4 ms·

I still have the feeling it's the most productive way to create beautiful native Windows desktop programs. Rapid application development is not an empty promis

I still have the feeling it's the most productive way to create beautiful native Windows desktop programs. Rapid application development is not an empty promise here. All my other endeavours with UI programming (Java/Swing, HTML/JS frontends, QT) felt way less productive. Maybe MS C# is the closest to Delphi nowadays.

yakubin 4y ago
I wonder if anyone here has experience with both Delphi and SwiftUI. I'd be curious to know which one is more comfortable.
- sarsway 4y ago
  Well there's a reason all the WYSIWYG UI editors died out. They are a quick way to whip up a passable UI, but usually turns out to be quite ugly under the hood, hard to reuse, and a pain to maintain. Delphi is really from a different age, simpler times, when the common paradigm was having the app directly connected to some sort of SQL database, which serves as a stable, static data source for the UI. Making glorified database editors is what it was really good at. These days.. things changed. UIs need to be flexible, reactive, reusable, adaptable. UIs that can handle uncertain states, asynchronous data flows, change dynamically and so on. SwiftUI / React / Flutter all ended up at the same paradigm, it's a much more advanced way of doing things. Also, high level languages are much more pleasant to work with.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Only by those that never bother to learn how to use layout managers.
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    > They are a quick way to whip up a passable UI, but usually turns out to be quite ugly under the hood, hard to reuse, and a pain to maintain That's not my memory at all - even web-based traditional ASP apps made it relatively easy to use WYSIWYG form editors that modified the code as needed. But expectations around how dynamic UIs are supposed to be have changed. SPAs in particular are not very amenable to auto-code generation, but supposedly some options do exist (retool? Haven't tried it though).
  - gduke 4y ago
    I respectfully disagree with this. Delphi still delivers unmatched productivity when it comes to designing UIs and writing maintainable multi platform software. Delphi's FireMonkey framework has a lot of things right and you can create resusable forms easily, where you don't have to fight with a declarative UI (This paradigm is an anti-pattern and totally misplaced for UIs). There are many multi platforms apps made with Delphi which are by no means "a glorified database editor" ;)
pjmlp 4y ago
It is, minus AOT experience.
p_l 4y ago
AFAIK one of the main driving forces behind C# and .NET was the designer of Delphi that Microsoft managed to hire away.
- CRConrad 4y ago
  Yup: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Anders+Hejlsberg https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Anders+Hejlsberg

yakubin 4y ago

I wonder if anyone here has experience with both Delphi and SwiftUI. I'd be curious to know which one is more comfortable.

sarsway 4y ago
Well there's a reason all the WYSIWYG UI editors died out. They are a quick way to whip up a passable UI, but usually turns out to be quite ugly under the hood, hard to reuse, and a pain to maintain. Delphi is really from a different age, simpler times, when the common paradigm was having the app directly connected to some sort of SQL database, which serves as a stable, static data source for the UI. Making glorified database editors is what it was really good at. These days.. things changed. UIs need to be flexible, reactive, reusable, adaptable. UIs that can handle uncertain states, asynchronous data flows, change dynamically and so on. SwiftUI / React / Flutter all ended up at the same paradigm, it's a much more advanced way of doing things. Also, high level languages are much more pleasant to work with.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Only by those that never bother to learn how to use layout managers.
- wizofaus 4y ago
  > They are a quick way to whip up a passable UI, but usually turns out to be quite ugly under the hood, hard to reuse, and a pain to maintain That's not my memory at all - even web-based traditional ASP apps made it relatively easy to use WYSIWYG form editors that modified the code as needed. But expectations around how dynamic UIs are supposed to be have changed. SPAs in particular are not very amenable to auto-code generation, but supposedly some options do exist (retool? Haven't tried it though).
- gduke 4y ago
  I respectfully disagree with this. Delphi still delivers unmatched productivity when it comes to designing UIs and writing maintainable multi platform software. Delphi's FireMonkey framework has a lot of things right and you can create resusable forms easily, where you don't have to fight with a declarative UI (This paradigm is an anti-pattern and totally misplaced for UIs). There are many multi platforms apps made with Delphi which are by no means "a glorified database editor" ;)

pjmlp 4y ago

It is, minus AOT experience.

p_l 4y ago

AFAIK one of the main driving forces behind C# and .NET was the designer of Delphi that Microsoft managed to hire away.

CRConrad 4y ago
Yup: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Anders+Hejlsberg https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Anders+Hejlsberg