Will Delphi be there in future ?

Question

Yes, there is a version 2009. I know Delphi has a big community since years (10 plus)and I believe you could create native windows exe before Visual Basic got to speed (with all its dll's nighmare). But is it future-proof ? Is there a need or market for a non-crossplatform native all-in-one executable ? Will Embarcardero ex Codegear ex Borland continue to push it ? Why is it so expensive ? Who (non company) can afford it, in order to learn it ?

Answer 1

Just about the price: To learn the language you could use TurboDelphi, there's a free version.

Answer 2

I was listening to a Dot net rocks episode on Delphi.Net a while ago (I used to be a Delphi programmer and really miss the compiler). It seems that there will be two Delphi's in the future, a .Net version and a native one. the .Net version is using a new compiler (rewritten for .net) and seems to have new language constructs that current .net languages don't have, for example support for concurrent execution of the stuff in a loop. I think they are back on track, because without the new stuff, I would be asking myself, why should I leave C# for Delphi...

Answer 3

What everybody seems to miss (including Embarcadero, though they might just be very secretive about this) is that there's a huge amount of people that still sticks to Delphi 7. I don't know the exact number, and I won't tell you the story here about why that is, but it's important for the future of Delphi that these people slowly get persuaded by a new version of Delphi.

Answer 4

Until .NET is essentially on all computers, there will always be a market for small, easy to install utilities.

That said, Delphi does have its problems but they are mostly non technical at this point.

Answer 5

If the question means whether Delphi will be among major platform for Enterprise application as it was 10 years ago, then I believe there is very little hope.

However, lightweight native application still have it place, since the computing platform try hard to get smaller and smaller everyday.

If CodeGear realize this fact, then there is absolutely good future for Delphi.

Delphi price is insane, everybody agree on that part.

Answer 6

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of Delphi

Advantages

• Code is small and fast
• It is very easy to program
• Embarcardero – are doing a good job of managing the product
• It does a good job of abstracting the away all the messy details of windows programming

Disadvantages

• There are very few Delphi jobs in the market place (from a developers perspective)
• It is very difficult to find Delphi developers (from an employees perspective)
• Its help system is very bad
• There are a small number of third party components – compared to other products like VS
• People just out of school are not interested in learning it
• There are hardly any new technical books on it – compared to other products like VS or Java
• It is not 100% stable
• Delphi price is insane

In summary

I have been using Delphi for many years and it is a fantastic product.

But if it is not marketed correctly it will continue to lose market share.

Answer 7

There will always be a need for native code. As for "non-crossplatform", they're working on that right now. Delphi's decline in recent years was due to mis-management; Borland did their level best to run it into the ground. Borland's out of the picture now, and they've got some good, competent people at the helm again, so we can expect to see Delphi making a comeback.

Answer 8

Imagine if CodeGear once again attempted cross-compilation and made it possible to write Delphi for native Linux and OS X applications. I'm talking Kylix done right.

Holy crap, if I could write 64-bit applications for Linux and OS X, I'd be dropping the dollars, and so would my company.

I think that it would really renew interest in Delphi. Put out a $99 hobbyist edition for the kids to write Linux apps with and it would win some hearts and minds back from VS.

Answer 9

To answer your question:

Yes.

Answer 10

We have just started to port our codebase to Delphi 2009, after porting it to Delphi 2007 and then from Delphi 7, all in 2 years. Delphi 2009 is SO much better than 2007, and with a new owner (who actually appear to give a hoot about the product), I am really hopeful that the next couple of years will be great for Delphi. With a codebase of over 1 million lines of code, there is no way we can actually port this all to another language (C# being a different mindset, and Java, well being Java!).

Answer 11

We are in a Renaissance of Delphi. I've talked to 3rd party component vendors and they said they are actually getting significant new customers in additions to their existing customers. Delphi 2007 and 2009 are significantly better releases, and I am confident that the next two new versions (which add 64-bit) will continue improving stability and quality.

The lack of Delphi jobs and developers is a myth. There just isn't an over abundance of them. I was laid off a few years ago and had a new Delphi job the next day, and a year I later moved to another Delphi job that paid better. Currently I am responsible for hiring Delphi developers at my company. I have resumes for perfectly good Delphi developers with experience looking for work. Some of the better ones get jobs elsewhere before we can hire them. Sure there are more jobs for C# and Java and there are more candidates for those languages too, but just because there is more of those doesn't mean there isn't any for Delphi.

CodeGear is probably the largest player focusing on native code development. There are other groups out there, but I imagine CodeGear has the most developers. With their coming move to 64-bit and multi-platform (currently in R&D, but probably after 2011 if I were to guess) they will continue to remain relevant. As long as there is native code development, there will be a Delphi and C++ builder for native code. If there is a shift to complete .NET development (unlikely, but would be more then 10 years from now) then we will see Delphi Prism moving along in that area.

The kicker of course is the fact that the majority of software development done is for inhouse IT development, and .NET has a leg up there. That was previously Delphi's strong suite, but it is slowly moving into dominating the Micro ISV arena. The price could stand to come down for that arena though.

Delphi will stick around for a long time. It is under good management now and it is making a lot of improvements, but if they stopped making Delphi tomorrow (which won't happen) then the fact people still use Delphi 5 for production applications today is evidence that all the developers will be able to continue using Delphi for native Windows development for many years to come.

Answer 12

Yes! If Delphi ever dies (one hopes it never will) then something else will have to take its place.

There's development and there's development, some of which is like comparing apples with oranges. Microsoft would like the world to do build solutions the MS way using .NET, and there is a large market for this... Yet there will always been a need to produce solutions against Microsoft's grain.

There will always be a need for real coders to develop native code. MS is going a great job of teaching the masses that they don't need to know how a system works in order to write software for it... but don't loose sight of the ever-present need to be able to fill the gap between where MS would like developers to be and the system being controlled. That was the folly of Vista being build on .NET, and a tough lesson for MS... which is why Win7 is back on native code.

.NET will not save you.

Answer 13

The fun is: this question has been asked since Delphi 1 was released.

Other development environments have come and gone, but Delphi is still around.

That should say something, shouldn't it?

(I won't get into any specifics here on which products came and went, as I want to prevent product bashing).

With regards to your pricing question: man power is much more expensive than product pricing, so in the end, buying any development environment is just a small portion of your investment.

Answer 14

(prophecy On)

The Delphi community will shrink and shrink 'till Embarcadero makes it open-source. And then it will rise from its ashes. Most of the old Delphi gurus will work for OSD (Open-Source Delphi) in their retirement as a hobby. And there will be also lots of young hippie geeks in OSD. David I will be the greatest grandfather in his retirement. Barry and Allen will do great things in OSD too. Nick will finally have enough time to go to the gym.

(prophecy Off)

Answer 15

"But is it future-proof?" - It's future-proof in the sense that Win32 exes will continue to run on Windows forever (either directly or through emulation). I've worked in the Atlanta area as a Delphi contractor for the past eleven years, and I've seen all of my employers either mothball their Delphi projects or convert them to C#/Java. That leads me to believe that the number of copies of Delphi sold compared to 1998 levels is decreasing year by year. At a certain point, the slice of the pie for Embarcadero will be too small to justify continuing the product.

However, if I were a single-person mISV with an idea for a product, and I needed to get that product on the market tomorrow, I would choose Delphi. Unfortunately, as a contractor, I need available jobs, and the pool has shrunk. There are still jobs, but instead of phone calls every week, they're coming every month, and they're coming out of state. So there are still areas where Delphi is perfect, but those areas are shrinking.

Answer 16

I don't think it's too expensive, especially considering what you actually get is a lot more than what you get with Visual Studio.

One thing I learned at the Delphi Developer Days which really opened my eyes to the worthlessness of managed code was the fact that Windows and MS Office don't use .net. Well, if they don't use .net, to program their own stuff then why should you?

That's not like saying, there's no Java code in office, because Open Office has lots of Java. I think if more people get the word out about good software build with Delphi questions about the future of Delphi would disappear. Just the fact that Skype is written in Delphi should prove that much.

Answer 17

Nobody knows. There is no way to predict the future. If Delphi 2010 has all sorts of whiz-bang features, utility and stability you could see a massive reincarnation of Delphi. Or you could see it die of consumer neglect. I remember how quickly Visual Cafe went from number one IDE in the world to quietly being shelved by Borland when they got it by purchasing an enterprise company. I also remember how quickly Visual Basic reversed the prior irrelevance of Microsoft in the dev tools market. Anything can happen.

Answer 18

Microsoft can use their position as chief operating system producer to always stay ahead in the compiler/ide market. The only way Delphi will survive is: if it is dramatically cheaper, or cross platform or Microsoft upset everyone. My hope for it is that Google buy it and release it at a low price. Programming is programming, if you can program Delphi you can easily learn any modern language/ide. Unfortunately employers are thick and think it is like learning a spoken language like Swiss. Spoken languages have over 100,000 words. Programming languages have less than 100. Maybe we should call it a programming accent or style instead of a language.

Answer 19

Here are some of my thoughts why Delphi will be here in the future:

1. Marco Cantu said that The Disney Corporation is extensively using Delphi for managing their amusement parks.
2. Most of Europe's ATM's are run with a help of Delphi.
3. Being acquired by Embarcadero is the best thing ever since they are a complementary developer tools company (database tools)
4. Oracle buying SUN makes the MySQL's future blurry, and puts into perspective Firebird, as the best truly open source enterprise-ready database.
5. Most third party components for NET developers are closed-source and much more expensive the the Delphi counterparts.
6. Delphi community is quite fanatical and used to giving away examples, source code and their own time (Jim McKeith with Delphi Podcast, CodeGearGuru, Zarko Gajic from delphi.about.com, Marco Cantu and Bob Swart and their books and others)
7. Delphi is the best tool for non-managed windows native application for the Micro ISV as well as the Enterprise.
8. To me, Pascal is much cleaner language then C/C++ and it's derivative languages.

Answer 20

"Delphi is a dead line!" ??? I wish I had a dollar every time I heard this since the past twenty years!!!!!!!!!! Delphi Rocks. Thats why it never shrinks!!!

Answer 21

I'm moving into a position where I'll be managing a group of Delphi developers. I've been a developer for 30 years, and have programmed in everything from Turbo Pascal, RPG III, to PowerBuilder, Java, and C#. One thing I've seen over those years is that the products you want to stick with are the ones with current up-to-date training and documentation readily available. With me moving to a Delphi Shop, I've been searching and searching for training and current product documentation and books, and I am having very little luck. If there isn’t training and documentation available on a product, the incentive for entry into that product is worse than non-existent, it’s negative. If you look at Java, Visual Studio, and other products, there’s 1000’s of books, free and pay-for training, tons of online help and code examples, and a large active community to support a new programmers efforts. I’ve seen none of this with Delphi, and as this new shop is coming to a turning point where a decision needs to be made as to their future with Delphi, my push will be to move onto another development tool that is well supported.

Answer 22

"There's a lot more to a language than just the vocabulary..." While I agree this is true, it's not just the words, if you are a programmer, you are a programmer and I agree with the previous comments that most programmers are fairly language agnostic. Its mostly about understanding the logical flow and organization of programs. If you can do that, picking up a new language is easy. I had never programmed in PowerBuilder and was hired to write programs in PowerBuilder. I was proficient in 2 weeks, and an expert in a year. And, though languages differ, they have many common constructs (Loops and If statements are very similar across language groups (the C style languages have their way, and the Pascal/VB style languages have their way - there's really only two different way's to learn). And this is true for many of the constructs in most modern programming languages.

Answer 23

Take a look at this: www.isdelphidead.com