re: Follow up to Borland

2005-05-24T19:50:29-07:00

I second the observations on the desperate need for more/better documentation (and applaud Borland for raising the issue in the questionnaire). As Delphi gets further into the dot-net arena, perhaps the market for authors/publishers will expand enough to justify the involvement of 3rd parties. Microsoft has had Borland's lunch in this area for a long time, not only because of Microsoft Press, but also because of other authors/publishers taking advantage of the network effects. Borland needs to tap into that, too.

New Borland Delphi Survey

2005-05-23T16:36:42-07:00

Its incomprehensible

Follow up to Borland

2005-05-14T10:01:18-07:00

A few additional thoughts :1. I don't use Borland's dotNet offerings for a variety of reasons including : a) I should not have to deploy extra language assembies just to develop something as simple as hello world with does not use vcl.net b) I would prefer a STABLE IDE2. What's with deal with VCL.NET??? A kludge to a problem that does not exist. If people need VCL, they can stay W32. If they want dotNet, chances are they'll use WinForms, because it is not a bad kludge which only sort of half addresses the problems, and it actually has proper third party control support.3. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE speed up the IDE and make it more stable. Consider threading code insight, it is KILLING US, but without out it, we might as well be using DELPHI 2 (which is not that bad an idea, at least IT was stable).4. MACROS IN THE IDE. Someone slap the guy who came up with the current "plug in" idea. The plugin solution has notoriously bad support for the editor anyways. Finally, when moving to new development platforms, we don't need the VCL on each and ever one of them. The VCL was revolutionary because it made windows gui drag and drop simple, not because the VCL was the pincle of programming. When you approach a new platform, you want the same simplicity, but it needs to be appropriate for the platform. Trying to clone the Windows GUI envrionment into an environment that is designed differently just causes problems. It can never be truely stable, never be a 100% pure cross over, and in the case of .Net, we have to sacrafice the pre-existing component market.I could not believe how badly VCL.NET muddied the waters for Delphi. If borland had just focused on producing the best WinForms IDE out there, perhaps doing something revolutionary, sales would not be problem. Instead, Borland looks like a gutted VS.NET, and frankly, at least VS.NET has stability and macros. Have you compared load times? It is AWEFUL, and worse, we have to continually reload Delphi as it flakes out into left field.I think it is time to admit that the only real software architech is long gone, gone to MS in fact. Definitely consider a VS.NET flavour of Delphi, because frankly, thanks to Chrome, the rest of us are already considering pascal in VS.NET for purchase.Oh, a final note on documentation. Go back and look at the books for VPW 7.0, Delphi 1 and Delphi 2 -> That is what we need. I still have my VPW 7.0 Windows 3.1 API reference around. The Delphi 1 documents for the VCL and libraries I had printed into 2 large binders and I read the DElphi 1 and 2 books cover to cover repeatedly.Those books helped. The current BOOK is aweful, and I can't take PDFs with me on the bus, when I go to lunch, not even the bathroom, and they STILL lack the clear, reasonably error free writing of the VPW7 & Delphi 1 & 2 manuals.We need indexable help files when we are working, PDFs of the manuals help with searching and indexing, but when I want to sit and read, I WANT TO GET AWAY FROM MY PC TO CLEAR MY HEAD. Frankly, the price of Delphi has spiraled seriously out of control since D2, you would think you could afford to slip a few manuals into box, but instead you pick our pockets and rob us of the ability to get away from our PCs. You might be able to publish your documentation and sell it seperately like Microsoft does, but you would have to start seriously raising the quality and scope of the documentation before people would start paying 50$ a book for it. If you need help on how to write a book about Delphi, go talk to Ray Lischner, he knows how. And I miss the Tomes of Delphi, but I guess there is no market in writing Delphi books nowadays.

Huh, looks like the SPAM BOTS are here.

2005-05-14T09:35:26-07:00

does that link have anything to do with programming? Looks like a forum spambot.

re: Bad survey form

2005-05-13T11:59:13-07:00

I had no problem responding from within Firefox

Bad survey form

2005-05-13T02:34:12-07:00

Won't submit with Firefox.

New Borland Delphi Survey

2005-05-12T02:02:48-07:00

http://www.veja.org

New Borland Delphi Survey

2005-05-12T02:02:10-07:00

http://www.veja.org

Very good initiative

2005-05-11T13:31:36-07:00

Very good initiative, very well-made survey.Go Delphi!

Comments for New Borland Delphi Survey

re: Follow up to Borland

New Borland Delphi Survey

Follow up to Borland

Huh, looks like the SPAM BOTS are here.

re: Bad survey form

Bad survey form

New Borland Delphi Survey

New Borland Delphi Survey

Very good initiative