[DUG] Unicode [redux]

[David Brennan]

I agree.

If Embarcadero really want to encourage people who are Delphi 5, 6 or 7 to upgrade then they need to make Delphi 2007 available to anyone who buys Delphi 2009 onwards (in exactly the same way that Delphi 1 was given to you for free when buying later versions).

It is a fact of life that some projects should NOT go Unicode, whether because of specific requirements or simply that no one has any interest in doing the testing required after the transition. Yet at the same time people may want to move forward from Delphi 5/6/7 (eg DevExpress no longer support Delphi 5 which was a compelling reason for us). That means that some people are going to want to keep using Delphi 2007 for at least as long (possibly longer?) than people kept using Delphi 1.

We are prime examples. We wanted to upgrade from Delphi 5 to Delphi 2009 and get 2007. We were told no, can't do that. So we tried buying Delphi 2007 with software assurance (to get Delphi 2009). Again, told can't do that. We ended up buying Delphi 2007 withOUT software assurance which meant effectively Embarcadero were saying they didn't want our money.

Importantly though it appears that for people like us at least things have improved - Malcolm Groves says they should be able to work it out to give us a version of what we wanted, so there is hope. We will just have to see if they will carry this to its logical conclusion and make Delphi 2007 available for everyone with 2009+.

David.


-----Original Message-----
From: delphi-bounces at delphi.org.nz [mailto:delphi-bounces at delphi.org.nz] On Behalf Of Jolyon Smith
Sent: Friday, 16 October 2009 8:59 a.m.
To: todd.martin.nz at gmail.com; 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List'
Subject: Re: [DUG] Unicode [redux]

Instead of threatening to withdraw upgrade rights I think Embarcadero could improve upgrade take-up by simply offering a free copy of Delphi 2007 to everyone upgrading to Delphi 2010 from D2006 or earlier.