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This might provide some hints (or not): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Hejlsberg#At_Microsoft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Hejlsberg#At_Microsoft

• andrei_says_ 5y ago
  What incredible impact.
  • vrodic 5y ago
    Still Delphi was better. - DSL for UI (Forms) - fast native compiler that produced self sufficient binaries - great component library and many open source libraries - Object Pascal was extended to fit perfectly the needs of UI programming
    • nawgz 5y ago
      Building things that have no real-world constraints does often result in great beauty. Unfortunately, the web and all its ugliness became the dominant platform because it enabled no-download no-install information & application interaction
      • cosmodisk 5y ago
        It was probably 20 or so years ago when I played for some time with Delphi. It was extraordinary easy to make program interfaces. Fast forward to today and we are in this clusterfuck, where everyone keeps reinventing the wheel and complexities just keep growing.
        • ohgodplsno 5y ago
          In the same way that Visual Basic offered simple, drag & drop interface builders. What happened is also changing hardware, UIs that need to adapt to changing screen sizes, different needs, theming, and many more.
          • pjc50 5y ago
            Everyone seemingly unaware that this still exists and you can still do it in Hejlsberg's C#? Drag and drop WPF components and program in code-behind? With themes and responsive design? (Big asterisk: mostly Windows-only and has recently lost product direction coherency)
            • cosmodisk 5y ago
              Windows forms are great, whilst WPF is a bit odd,to say the least.. Here's an example: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/get-started/csharp/tutorial-wpf?view=vs-2022 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/get-started/cs...
              • the_only_law 5y ago
                I would almost like WOF is component styling wasn’t one of the most miserable clusterfucks of XML boilerplate I’ve used.
            • mbreese 5y ago
              My biggest problem with the drag and drop builders was how it played with version control. The last I used was nearly 20 years ago - Windows Visual Studio C++ with MFC. Even if the builder produced C++ code, it was hard to know exactly where and how the changes were made. CVS (and maybe svn?) didn’t exactly like tracking those changes. Is that any better now?
              • fiddlerwoaroof 5y ago
                One thing I really liked about Delphi was its strict separation between generated and manually-written code. Delphi had a dedicated text file format that represented the form built in the GUI builder. So, VC would just pick up changes in the form file and save them like anything else.
      • beamatronic 5y ago
        But in today's reality, there is a lot of Javascript that is getting "downloaded and installed" into your browser's cache. It's all being managed for you and it mostly works.
        • nawgz 5y ago
          Please, you must not be pedantic in this way, it's clear that I mean there's no install wizard and OS-native interactions the user must go thru, they just provide a string URL and immediately begin application-style interactions after a brief load
          • beamatronic 5y ago
            Compare and contrast today's Javascript-in-browser dependent applications versus a pure server-side-rendering model. With the latter, there is truly no software downloaded, only static assets such as images.
          • DarylZero 5y ago
            It's not really pedantic. Since any application (not just a browser) could provide the same download-interpreted-code-then-run-it functionality. It's probably not this particular feature of the web browser matters but the fact that web browsers come preinstalled with new computers.
            • nawgz 5y ago
              > It's not really pedantic I mean, if not pedantic, then perhaps grinding an axe - he said 'there is a lot of Javascript that is getting "downloaded and installed"' as if that has anything to do with the user experience I was referring to > any application (not just a browser) could provide the same download-interpreted-code-then-run-it functionality I have never heard of such a platform besides the web. That is why the web became the dominant platform. I do not know what theoretical could've would've should've has to do with the reality of technological evolution > It's probably not this particular feature of the web browser ... yes, it's not the ease of use that makes users like web, it's that computers in 2021 come with browsers installed that makes users prefer web over bloated desktop applications without good accessibility anyways! I have no clue what your comment is meaning to get at.
      • DarylZero 5y ago
        The user downloads a browser that downloads the site-specific javascript application.
    • k__ 5y ago
      It was the pinnacle of an era that was gone with the rise of the Internet.
      • ldng 5y ago
        That does not diminish the accomplishment in my eyes.
        • k__ 5y ago
          It doesn't, but that doesn't help us now. See Flash.
• grundoon 5y ago
  The story I heard (I worked at Borland briefly in 1999): Microsoft would send a limo to the Borland HQ to pick up engineers for interviews on their lunch breaks. Borland sued, Microsoft settled for many millions, but basically instead of buying their rival outright (for assimilation into the Borg, lol), they just bought the talent. Last I knew Borland had changed names at least twice (Inprise, Embarcadero) and still existed, in some remnant form.
  • subroutine 5y ago
    What was the basis of the lawsuit?
    • eatonphil 5y ago
      > Saying that he "just wants Microsoft to leave us alone," Borland International (BORL) CEO Delbert Yocam today filed a lawsuit against Microsoft (MSFT), claiming that the software giant is hiring away Borland's key employees to put it out of business. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/borland-sues-microsoft-over-brain-drain/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/borland-sues...
    • Jabbles 5y ago
      "In the past 30 months, Microsoft has hired at least 34 of Borland's top software architects, engineers, and marketing managers", according to a complaint prepared by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. These actions have been undertaken “for wrongful purposes: to acquire Borland confidential information and to inhibit Borland's competitive position,” the filing states. Borland's lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages and an immediate end to Microsoft's unfair practice of targeting Borland employees in order to hamper the company's ability to compete. The suit claims that Microsoft's activities are illegal under California Business & Professions Code Section 17200. https://www.eetimes.com/borland-sues-microsoft-for-unfair-competition/ https://www.eetimes.com/borland-sues-microsoft-for-unfair-co...
  • romeros 5y ago
    Ruthless. Just pure evil to target one specific company like that!
• ryaniscool 5y ago
  No. One man's departure did not bring down Borland. Years after this guy left JBuilder was a great product that made them tons of money in the early 2000s. Java's popularity explosion (think J2EE) came years after the J++ debacle and JBuilder cashed in. They disappeared because they weren't able to compete with the commoditization of Java IDE's (Eclipse) and Microsoft's integrated sales channel on Windows (Visual Studio). These two things killed their two biggest products.
  • StevePerkins 5y ago
    They weren't able to compete with those things in the early-2000's, yet JetBrains was founded in 2000 and has had nothing but growth and success ever since. The quality of leadership at Borland fell off, and the organization lost its vision and ability to execute. Simple as that.
    • mthoms 5y ago
      I suspect JetBrains location in Eastern Europe helped a great deal talent-wise.
      • stickfigure 5y ago
        Maybe, but I really doubt it. "Our developers are cheaper" is rarely a winning strategy. JetBrains did - and still does - execute well. They expanded their IDE to many languages and caught the Ruby, Node, and Typescript waves. Borland did JBuilder, yes, but it wasn't category-winning. Maybe Delphi could have dominated with more investment and more imagination, but it seems to have risen and fallen with Win32.
        • zeroc8 5y ago
          Their pricing strategy always sucked. I mean, 4000 Bucks for a Java IDE? Jetbrains on the other hand did the right thing from the beginning by asking money but keeping the price realistic.
      • dilyevsky 5y ago
• spamizbad 5y ago
  It's important to understand that in the 90s Microsoft was one of the few software companies that took "software talent" seriously, and would aggressively poach talent from competitors. They offered better pay, better working environments (private offices instead of cube farms). Often times their competitors wouldn't realize this until it was too late.
  • markus_zhang 5y ago
    I can die for a private office :(
    • dhosek 5y ago
      Hell even a cubicle would be a step up from the last few office environments I've had.
      • markus_zhang 5y ago
        Yeah exactly. Now that I work in open space I realize that a cubicle is actually not bad.
• Aeolun 5y ago
  Shit, I never thought I’d ever be a fan of any given programmer, but if one guy made both C# and Typescript I’m prepared to change my mind.