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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>G’day all, thought I’d share my initial
impressions of Delphi 2005. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>(Machine Specs HP NX9010 Laptop, 512 ram, 40gb 5400rpm,
WinXP)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I have been using it to do legacy Win32 code and C#. I haven’t
used the Delphi.NET side yet, and in all honesty probably wont.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Installation:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I had read a few horror stories on the Newsgroups about
installation, but I had no trouble. Installation took about 25mins, including
the prerequisites. One caveat here is that I have VS 2003 installed, so most of
the pre-reqs where already installed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Loading:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Initial loading took about 1 minute, and subsequent loading
takes about 45s. This is considerably slower than <st1:place w:st="on">Delphi</st1:place>
7, but it is loading all the “personalities”. Apparently you can
turn of the ones you don’t use, but I haven’t bothered.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>IDE:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I like the new IDE. It seems quite snappy on my machine and
a vast improvement over Delphi 8 and about the same as <st1:place w:st="on">Delphi</st1:place>
7. I like the new refactoring features. I have used them quite a bit on some
legacy apps that had some really ugly code that I never got around to fixing.
Refactoring makes this a breeze. I also like the auto history feature, although
haven’t had to use it yet, I can see where this would come in handy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The code-complete and parameter suggestion features in the
new IDE are nice, they come up quite snappily on my machine, although I would
imagine on slower machines this could cause a problem, it brings up the code
complete and another box with parameter help and brief overview of the method
or whatever.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Converting Legacy Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I have a couple of legacy apps that have a few 3<sup>rd</sup>
party components used in them. Luckily I have the source to all the components,
so converting them to Delphi 2005 wasn’t much of an issue. Most of them
pretty much installed straight away, if not it just need slight modifications
to get to run. I was expecting this to be a headache, but proved to be pretty
painless. I have components from the old TurboPower ( Orpheus, Async Pro, Shell
Shock ), Woll2Woll InfoPower 4000, and Quick Report 3.06 and they all installed
pretty much out of the box, or with only slight changes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>C#:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I like the new C# personality and quite like .NET in
general. The Delphi version compares favorably with Visual Studio and the apps
seem to be a bit snappier, especially when doing data access, however this is
just seat of the pants and I might be imagining it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>A major problem, which is almost a showstopper, is that (Pro
anyway) <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">ADO</st1:place></st1:City>
support is limited. You can use <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">ADO</st1:place></st1:City>,
but you cant do things like visually configure Data Adapters, or Datasets. You
also don’t seem to be able to add new ADO Data Adapters etc either. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Stability:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The IDE seems relatively stable, although there are a few
strange error messages that happen out of the blue every now and then, such as
it cant find a particular .BPL, even when I am in C# and not using that
component, and bringing up the form designer in both C# and Win32 Delphi is
very slow. I’m talking about 1-5s to bring up a form at times.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Conclusion:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Overall, I’m pretty impressed so far with D2005. I do
quite a bit of .NET and Win32 so it is the obvious choice for me. If I was only
doing Win32 then the new languages features and things like refactoring and
code history and the new IDE would probably be enough for me to upgrade,
however I only use Pro so the $400 odd it cost to upgrade the maintenance was a
no brainer. If I was upgrading <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Enterprise</st1:place></st1:City>
or Architect then I might have reservations. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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