My take on .Net
I have been a Delphi developer almost since day one. I started because Delphi was OO, made real EXE files and had no runtime.
I kept using Delphi because the VCL was so powerful and flexible. I remember when Microsoft announced ISAPI. They said VB support was 'coming soon' yet the same day I could make ISAPI DLLs in Delphi with the help of some translated header files I downloaded.
You never really needed to buy a new version of Delphi, the earlier versions were so good you can still use them to make applications that look the same as applications written in the latest versions. Sure it is easier in the newer versions but possible in the older versions. I'm mainly using Delphi 6 & 7 but I know a lot of people still on 3 or 5 with no plans to upgrade.
Other development tools came along, such as Power Builder and Java. None made Windows applications as good as Delphi.
So what has all this got to do with .Net? .Net is the future, purely because Microsoft wants it to be. Regardless if it is good or bad, it will become the only way to develop new Windows appilcations.
The question is 'What Should Delphi Developers Do?'
Now is not the time for Delphi developers to ignore .Net, lest they become dinosaurs. It is not the time for Delphi developers to jump into .Net either.
Learning the .Net framework will take a big hit on productivity, the ROI will take a long time to pay back. I'll wait until .Net 2.0 comes out and learn that.
Any productivity gains I will get from moving to .Net wont be made up in time for .Net 2.0 when the learning curve wont start again but it will be a bump.
By waiting for .Net 2.0 I am able to add features faster than my competition who are using .Net 1.0. I am also able to deliver a better product that is easier to install. When .Net 2.0 comes out those that jumped on 1.0 will need to rewrite some of their stuff again.
The code I write today I plan to run on .NET 2.0. In the next 12-24 months it will be time to move to .Net but not sooner.
Delphi 8 review
Interesting Delphi review. Delphi seems to loose points (3/5) because .net sucks.
Borland Delphi 8 - vnunet.com
Borland's Delphi has been the best Windows development tool for many years.
Delphi Compiler Core
Don't install .NET 1.1 Service Pack 1 on your Delphi 8 development machines. It has been reported in the newgroups that Delphi 8 has trouble compiling projects after .NET 1.1 Service Pack 1 has been installed.
I read a bit about this. While there is no blame, Microsoft released a new DLL with the same name and version number as the older version, yet the contents are different. So Microsoft, why not increase the version number? .Net was supposed to end DLL hell.
.Net 2.0
This blog about .Net mentions that C# will be able to support Delphi style DFMs. It is good to see Redmond copying Delphi again. Lets just hope they do not catch up.
Code Signing - Free
A great bit of info on how to sign your code. The best part is on how to get a free certificate. This is now on my to-do list.
Delphi Bloggers
Here are a bunch of non borland Delphi bloggers. Hopefully the list will be updated and my Blog will be added.
Mozilla and Delphi
I love Mozilla. I use it for Web, EMail and FTP. Now there is a web site to use it with Delphi as well http://delphi.mozdev.org/.
.Net is .Not Yet.
Visual form inheritance is one thing that is so great about Delphi. I laugh when .Net does not do it well. It seems like the development went something like this.
Geek 1: Creating an instance of class that has abstract methods should not be allowed.
Geek 2: OK Lets stop it.
[End of thought process]
Whenever you start a sentence with 'Users will never want to do this..' stop. Try to allow it and then react. The more things you allow the better the software is.
If you try and create an instance of a class with abstract methods in Delphi the compiler warns you that it is dumb. You get runtime errors if you call an abstract method, but this is a much much better alternative than just not allowing the object to be created.
Delphi 7 patch patch
There is a patch to the Delphi 7 patch. I really do not care. For me D7 is rick solid, except for the darn XML mapper which was not fixed with this patch.
I am beginning to think the bug may be in my code and not Delphi. I hope they fix it soon. [Mark Edington]
XML Data Mapper
The XML data mapper is a douoble edged sword. Yes it is very very usefule but there are just enough bugs to make it annoying to use. There are not enough bugs to stop me from using it because it is so great at what it does. It seems as there is now a patch. [Mark Edington]
6 Days
Only 6 days to Borcon