I will be out of the country for the next few days. The office will be closed until Thursday, March 31. I will respond to e-mails and phone calls when I return.
| [BetaNews | Microsoft Delays Visual Studio 2005](http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Delays_Visual_Studio_2005/1111435820): “Microsoft officials acknowledged on Monday that the releases of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 have slipped yet again. The updates are now slated to ship towards the end of” |
There were many rumbling last week in the Blogosphere regarding Microsoft’s decision to end support for Visual Basic 6.0. While I am not impacted by this decision, I couldn’t help but reflect on this.
I started using VB in 1993. I was amazed at how much easier it was to write a Windows application using VB as compared to C, and I was excited about the move to VB. But to put things in prospective, I was also excited about Clarion for Windows and Topspeed.
Over time the applications I wrote using VB became more complex and I needed more power. For instance, I had a need for owner drawn controls and writing Windows services. Yes, there were ways to get around limitations of VB such as using SpyWorks but I became increasingly annoyed with VB.
Delphi v1 was released in February of 1994 but I didn’t take notice of it until v2. I instantly fell in love with Delphi. It offered the easy of VB with the power of C/C++. Finally, I could do anything I needed using one language. I no longer had to rely on 3rd party DLLs or my own components written in VC++ to enhance my VB applications. Unfortunately my clients, as well as many U.S. companies, did not adopt Delphi as their language of choice. VB was the standard.
In my attempts to illustrate to clients the benefits of Delphi, and to keep my skills up, I would write prototype applications using Delphi and re-write the production app using VB. I would use Delphi features out of the box that would look and function better than the production VB app using 3rd party controls. In some cases I had to “dumb down” my Delphi prototype app as to not outshine the final result of the VB application. Still, there was one common message echoed by my clients when they saw the power of Delphi, “What is the future of Delphi?”
While Delphi appeared to be the better development platform, clients would question the longevity of Delphi as compared to Visual Basic. The thought was that by selecting VB, intellectual properties (aka source code) would be supported for years to come. After all, it was Microsoft’s flag ship development language for corporate development.
Fast forward to March 2005…200+ Microsoft MVPs along with 2000+ other concerned developers signed an electronic petition asking Microsoft to continue support and further development of VB6 and VBA. Companies world wide must now face the reality that their IP must be ported to VB.NET, or to another language, to continue receiving the technology advancements and benefits provided by tool vendors. And many are not too happy about it.
Meanwhile many Delphi applications today, even ones written in older versions of Delphi, continue to thrive and evolve. And migrating a Delphi application from Win32 to .NET is made easier with the support of VCL.NET and Delphi 2005. I’ve even seen cases where the only difference between a Win32 Delphi application and the .NET managed code equivalent is the project file. The application code remains unchanged.
If the companies that selected VB 10 years ago could have looked into the crystal ball, I wonder if they would have stuck with that decision or made a move to Delphi. And I wonder if the companies facing the challenges of porting countless lines of VB code will take a serious look at Delphi, its history, and its future.
While reading about the recent Microsoft MVP revolt regarding VB and VB.NET I came across a link (see below) that shows the popularity of programming languages. Delphi is currently ranked 10th and has moved up the rankings since last year. I definitely plan to keep an eye on this site to see if Delphi continues to move up. And as for the revolt, maybe the developers forced to rewrite all those lines of VB code to VB.NET will consider migrating to Delphi.
TPCI - TIOBE Programming Community Index: “The TIOBE Programming Community index gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages.”
Congratulations to Rachel and Dana on the arrival of baby Otis.
I’m really impressed with the Delphi.NET or should I say VCL.NET. I’m viewing a sample application were the only difference between the native Win32 application and the VCL.NET application is the project files and how the application is initially loaded. The core code was identical for both apps. All I can say is WOW!
Ever wonder how Accenture got its name? This article talks about the joys companies go through determining a name and brand. And the author talks about the events leading up to the name Accenture.
If you are interested in playing with Mono running under a Linux distribution but you don’t want to go through the trouble of setting up a Linux machine (or virtual machine), check out Monoppix. Monoppix is a bootable CD image with the Knoppix distribution of Linux and Mono pre-installed. Pop in the CD, re-boot the computer and you are off and running with nothing to install on your hard drive. It runs completely off the CD.
Okay, so this posting is a little dated but Delphi turned 10 years old on February 14 of this year. Delphi has long been a favorite development language of mine, and I have always been bummed about not getting opportunities to use it more. But that will change very soon as White Peak Software has plans to develop a new desktop application using Delphi. I will speak more on that in the coming weeks and months.
Meanwhile, check out this Borland Radio broadcast replay of a phone interview with Anders Hjelsberg, Gary Whizin, and Zack Urlocker. They talk about the days leading up to the release of Delphi version 1.0 on February 14, 1995.
At White Peak, we use FogBugz Version 4.0 to track issues and manage projects. It’s been in use for a week now and I have to say it is the best issue tracking application I have ever used. What makes it so great is its simple interface. For instance, from within a case I can reference another case by including the text “case” followed by the case number (i.e., case 20). The software automatically sets a two-way hyperlink between the cases.
If you are looking for a powerful yet easy-to-use project management and issue tracking tool, I highly recommend you check out FogBugz.