4 ms·

C and C++ were free. Free crap often wins over purchased quality.

hojjat12000 6y ago
C was ported to any platform. Free crap (when it comes to programming languages) win, because they can be used everywhere therefore a better thing to learn. For example, Borland never opened the sources of the compiler, and Turbo Pascal has never been ported to platforms other than DOS/Windows. Free crap in other areas (such as computer graphics) did not win over purchased quality. For example graphics designers even choose their Operating System based on available (non-free) quality software.
- badsectoracula 6y ago
  Delphi was ported to Linux with Kylix (using Qt as a backend for the GUI) but didn't saw much use. However the issue with Delphi was really that Borland got greedy around the turn of the century, started chasing enterprises and jacked up the prices considerably. Turbo Pascal originally costed less than a game yet you got both one of the best compilers and a book to learn from and Delphi until around 5 or 6 or so (do not remember the exact version) could be bought for around $99 at its cheapest version (AFAIK upgrade was cheaper) which was still affordable even by highschool students and provided a very high quality package. And during the 90s Borland Pascal and Delphi had a TON of mindshare - something they lost as they moved away from being affordable to everyone. People wouldn't mind much if Delphi wasn't free as long as it was still affordable to everyone and good quality. Sadly not only it became unaffordable to the most important segment of programmers (the new ones who want to experiment with stuff) but it also degraded in quality.
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
Crap that works wins over stuff that sounds good in theory. If you ever had to work with an as-defined-by-Wirth Pascal, it was painful. Another data point: Turbo C wasn't free, either. How did it sell compared to Turbo Pascal? (I don't actually know; does anyone have data?)
notacoward 6y ago
C compilers weren't always free. When I started my career on the original Mac, there were multiple commercial Pascal and C compilers but nothing free for either. For some years after that I worked on multiple UNIX machines and variants that each shipped with their own C compiler (often developed by one of several companies that specialized in this stuff) because gcc was no easier to port and produced lower-quality code. So it was free for users, but for the people who actually bought the systems it was bundled which is not the same.

hojjat12000 6y ago

C was ported to any platform. Free crap (when it comes to programming languages) win, because they can be used everywhere therefore a better thing to learn. For example, Borland never opened the sources of the compiler, and Turbo Pascal has never been ported to platforms other than DOS/Windows. Free crap in other areas (such as computer graphics) did not win over purchased quality. For example graphics designers even choose their Operating System based on available (non-free) quality software.

badsectoracula 6y ago
Delphi was ported to Linux with Kylix (using Qt as a backend for the GUI) but didn't saw much use. However the issue with Delphi was really that Borland got greedy around the turn of the century, started chasing enterprises and jacked up the prices considerably. Turbo Pascal originally costed less than a game yet you got both one of the best compilers and a book to learn from and Delphi until around 5 or 6 or so (do not remember the exact version) could be bought for around $99 at its cheapest version (AFAIK upgrade was cheaper) which was still affordable even by highschool students and provided a very high quality package. And during the 90s Borland Pascal and Delphi had a TON of mindshare - something they lost as they moved away from being affordable to everyone. People wouldn't mind much if Delphi wasn't free as long as it was still affordable to everyone and good quality. Sadly not only it became unaffordable to the most important segment of programmers (the new ones who want to experiment with stuff) but it also degraded in quality.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

Crap that works wins over stuff that sounds good in theory. If you ever had to work with an as-defined-by-Wirth Pascal, it was painful. Another data point: Turbo C wasn't free, either. How did it sell compared to Turbo Pascal? (I don't actually know; does anyone have data?)

notacoward 6y ago

C compilers weren't always free. When I started my career on the original Mac, there were multiple commercial Pascal and C compilers but nothing free for either. For some years after that I worked on multiple UNIX machines and variants that each shipped with their own C compiler (often developed by one of several companies that specialized in this stuff) because gcc was no easier to port and produced lower-quality code. So it was free for users, but for the people who actually bought the systems it was bundled which is not the same.