4 ms·

Why would anyone use Delphi these days? Except the case of maintaining legacy code.

by xvilka 7y ago

haolez 7y ago
I wouldn’t use it for my projects, but Delphi still has some strengths that are not so common these days: - very fast compile times - great backwards compatibility - non programmers can create simple programs
- msla 7y ago
  > great backwards compatibility How good was Delphi at hiding MS-DOS quirks? I know C from that platform tended to be nonstandard with near and far pointers to accommodate memory segmentation, but was Delphi any better?
  - bitwize 7y ago
    Delphi was a Windows-only product. Delphi 1 and its predecessor, Turbo Pascal, only supported far pointers to data, and could support far or near procedure calls with an annotation (essentially, a compiler pragma).
    - acqq 7y ago
      > only supported far pointers to data Which meant that as long as you didn't have to call C functions you just had to know and write that "it's a pointer" and nothing more.
- revanx_ 7y ago
  "non programmers can create simple programs" What does that mean? You can be a non programmer and make simple programs in most general purpose programming languages. Are you talking about the VCL library? In that case, there are many other languages that include the same like C# for example.
  - detaro 7y ago
    Delphi is hard to beat in ease-of-use of the GUI editing. It's not just that it ships with the component library, it's that the editor integrates it so well.
    - Crinus 7y ago
      ...and before someone tries to counterpoint that Visual C# has WinForms which is similar to Delphi, yes it is similar, but the functionality available in terms of design in Visual Studio 2019 isn't up to par with Delphi 2.
  - barrystaes 7y ago
    The libraries with source like other languages also do today, but also that the language is verbose like Visual Basic did.
nurettin 7y ago
It is a cross-platform product which readily comes with server components, logger components, IPC, many DB connectors and UI components if you are on windows, android or iOS. Language-wise, UI design-time lets you execute code such as db queries while designing your screens. It is almost completely orthogonal. It has no GC which makes for a faster runtime and writing free in finally is not something that is easy to forget (remember orthogonal) and immediately jumps out as an error when skimming code. Data modules enforce a separation of concerns, visually seeing component properties enables another form of remembering setup parameters. Tooling-wise, you have runtime stack traces thanks to jedi library. It can show memory leaks on shutdown by enabling a flag. You have package manager baked into the UI, compiler is blazingly fast and generates fast executables. With all this, for example, you could concoct a db editor easily in a few hours.
- mixmastamyk 7y ago
  Is it still maintained? Believe FreePascal and Lazarus IDE are.
  - Crinus 7y ago
    They are maintained but last time i heard after it was sold to Idera they fired some of their most of their programming team, including some (or all? I don't remember details) of the programmers who where there since the earlier days and went for outsourcing development. There was several posts/discussions about it in a few Delphi-related blogs, but i didn't follow beyond that.
  - bitcoinofficial 7y ago
    Yes, it is. But the prices are violently high for Embarcadero products.
  - nurettin 7y ago
    Delphi is very much alive. I exited the scene after Delphi 2009, re-entered in 2014 during Delphi XE7 to do some web service and android work. I don't use delphi anymore, but latest version is Delphi 10.3 released a few months ago. http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Rio/en/Compiler_Versions http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Rio/en/Compiler_Ver...
anta40 7y ago
Probably to write Windows apps without being dependant to JVM/.NET ?
- tracker1 7y ago
  That's somewhat fair... GUI in JVM generally sucks all around, and while I appreciate XAML in .Net space, it comes with a lot bigger cost than the output of Delphi. Though, iirc, Delphi is really expensive as a product.
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    Mostly because those devs haven't bothered reading books like "Filthy Rich Clients", and also only care for programmer art.
edwinyzh 7y ago
I'm close to the end of initial development of a product which basically turns Microsoft Word into a desktop CMS like WordPress (it utilize Bootstrap 4 so the result is not what you might think ;)) There no reason not to use Delphi for this project - it compiles really fast and natively, it allows me to make nice UI fast without limits, I've got a lot of reusable code.

Why would anyone use Delphi these days? Except the case of maintaining legacy code.

by xvilka 7y ago

Why would anyone use Delphi these days? Except the case of maintaining legacy code.

I wouldn’t use it for my projects, but Delphi still has some strengths that are not so common these days: - very fast compile times - great backwards compatibility - non programmers can create simple programs

msla 7y ago
> great backwards compatibility How good was Delphi at hiding MS-DOS quirks? I know C from that platform tended to be nonstandard with near and far pointers to accommodate memory segmentation, but was Delphi any better?
- bitwize 7y ago
  Delphi was a Windows-only product. Delphi 1 and its predecessor, Turbo Pascal, only supported far pointers to data, and could support far or near procedure calls with an annotation (essentially, a compiler pragma).
  - acqq 7y ago
    > only supported far pointers to data Which meant that as long as you didn't have to call C functions you just had to know and write that "it's a pointer" and nothing more.
revanx_ 7y ago
"non programmers can create simple programs" What does that mean? You can be a non programmer and make simple programs in most general purpose programming languages. Are you talking about the VCL library? In that case, there are many other languages that include the same like C# for example.
- detaro 7y ago
  Delphi is hard to beat in ease-of-use of the GUI editing. It's not just that it ships with the component library, it's that the editor integrates it so well.
  - Crinus 7y ago
    ...and before someone tries to counterpoint that Visual C# has WinForms which is similar to Delphi, yes it is similar, but the functionality available in terms of design in Visual Studio 2019 isn't up to par with Delphi 2.
- barrystaes 7y ago
  The libraries with source like other languages also do today, but also that the language is verbose like Visual Basic did.

nurettin 7y ago

It is a cross-platform product which readily comes with server components, logger components, IPC, many DB connectors and UI components if you are on windows, android or iOS. Language-wise, UI design-time lets you execute code such as db queries while designing your screens. It is almost completely orthogonal. It has no GC which makes for a faster runtime and writing free in finally is not something that is easy to forget (remember orthogonal) and immediately jumps out as an error when skimming code. Data modules enforce a separation of concerns, visually seeing component properties enables another form of remembering setup parameters. Tooling-wise, you have runtime stack traces thanks to jedi library. It can show memory leaks on shutdown by enabling a flag. You have package manager baked into the UI, compiler is blazingly fast and generates fast executables. With all this, for example, you could concoct a db editor easily in a few hours.

mixmastamyk 7y ago
Is it still maintained? Believe FreePascal and Lazarus IDE are.
- Crinus 7y ago
  They are maintained but last time i heard after it was sold to Idera they fired some of their most of their programming team, including some (or all? I don't remember details) of the programmers who where there since the earlier days and went for outsourcing development. There was several posts/discussions about it in a few Delphi-related blogs, but i didn't follow beyond that.
- bitcoinofficial 7y ago
  Yes, it is. But the prices are violently high for Embarcadero products.
- nurettin 7y ago
  Delphi is very much alive. I exited the scene after Delphi 2009, re-entered in 2014 during Delphi XE7 to do some web service and android work. I don't use delphi anymore, but latest version is Delphi 10.3 released a few months ago. http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Rio/en/Compiler_Versions http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Rio/en/Compiler_Ver...

anta40 7y ago

Probably to write Windows apps without being dependant to JVM/.NET ?

tracker1 7y ago
That's somewhat fair... GUI in JVM generally sucks all around, and while I appreciate XAML in .Net space, it comes with a lot bigger cost than the output of Delphi. Though, iirc, Delphi is really expensive as a product.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  Mostly because those devs haven't bothered reading books like "Filthy Rich Clients", and also only care for programmer art.

edwinyzh 7y ago

I'm close to the end of initial development of a product which basically turns Microsoft Word into a desktop CMS like WordPress (it utilize Bootstrap 4 so the result is not what you might think ;)) There no reason not to use Delphi for this project - it compiles really fast and natively, it allows me to make nice UI fast without limits, I've got a lot of reusable code.