We are embarking on a development project and we have a Delphi
developer convincing us that Delphi is the way to go than Java, C# or
Visual Basic. He says it is so easy to build DLLs, Windows Services,
database apps, Internet Apps and Corbas Services with Delphi. Can some
of you please throw some light on why we must consider Delphi when
compared to C# , Java or VB. The reason we are looking at VB or C# is
we already have quite a bit of our development done in Visual C++ in
DLL form so we are considering the next step is to logically move up
to C#.

One of the big problem on Delphi is lack of good books and online web
based tutorials and, we have used about 10 years back  Turbo Pascal
and we have not used Turbo Pascal after that.

Please comment how much is the learning curve between VB/C# and Delphi
and what are the better advantages of Delphi when compared to C#/VB.

Your unbiased opinions covering strengths and limitations of Delphi is
appreciated.

Thanks
Simon

#1.  if you want any serious processing  you can forget about
 VB, #C and Java., or though #C isn't bad but it is really not much better

than having Java ! it gives you the C type language interface and all
but performance is degraded over a real app because #C uses a
 Run Time Lib that is simuler to old days of P-code.. this is done do
that inhopes (for MS) other plateforms will adopt it and get a local
rtl for that plateform... and if you have some run time errors in the
engine
then who do you turn to ?. MS? you might as well plan on a 2/3 month lay
over befoe..
   Delphi creates True Native Core applications., DLL's are very simple
to handle and alot less work& time to construct.
   you can use DLL's made in other languages, its just a simple step
of indicating the Tag name and Calling convention.
  also Delphi can make ActiveX, COM etc. (Native types) that work
every where else.
  basicly it's true native compiling, and it does well for intenet.
 and yes it has .NET in it to interface with MS RLT if that is
what you really need..
    as Far as VB,, in my opinion to todays standards its a joke
but for many if they want to be employed they must learn it the
 anchor of a language.
   simply put there are tomany things to go wrong with VB and its
very slow because its not a direct true Native interface..
  etc.. i could go on all day long about that.

  I think the person that is telling you this obviously has had experience

with the others because we both share the same opinions.

Delphi tutorials? You aren't looking in the right places! Learn Delphi in 21
days with no programming experience needed:
http://www.cesis.lv/learn/delphi/index.html

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

news:3641e2c2.0301020455.1205fc4e@posting.google.com...

news:3641e2c2.0301020455.1205fc4e@posting.google.com...

You should look at the broader impact on the project when considering
development tools;

Are there other coders with C++ experience you'll have to re-train?  Will
this single developer be the only person who knows the code well enough to
support and maintain it after implementation?  What happens if he leaves?
How available are Delphi coders in your part of the world versus say C++?

He is right.

I'll not get into this discussion or i may kill someone... hehe
I'll just say you this... i worked in the past with VB... in my opinion it
is just... hmmm... how can i put it nicely... _disgusting_ if compared to
Delphi.

Lack of good books?
- Delphi 6 Developer's Guide (included on the CD you find D5DG) [Xavier
Pacheco, Steve Texeira, David Intersimone]
- Mastering Delphi 6 [or 7] (Marco Cant)
These are just 2 examples of _good_ books... you can find many others by
going on www.amazon.com and typing "Delphi" in the search box.

Internet is full of tutorials, faq, tips, etc... about Delphi.

You have whole websites dedicated to Delphi components that you can freely
add and use in your softwares (see for example: http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/,
http://www.torry.net/).

I cannot say anything about C# since i don't know it (nor intend to study
it). Delphi is a bit harder than VB but less hard to learn than C++.
With Delphi you can do everything what you do with C++ (beside device
drivers i think)... just in a much more clearer and cleaner way (always imo)
Delphi programs do not require DLLs, OCXs, etc to work (if not implicitly
used).
Delphi programs can be ported to Linux (thanx to Kylix)

Please, check this http://www.borland.com/delphi/pdf/del7_feamatrix.pdf
If you want, you can freely download the Personal version of Delphi (it
lacks of many features though) from the borland website for test purposes.

Bye,
  Luca

news:3641e2c2.0301020455.1205fc4e@posting.google.com...

For me personally the biggest advantage of delphi is the delphi ' Integrated
Development Environment' itself.

Delphi is like startrek when it comes to IDE's.

1. The IDE in general is stable which prevents loss of code and work.
( I have tried most popular Java IDE's a year ago and none of them are as
fast, advanced or stable as delphi )

2. It has a very good and stable de{*word*81} which allows you to examine your
code in all kind of ways, stepping, break pointing, inspecting, pausing (
which are like the basics ) and even more advanced stuff, stepping through
threads, examining assembler code, remote debugging, etc.

3. The compiler is very fast and provides handy hints and warnings like,
range checking, overflow checking, i/o checking and code hints like unused
variables, weird use of loop variables, uninitialized variables etc, all to
prevent stupid coding bugs which could take hours to find.

Keywords for delphi are: stable, fast, powerfull, professional, easy, handy.

Yet delphi might not be the right tool for every project.

You already named the disadvantages:

1. Less documentation then say a standardized language like C.

2. Delphi is strongly typed which means programmers have to know the
language better to do the more advanced stuff, which requires more learning
which means a greater learning curve :)

--
http://www.mycgiserver.com/~skybuck
http://skybuck.soshost.net

I have only used VB before using Delphi.  I can tell you that the
conversion to Delphi from VB is not that difficult.

Lee

Delphi : Programming Heaven ( with only a few minor adjustments )

Java : Good idea, bad implementation.

C#/VB: Write once, run only on Microsoft. Say no more.

Murdoc