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John,<BR>
<BR>
I have also been through the same era and agree. They should agressively pursue the cross-platform verison but make a decent job of it this time.<BR>
<BR>
Eric<BR> <BR>
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From: johnkbird@paradise.net.nz<BR>To: delphi@delphi.org.nz<BR>Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:56:47 +1300<BR>Subject: Re: [DUG] Presentation in Christchurch - any other meetings in Chch?<BR><BR>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I think a lot of you are being short sighted. Just my opinion.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I lived through the mini-computer era, using Digital Equipment mini-computers with RT-11 and VMS - both really good operating systems, and thought at the time if they started selling VMS for a few $100 rather than thousands they may have captured the mini-computer market as it was way superior to MS-DOS, instead they didn't adapt and got clobbered by Microsoft to the extent the company and the platform does not even exist now.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Its a less certain thing as its still the future, but its my guess likely in 5 years netbooks/laptops and mobile and phone OS will largely kill desktop PCs and in time likely Windows too, as there is not much sign they will be the leading candidate for mobile devices in 5 years. Hence the more cross platform and new UI (read touchscreen) enabled a language is the better positioned it will be.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Also apps are moving more to be web enabled, where the UI is done by the browser instead, so this also is not really tied to one OS. There are only a few good frameworks that run across many OS's - think Firefox/Thunderbird (XUL) and Safari/Itunes etc. As far as I can gather none of these are remotely easy for new programmers to jump into.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Thats why I reckon Delphi as a cross platform simple UI language could be a killer, and why its worth doing even if it is not too easy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>John</DIV> <br /><hr />Windows Live: Make it easier for your friends to see <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/see-it-in-action/social-network-basics.aspx?ocid=PID23461::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-nz:SI_SB_2:092010' target='_new'>what you’re up to on Facebook.</a></body>
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