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Pretty much my view too. Anyone who knew Delphi immediately went "OMG that's Delphi/VCL with C-like syntax!" when they saw C#/.NET ca ~2000. And once Microsoft

by T-A 11y ago

Pretty much my view too. Anyone who knew Delphi immediately went "OMG that's Delphi/VCL with C-like syntax!" when they saw C#/.NET ca ~2000. And once Microsoft started giving away VS Express for free in 2005, Borland's original market - IDEs and compilers for the masses - was well and truly dead. It's easy to blame management for shifting focus to enterprise software, but they had to try doing something new.

coderjames 11y ago
Your description of C#/.NET sounds like it might get me to take another look at C# in the future. I learned Windows programming on-the-job using Delphi and then thought I should investigate a "more common" C++ environment (I already knew console-based C++). Learning that _Visual_ C++ had no similar RAD environment was really shocking. My resource editor isn't attached to an an automatic code generator? Say what? After that experience with Visual C++, I'd assumed Microsoft did roughly the same thing with "Visual C#" and never gave it a more than cursory look. I also had the fear that this new .NET thing would be yet another technology they hype then deprecate. What's the official Windows GUI framework this month? Is it Win32 Or maybe MFC? Or was it WPF or WinForms or some new XAML thing? (Sorry, went off on a tangent there...)
- neuro 11y ago
  Unfortunately, I wasn't flowing in a C# environment as in a Delphi environment. It might have been the ease of composability with Delphi's VCLs.
codeulike 11y ago
Yes, until C#/.NET came out, Delphi was much nicer to work with than either VB or Java. Delphi was originally conceived as a 'VB killer' and thats exactly what it was. http://everything2.com/title/The+History+of+Borland+Delphi http://everything2.com/title/The+History+of+Borland+Delphi
detaro 11y ago
Not sure about the exact timeline, but I would also say that they didn't even try to stay in the "for the masses" market. Delphi 8 and later IMHO didn't offer anything compelling, then there was this confusing new thing called Delphi.NET which was Delphi but different, ... So this space stayed on Delphi 7
acqq 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Hejlsberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Hejlsberg "In 1996, Hejlsberg left Borland and joined Microsoft." "Since 2000, he has been the lead architect of the team developing the language C#." http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB863034062733665000 http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB863034062733665000 1997: "Microsoft also offered Mr. Hejlsberg a $1.5 million signing bonus, a base salary of $150,000 to $200,000 and options for 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock. After Borland's counteroffer last October, Microsoft offered another $1.5 million bonus, the complaint says."
- neuro 11y ago
  The first time I saw Hejlsberg was from this delphi easter egg: http://www.blong.com/Undocumented/Delphi1.htm http://www.blong.com/Undocumented/Delphi1.htm

by T-A 11y ago

coderjames 11y ago

Your description of C#/.NET sounds like it might get me to take another look at C# in the future. I learned Windows programming on-the-job using Delphi and then thought I should investigate a "more common" C++ environment (I already knew console-based C++). Learning that _Visual_ C++ had no similar RAD environment was really shocking. My resource editor isn't attached to an an automatic code generator? Say what? After that experience with Visual C++, I'd assumed Microsoft did roughly the same thing with "Visual C#" and never gave it a more than cursory look. I also had the fear that this new .NET thing would be yet another technology they hype then deprecate. What's the official Windows GUI framework this month? Is it Win32 Or maybe MFC? Or was it WPF or WinForms or some new XAML thing? (Sorry, went off on a tangent there...)

neuro 11y ago
Unfortunately, I wasn't flowing in a C# environment as in a Delphi environment. It might have been the ease of composability with Delphi's VCLs.

codeulike 11y ago

Yes, until C#/.NET came out, Delphi was much nicer to work with than either VB or Java. Delphi was originally conceived as a 'VB killer' and thats exactly what it was. http://everything2.com/title/The+History+of+Borland+Delphi http://everything2.com/title/The+History+of+Borland+Delphi

detaro 11y ago

Not sure about the exact timeline, but I would also say that they didn't even try to stay in the "for the masses" market. Delphi 8 and later IMHO didn't offer anything compelling, then there was this confusing new thing called Delphi.NET which was Delphi but different, ... So this space stayed on Delphi 7

acqq 11y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Hejlsberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Hejlsberg "In 1996, Hejlsberg left Borland and joined Microsoft." "Since 2000, he has been the lead architect of the team developing the language C#." http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB863034062733665000 http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB863034062733665000 1997: "Microsoft also offered Mr. Hejlsberg a $1.5 million signing bonus, a base salary of $150,000 to $200,000 and options for 75,000 shares of Microsoft stock. After Borland's counteroffer last October, Microsoft offered another $1.5 million bonus, the complaint says."

neuro 11y ago
The first time I saw Hejlsberg was from this delphi easter egg: http://www.blong.com/Undocumented/Delphi1.htm http://www.blong.com/Undocumented/Delphi1.htm