[DUG] Oh oh - Delphi is apparently not good for your CV
Jan Bakuwel
jan.bakuwel at omiha.com
Tue Sep 8 08:56:38 NZST 2020
Morning Tony,
Now that's a lively discussion I'm waking up to today :-)
Can't agree more with the points you've raised, well said.
Regarding the anti Delphi culture here in NZ, I see many similarities
with a preceived anti Linux culture, although that is perhaps moving in
the opposite direction (Linux becoming more accepted).
In my opinion, there's only one way Delphi can compete in today's world
and that is enabling small developers to deliver great applications and
compete with the M$ cult and G$ cool cruft. Delphi enabled me as a small
developer working for a charity to create applications some of which are
still in use after 25+ years (!) but despite that are now having to give
way to G$ "cool" cruft, often at much higher costs. Delphi has turned
into D$. I think it would not be unreasonable to say that the gains I
got from Delphi over the years are rapidly nullified by the massive
amounts of time I had to invest to actually make things work. My
prediction for the future: D$ will be milked to the max by it's equity
masters, then it will disappear unless something radical like open
sourcing it would happen.
>From what I'm reading here it seems the point of no return is rapidly
approaching as long term committed Delphi developers are turning to
alternatives.
I'm looking forward to Malcolm and Nancy's replies.
Jan
PS I'm reluctantly using C and C++ for embedded projects using ESP32 now
and it's quite possible I will end up with that for STM32 too. I'd
appreciate to hear how you're getting on with Lazarus and STM32.
On 8/09/20 8:15 am, Tony Blomfield wrote:
>
> CC’ing Nancy and Malcom because I think feedback to them is important.
>
>
>
> Hi Adrian.
>
>
>
> I will be using Lazarus for an STM32 project I am about to start. Il
> try to keep in touch.
>
>
>
> _My opinion FWIW_. (I hope I don’t upset anyone)
>
>
>
> First of all I have run a small dev team for 20 years. I have a small
> team here in NZ, another in Malaysia, and another in Turkey. From time
> to time I have also used a Ukraine developer.
>
> I am not a great Developer or code guru. Just practical. IM full time
> in business development, and part time developer. I am not a very good
> developer, but manage to make apps that work for the customer. All my
> work is free of dependencies and run times. I own the IP outright. No
> Google libraries necessary eh. These days I mostly write prototypes
> for the .NET and Node JS Guru’s I employ.
>
>
>
> Personally I consider Delphi to be the most productive environment
> available for Vertical solution development. If building a good
> quality fast performing solution that easily meets the requirements
> without running into brick walls is your goal, then Delphi is very
> hard to beat. Nevertheless I am unable to convince any of my
> developers. There is an Anti Delphi Cult worldwide, but very much
> worse in NZ. For some reason in this country looking cool and playing
> with the latest toys is more important than productivity, efficacy and
> quality.
>
>
>
> I get many objections put in the way of progress with Delphi and the
> bottom line is that the local Kiwi developer will leave rather than
> use Delphi. Go figure. Its stupid, and probably reflects the grandiose
> self opines induced by first the MS Cult, and more recently the Google
> crap cult.
>
>
>
> I stayed with D7 until about 8 years ago. The transition from D7 to
> XE2 was Traumatic and not helped by the extremely poor quality of XE2
> which haunted me for a further 5 years.
>
>
>
> IM just going to write down my grips, and hope that Embarcadero and
> Code Insight will listen and help us all out.
>
>
>
> 1. Quality has been extremely poor. There have been many
> releases that should never have seen the light of day. Re-introduction
> of old bugs is common place. In XE2 the language translation tools
> were not even included.
>
> 2. Documentation has been very poor. Some shocking past help
> releases. Even today, Delphi documentation is poor. Thank god for the
> internet and blogs.
>
> 3. Bug central. Is it a myth or is there some reality? We all
> report bugs but they are never attended to. We are never informed.
> Even worse we have to subscribe and pay to get bugs fixed.
>
> 4. Subscription model. For us the users it sucks. Every time a
> new version comes out, one has to build a new machine. This can take
> weeks.
>
> 5. Component night mares. For example, if one installs TChart
> pro, and DevX there is an unsolvable conflict of duplicate resources.
>
> 6. Marketing strategy. Does not seem like there ever was one.
> While there are some good private tutorials eg Pawel Glowacki, its
> often very difficult to locate these on the internet.
>
> 7. Total Cost is too high. Delphi Sub 1200$ NZD. DevX 1200 NZD.
> RB 1000$ NZD. TRichView 500 NZD. TCHart Pro 750 NZD brings the TCO up
> to 4650 every time Embarcadero makes a new release. Add onto that the
> time cost to install and make run all this onto 4 VM’s.
>
> 8. Not enough good tutorials. EG How to build and test Android,
> Linux, and iOS apps ? How to build a good web site in Delphi? How to
> make a good solution framework. How to use standard industry frameworks.
>
> 9. No industry support. I used to ask them to come and do a
> presentation to my people to help me grow a Delphi Culture. Those
> appeals got a zero response.
>
>
>
> ON the plus side, I get a highly productive environment that sees me
> (a ho hum developer) able to compete with the .NET and JS guru’s.
>
>
>
> I thank Delphi for making it possible for me to earn a living and grow
> an international company over all these years. Borland – Embarcadero
> and all of the other companies that have hosted Delphi – I really wish
> you would drop your corporate dreams for a little while and just get
> passionate about Delphi, and help me to continue using it.
>
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
>
>
> Tony Blomfield
>
>
>
> *From:*delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz
> [mailto:delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz] *On Behalf Of *Jay Daley
> *Sent:* Monday, 7 September 2020 10:37 PM
> *To:* NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List
> <delphi at listserver.123.net.nz>
> *Subject:* Re: [DUG] Oh oh - Delphi is apparently not good for your CV
>
>
>
> Adrian
>
>
>
> I haven’t looked properly at Lazarus in a couple of years, but what I
> have noticed recently is that TMS Software who make UI components I
> rely on, are switching from making VCL/FMX specific components to
> their own FNC framework which supports Lazarus+LCL as well as the
> usual Delphi+VCL/WEB/FMX.
>
>
>
> Jay
>
>
>
> On 7/09/2020, at 4:01 PM, Adrian Williams
> <adrian at aerosupport.co.nz <mailto:adrian at aerosupport.co.nz>> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> As a pretty inexperienced Delphi developer, I've been reading the
> comments about the cost of Delphi upgrades with some interest. I'm
> still using D7 (no comments please!), mainly due to limited
> resources in obtaining a current version in my current situation -
> it's a long story.
>
> But I would be interested in some constructive comments (no flame
> war please!) on how something like Lazarus and FPC stacks up
> against modern Delphi (Jan noted that open source is improving).
>
> Thanking you in advance for any helpful contribution.
>
> Regards
> Adrian
>
> Jan Bakuwel wrote on 7.09.2020 3:38 p.m.:
>
> Hi Jeremy, Tony et al,
>
>
>
> It could well be that Delphi is being milked for the value that's left
>
> in it and then gets dumped. It's a common strategy in a world where
>
> equity firms main focus is on getting something for nothing. The whole
>
> perpetual must-upgrade process is of course by design. A "breaking"
>
> release once every 5 or even 10 years and an active strategy on fixing
>
> bugs would indeed be very welcome.
>
>
>
> As you say, it is what it is. I'm not holding my breath. Fortunately the
>
> alternatives are getting better every day, especially open source
>
> platforms & frameworks.
>
>
>
> Jan
>
>
>
> On 7/09/20 10:40 am, Jeremy Coulter wrote:
>
> As much as I love Delphi, the component installation process has
>
> always bugged me, but I just put it down to it just being one of the
>
> things to deal with. It does mean you have to have a thinking about
>
> and plan your upgrades, which is a good thing.
>
> We heard back from Embarcadero and we didnt get very far with our pricing.
>
> We have renewed out lics because we were running out of time, but I
>
> suspect that this might be our last upgrade year as well. I cant speak
>
> for other teams that use it at my workplace, but when we are getting
>
> significant price breaks from M$ its just too hard to look my manager
>
> in the eye when she sees the prices.
>
> And look. I realise that M$ and Emb are at different ends of the
>
> company size spectrum and M$ can prob. afford to do it, Its just a shame.
>
>
>
> Anyway, it is what it is.
>
>
>
> Jeremy
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 7, 2020 at 10:20 AM Tony Blomfield
>
> <tonyb at precepthealth.com <mailto:tonyb at precepthealth.com> <mailto:tonyb at precepthealth.com> <mailto:tonyb at precepthealth.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
> Greetings Jeremy, Jan et al.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I have used Delphi since 1994 and completed at least 100
>
> successful projects.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I agree with your comments below. IT is simply too expensive. I
>
> use DevX, Report Builder, TChart Pro, and TRichview in addition.
>
> The cost is simply far too high, and every new release means I
>
> have to install all of the above which can take up to a week.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The cost is simply too high.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Delphi lacks the sort of rich functionality that I need, and so I
>
> have to purchase these other tool sets.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> This could be fixed either by Embarcadero limiting their releases
>
> to once every 5 years, or by working closer with these companies
>
> closer.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Consequently 10.4 is probably my last subscription to them sadly.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Kind regards
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Tony Blomfield
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> --
> *Adrian Williams**Dip Aero Engineering*
> Maintenance Controller
> Aero Support
>
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