4 ms·

From $960 + $399/year. I think it's quite an accomplishment to survive in the modern world of free software development tools.

giancarlostoro 7mo ago
Yeah, I'm surprised they haven't just made a hobbyist tier. Especially when FreePascal allows you to make UIs with Lazarus for free.
- vbezhenar 7mo ago
  They have free community edition. Main restriction seems to be: "If you're an individual, you may use Delphi CE to create apps for your own use and apps that you can sell until your revenue reaches US$5,000 per year." So should be perfectly enough for hobbyist.
  - giancarlostoro 7mo ago
    I tried it, it would not compile some of the templates it came with for me. Their QA process must be terrible.
_fizz_buzz_ 7mo ago
There is still a lot of legacy software out there. I worked on something for a little bit (probably around 10 years ago).
- OCTAGRAM 7mo ago
  New Delphi software is welcome!
wongarsu 7mo ago
The C# world also has quite a few paid libraries, especially for UI stuff. Quite a few years ago I worked at a company using Delphi, and judging by their homepage they are still using it. A company making industrial machinery, with a tiny internal software department for the software for provisioning and maintaining the machines, as well as the control room software. Usability and development velocity is more important than looking hip, and easy access to hardware interfaces is paramount. And compared to developer salaries those license costs really aren't that bad
piokoch 7mo ago
There are companies using Delphi-based products for long years (for a good reason, this is still great technology) so they prefer to pay.
1899-12-30 7mo ago
It's cheaper to pay that than rewrite in a better language.
- OCTAGRAM 7mo ago
  Better language = Ada?
pjmlp 7mo ago
On Microsoft, Apple, and game consoles, it is still pretty common to pay for development tools. Also pretty common in enterprise tooling, which is the market of tools like Delphi. The alternative is everyone getting surprised that their favourite free software development tools (only free thanks to VC money), eventually goes away.
- ronsor 7mo ago
  Mostly Microsoft (inertia, you're already paying) and game consoles (expensive SDK/dev-kit licensing with NDA crap). I see it less on Apple platforms except for published applications and niche tools.
  - pjmlp 7mo ago
    There are many other computers out there. You already paid for XCode via their beloved hardware margins.
    - musicale 7mo ago
      What about that $99 yearly developer fee? (Technically it is optional if you don't need to ship signed apps or submit to the app store and you don't care about the rest of Apple's developer program.)
      - pjmlp 7mo ago
        That is on top, I guess.
OCTAGRAM 7mo ago
Community Edition is free

giancarlostoro 7mo ago

Yeah, I'm surprised they haven't just made a hobbyist tier. Especially when FreePascal allows you to make UIs with Lazarus for free.

vbezhenar 7mo ago
They have free community edition. Main restriction seems to be: "If you're an individual, you may use Delphi CE to create apps for your own use and apps that you can sell until your revenue reaches US$5,000 per year." So should be perfectly enough for hobbyist.
- giancarlostoro 7mo ago
  I tried it, it would not compile some of the templates it came with for me. Their QA process must be terrible.

_fizz_buzz_ 7mo ago

There is still a lot of legacy software out there. I worked on something for a little bit (probably around 10 years ago).

OCTAGRAM 7mo ago
New Delphi software is welcome!

wongarsu 7mo ago

The C# world also has quite a few paid libraries, especially for UI stuff. Quite a few years ago I worked at a company using Delphi, and judging by their homepage they are still using it. A company making industrial machinery, with a tiny internal software department for the software for provisioning and maintaining the machines, as well as the control room software. Usability and development velocity is more important than looking hip, and easy access to hardware interfaces is paramount. And compared to developer salaries those license costs really aren't that bad

piokoch 7mo ago

There are companies using Delphi-based products for long years (for a good reason, this is still great technology) so they prefer to pay.

1899-12-30 7mo ago

It's cheaper to pay that than rewrite in a better language.

OCTAGRAM 7mo ago
Better language = Ada?

pjmlp 7mo ago

On Microsoft, Apple, and game consoles, it is still pretty common to pay for development tools. Also pretty common in enterprise tooling, which is the market of tools like Delphi. The alternative is everyone getting surprised that their favourite free software development tools (only free thanks to VC money), eventually goes away.

ronsor 7mo ago
Mostly Microsoft (inertia, you're already paying) and game consoles (expensive SDK/dev-kit licensing with NDA crap). I see it less on Apple platforms except for published applications and niche tools.
- pjmlp 7mo ago
  There are many other computers out there. You already paid for XCode via their beloved hardware margins.
  - musicale 7mo ago
    What about that $99 yearly developer fee? (Technically it is optional if you don't need to ship signed apps or submit to the app store and you don't care about the rest of Apple's developer program.)
    - pjmlp 7mo ago
      That is on top, I guess.

OCTAGRAM 7mo ago

Community Edition is free