking on an event in the event list of a control, and writing a snippet of code that reacts to the event, in the window that popped up, so I've read (I did some VB projects earlier too)). But I do think that even the limited versions of Delphi are useful, to let beginners get entry to such a good RAD tool. Price is an issue for the full tool, I know. Of course, I'm somewhat aware of the meanderings and corporate missteps that have troubled the product over the years, every now and then, as it transitioned from Borland to Inprise to Codegear to Embarcadero to ... >and it was based on perhaps the buggiest and slowest versions of Delphi ever released with a convoluted setup procedure (that among others required an obsolete version of .NET). Didn't know that stuff. (Heard about the varying bugginess of different Delphi versions over the years, though.) IIRC, I installed and used the Win32 version of Turbo Delphi Explorer, since I prefer non-managed EXEs in general, having a background in compiled languages like C and Pascal from earlier.