[DUG] What is the future for Delphi programmer?

[Jolyon Smith]

> Pro upgrade is $519 (AUD) for Delphi 2010.

Ok, but if you want to use upgrade pricing as an indicator of cost then you
should at least factor in that you will need to upgrade each year to stay
current, and at least every 3 years to retain access to upgrade pricing 

Assuming they don't pull that upgrade qualification window in any tighter
than they have already - I suspect they will ... I expect to see it reduced
first to 2 prior versions, then eventually only to immediate prior versions.

"But there is no indication that they will do that!"

Granted.  Just as there was no indication that they would limit it to 3
versions.  Until they announced the date on which that policy would start.



So anyway, back to Delphi vs Apple Dev tools costs....

That's $519 AUD *per* *annum*  vs $99 (or $299 if you're an "enterprise")

I would say $2000+ initial with $520 per annum thereafter, but if you want
to we can sweeten the pill and simply disregard the costs from the
perspective of a new user (the Delphi community doesn't need those, right?).


> Just because something is "free" doesn't make it a good "investment".

And equally just because something is expensive...

But in this case we're talking not about "investment" as such but rather
"tooling".

And I'd say that a tool that is free which you use to produce something
which may or may not yield a return is absolutely a better investment than a
tool which costs a significant amount of money with the *same* potential
return on your efforts.  Or not.

It's the software you produce with the tool that will yield the return.  The
return isn't a function of the tool cost.  It's not even, directly, a
function of the quality and feature set of the tools.


> The apple tools are way behind other IDE's for usability and
functionality.

I suspected they might be.  But then again, "usability" of a tool is not
reflected in the quality or success of the software produced with the tool.
And a lot of usability can be forgiven for a "free" tag.

Ditto functionality.

There is a lot of functionality in the Delphi IDE that I am sure even you
never use.  You pay for it all of course, and it might give you warm fuzzies
to know that your $$'s bought you something.  Even if you do never use it
all.


> I suggest you download them and try them for yourself.

I have no interest in trying the Apple tools myself.  The only Apple device
I own is an aging iPod nano (2nd gen I think).


All I'm doing is pointing out what I consider to be the mistake of thinking
that iPhone platform support is going in some way to contribute to the
success of a product with a Windows Enterprise Development price tag.