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You mean how you open Delphi IDE, create a new project (default is Windows VCL, but you can also do cross-platform FireMonkey just as easy), then when the main

You mean how you open Delphi IDE, create a new project (default is Windows VCL, but you can also do cross-platform FireMonkey just as easy), then when the main form is presented in IDE how you drop components from the components palette? As in same way you do it in Visual Studio when doing a WPF and or/ Winforms project as well? Or as in any visual IDE for any programming language, because they all follow the same idea?

kaba0 4y ago
I guess? I was interested in whether it had some unique feature/paradigm, or was it loved for some other reason.
- CRConrad 4y ago
  > I was interested in whether it had some unique feature/paradigm, or was it loved for some other reason. It was so beloved because it actually worked exactly as the marketing slogan at the time claimed: "The power of C++ with the ease of Visual Basic". (Or was it the other way around?) This was a time when Microsoft's "Visual" Studio IDE was anything but: It had no visual form builder, just a code editor. To actually put something on screen, you had to write reams of code straight out of a Charles Petzold tome. Visual Basic, OTOH, sure did have a nice easy graphical UI builder, but a pathetically weak ultra-high-level language -- in contrast to Object Pascal, which is every bit as high- or as low-level as C++. I learned all three in an "Object Oriented Programming" course I took in 1995, IIRC in the order 1: OO concepts, 2: C++, 3: VB, 4: Delphi (or was it 2: VB, 3: C++?). After the two preceding, Delphi was a revelation and love at first sight. That love soured slightly after the Kylix debacle, some more with diverse bugginess and drawn-out implementation of Windows developments (Unicode, 64-bit, High-DPI...), and finally petered out almost totally over the covert "feature moved to higher-priced more Enterprise-y edition" and overt price hikes over the years (decades) since, with the on-again off-again free (gratis) Community Edition shenanigans as perhaps the final nail in the coffin. But Delphi versions 1 through 7 (1995 -- ca 2005-10) still has, and probably will for ever have, a special place in my heart as my most beloved programming tool. And fortunately, it has a worthy heir in Free Pascal / Lazarus. HTH!
- p_l 4y ago
  It was loved because it actually worked well, and the language and runtime features of VCL meant that the code was much, much cleaner than let's say in C++
- unnouinceput 4y ago
  Open Notepad, yeah, that classic one from Windows. Look at it, see all its menus, features, behavior. Now ask yourself: How much time would take me to create a clone of it in my preferred IDE/programming language? Then comeback here and tell me your answer. I will tell you in advance mine: "In Delphi it would take maximum 3 hours". That's the core definition of RAD.
- Delphiza 4y ago
  What it did well was data binding of UI controls to SQL databases. A form would be linked to a database viewmodel (ish) where you could drop sql connections and tables to link up to a UI. Delphi (the vcl) took care of everything. You could put an editable grid on a page and all CRUD would _just work_

kaba0 4y ago

I guess? I was interested in whether it had some unique feature/paradigm, or was it loved for some other reason.

CRConrad 4y ago
> I was interested in whether it had some unique feature/paradigm, or was it loved for some other reason. It was so beloved because it actually worked exactly as the marketing slogan at the time claimed: "The power of C++ with the ease of Visual Basic". (Or was it the other way around?) This was a time when Microsoft's "Visual" Studio IDE was anything but: It had no visual form builder, just a code editor. To actually put something on screen, you had to write reams of code straight out of a Charles Petzold tome. Visual Basic, OTOH, sure did have a nice easy graphical UI builder, but a pathetically weak ultra-high-level language -- in contrast to Object Pascal, which is every bit as high- or as low-level as C++. I learned all three in an "Object Oriented Programming" course I took in 1995, IIRC in the order 1: OO concepts, 2: C++, 3: VB, 4: Delphi (or was it 2: VB, 3: C++?). After the two preceding, Delphi was a revelation and love at first sight. That love soured slightly after the Kylix debacle, some more with diverse bugginess and drawn-out implementation of Windows developments (Unicode, 64-bit, High-DPI...), and finally petered out almost totally over the covert "feature moved to higher-priced more Enterprise-y edition" and overt price hikes over the years (decades) since, with the on-again off-again free (gratis) Community Edition shenanigans as perhaps the final nail in the coffin. But Delphi versions 1 through 7 (1995 -- ca 2005-10) still has, and probably will for ever have, a special place in my heart as my most beloved programming tool. And fortunately, it has a worthy heir in Free Pascal / Lazarus. HTH!
p_l 4y ago
It was loved because it actually worked well, and the language and runtime features of VCL meant that the code was much, much cleaner than let's say in C++
unnouinceput 4y ago
Open Notepad, yeah, that classic one from Windows. Look at it, see all its menus, features, behavior. Now ask yourself: How much time would take me to create a clone of it in my preferred IDE/programming language? Then comeback here and tell me your answer. I will tell you in advance mine: "In Delphi it would take maximum 3 hours". That's the core definition of RAD.
Delphiza 4y ago
What it did well was data binding of UI controls to SQL databases. A form would be linked to a database viewmodel (ish) where you could drop sql connections and tables to link up to a UI. Delphi (the vcl) took care of everything. You could put an editable grid on a page and all CRUD would _just work_