Hi. I got tired of trying Delphi every year hoping that I will find a stable version to upgrade from my good old Delphi 7.
Should I bother to try Delphi 2009? Or it is as unstable as the previous versions and should I wait until Delphi 2010?
Thanks
+3
A:
This is kind of an open-ended question, but the short answer is that Delphi 2009 is stable, fast, and a leap forward from older versions (especially 2005).
The IDE has evolved a bit since Delphi 7 and has more Visual Studio and Eclipse-like features. It also has some updated controls that make building the more 'modern' Windows applications easier, like the Ribbon you see in Office. I find the response time in drag and drop operations to be a lot quicker than previous versions, and overall the reaction time in IDE operations just seem a lot snappier.
So far the IDE hasn't crashed on me at all, but I'm admittedly not a heavy day-to-day user. I mainly use Delphi 2009 for a side project I work on in my own time.
Robert S.
2008-11-04 14:30:51
Even 'notepad.exe' is a leap forward from Delphi 2005... :)
F.D.Castel
2008-11-09 07:46:55
+3
A:
So far so good. Very stable, faster than even Delphi 2007 (which was no slouch, either) and there are more language, component and general productivity features, fixes and improvements since Delphi 7 than you can shake a stick at.
Read the literature, watch some videos and try the trial:
http://blogs.codegear.com/pawelglowacki/2008/11/03/38527
http://blogs.codegear.com/pawelglowacki/2008/11/03/38527
http://blogs.codegear.com/nickhodges/2007/03/28/33579
http://www.stevetrefethen.com/blog/VCLAndRTLEnhancementsSinceDelphi7D7.aspx
Bruce McGee
2008-11-04 15:17:02
+1
A:
Admittedly I have only been using the trial version. No crashes yet, a few small problems with intellisense (or code completion), but I'm getting similar types of problem in Visual studio. Intellisense seems to be flakey anywhere. I'm not getting any of those frustrating delays while the ide is setting up intellisense lists, which is a plus. So on the whole looking pretty good so far.
Steve
2008-11-04 15:24:39
A:
Thanks to all who have answered.
So far the IDE hasn't crashed on me at all I'm not getting any of those frustrating delays while the ide is setting up intellisense lists
Thanks, this is what I wanted to hear. I will give it a chance, especially in the light of the new 'Update 1', they release recently (there will be also an 'Update 2'?).
Also, I wonder if the Help System (another big disaster in previous versions of Delphi) is working now.
The help is improving and is even more capable than in Delphi 7 in some areas, but it still needs work. For example, there are a lot of incomplete "stub" entries for new functionality.
Bruce McGee
2008-11-04 16:25:22
I have to admit that I used only trial versions between Delphi 5 and Delphi 2007, but there simply is no comparison between the help then and now. Delphi 5 help system was usable out-of-the-box. Check out the 2009 Trial before you buy, I'm very disappointed.
mghie
2008-11-07 08:37:32
+7
A:
This may be an open-ended question, but an important one none-the-less. Borland/Code Gear has not had a consistent track record with Delphi releases and I settled on Delphi 7 for much longer than expected, as did many in the Delphi community. Delphi 7 had an awesome help system, sadly abandoned by Borland thanks to some unmentionable internal politics.
A year ago we moved to Delphi 2007 for Win32 when Code Gear appeared the re-focus on native Win32 code. This seems to have been a good move for them and has produced product equal to, or even better than Delphi 7. Admittedly, the help in Delphi 2007 is awful and Code Gear have acknowledged this as an issue. An issue that has been rectified with the release of Delphi 2009.
We have recently taken Delphi 2009 on and are currently migrating our code to the new Unicode platform. Code Gear has moved fast to establish D2009 as a solid, reputable development platform with Update 1 already out, addressing initial user-reported issues. This is very encouraging.
Delphi 2007/2009 makes for one of the best native dev platforms for Vista/2008 whilst maintaining seamless backward compatibility in older Win32 platforms.
We depend on Delphi for developing real-time television automation software. The simple answer to your question is - Yes.
Only wait for the next incarnation of Delphi if you want native 64bit.
Gerard
2008-11-04 20:49:27
+1
A:
Delphi 2009 has worked find for me so far. As others have already mentioned, it doesn't crash or anything dramatic.
It's worth the upgrade just for the new generics stuff. It's about time we got this in Delphi Win32 land. Having said that, some of the standard templates are a little raw. I've had problems with access violation in TObjectStack.
Angus Glashier
2008-11-06 13:11:19
+1
A:
I would suggest waiting until one or two service packs come out. Changing the default string from an AnsiString to an UnicodeString is bound to cause headaches for awhile, especially in 3rd party component packages. You should really investigate which components that are 'must have' for your development and ensure that they have a new version that works with Delphi 2009.
Darian Miller
2008-11-08 03:59:15
+1
A:
I would suggest waiting until one or two service packs come out.
This is the problem. We don't know if Embarcadero plans to release other patches.
A:
Unfortunately not stable. ActionToolbar and ActionManu are causing IDE exceptions all the time :( TActionToolbar on TCoolbar is very flickering. TListView (with autosized columns) is refreshing very slowly when maximizing the form - it looks horrible. Automatic code templates are horrible, unusable. Jumping between words (ctrl + left/right) ommits operators - it is very difficult to navigate through code. TAB still does not work to make an identation (You have to use ctrl + shift + i).
Not good software, unfortunately :(