Why is Delphi 2005 the "must have" upgrade for Win32 developers?
A great question was posted in the Delphi newsgroups today:
"What would make me switch from Delphi 7 to Delphi 2005?"
This question is great because it's really the same for any Delphi Win32 developer using version v2 thru v7. The answer is that there are more new features for Win32 development than we've done in any previous version of Delphi. For Win32 development we focused on how we could improve, speed up, and add fun to every aspect of the day to day developer experience for every Delphi developer regardless of what type of application you are developing. And, at the same time helping you to produce higher quality code, fewer bugs, and improve team collaboration. In addition to all of that, Delphi 2005 still provides, out of the box, the most seamless migration to .NET of any programming language, period.
So, here are some reasons to upgrade - specifically for Win32 developers:
- New, "For In" loop iterator (worth the price of admission alone)
- New, Delphi compiler function inlining for executable performance increase
- New, Refactoring
o extract method
o declare field/variable
o rename
o extract to resource string
- New, SyncEdit - visually edit multiple occurances of a symbol simultaneously
- New, Error Insights
o you'll find errors faster, and let fewer get by (plus it's fun to watch as you type)
- New Help Insights
o on the fly VCL help for every object, property, and method
- as well as for your own classes, functions, and procedures
- New, Integrated DUnit unit testing to automate creating and executing Unit tests
- New, Automatic multiple file backups - keeps a historical record of all file saves
- New, History Manager - view/diff/restore from any backup or starteam checkin
- Starteam Standard Edtion included in Delphi Enterprise and Architect Editions
- Enhanced, IntraWeb v7.2 RAD WYSIWYG Delphi Web development
- New, Deployment Manager - simplifies and automates deploying IntraWeb Applications
- Enhanced, Indy 10 Internet Protocol components
- Enhanced, Object Inspector
o view and change properties of files in project manager and other IDE objects
- Enhanced, Tool Palette
o Designed to easily find, organize, and access hundreds of components
o In place filtered searching - ctrl-alt-p and just start typing the first few characters of what you're looking for
o Access Gallery Wizards from Tool Palette - ie: ctrl-alt-p "u"
- Enhanced, Interbase 7.5 Developer Edition
- Enhanced, Nevrona Rave Reports
- New, GlyFX Icon Library
- New, Component One ActiveX Enterprise Suite
- New, Sybase dbExpress driver
- Datasnap(Midas) royalty free deployment license
- Tons of Win32 debugger enhancements
plus a few .NET features to boot ;o) Delphi.NET, VCL.NET, .NET versions of Delphi data access technologies, C# support, ECO II, RAD for ADO.NET and hundreds of add'l .NET features
10 Comments:
Whoa. You're including GlyFX? Awesome! Which of their libraries? Will this be included in Delphi Professional?
Yes, GlyFX is included in Pro, Ent, and Arch. It's a special Borland Edition of GlyFX that is a nice collection of 95 icons from GlyFX's various icon libraries. And they will be offering Delphi users a special price to upgrade to any of their full Icon libraries as well. BTW if you have Delphi 8, check out the \Common Files\Borland Shared\Images\GlyFX folder ;o)
Wow!!!!!!!!!!
I like the GlyFx thing a DARN LOT!
But you know... we developers are always asking for more :-) Why didn't you include the Kylix edition matching the Delphi edition?
Cheers,
Andrew
I was just reading up on the "Code Audits" feature of Borland Together for Microsoft Visual Studio. This is a really interesting feature.
Will code audits (for C#, at least) be available in Diamondback, either shipping with Diamondback or through an add-on product? If it ships with Diamondback, will it be available in Delphi Professional, or will it require Enterprise or Architect?
Are there plans for code audits for Delphi code?
One suggestion for the next version, allow assigning to the iterator in the "for in" loop and store the values in the array or whatever you are looping through.
IMHO, the refactoring is worth the price alone.
Also, let's get a prettyprinter in there!! ;)
Can anyone tell me exactly what features are in the Delphi 2005 Professional and Delphi 2005 Enterprise Editions? I have seen the feature matrix, and it does not help. Describing something as "Enhanced!" in one version and not in the other does not mean anything to me! Does it mean that one version does not have the enhanced features or does not have the feature at all! If it is just enhancements that are the difference, then what EXACTLY are the enhancements?
With the price difference being around $1000, I really need to know!
I would like to know exactly what components are included in the Enterprise that are not included in the Professional. For the database components, what drivers are included for each version. What wizards or templates are different?
I have spent days trying to figure this out!
Sounds all great..
However, being also a Linux developer using GCC and Kylix v.3, I am very interested in any new versions of Kylix featuring for example .Net, C# and the other neat feats for the Linux platform.
Is there any new version of Kylix planned?
I hope development of Kylix is not stalled because it 'is the major development platform for Linux already'.
Kylix 3 was the reason for me to use Delphi 7/ C++Builder 6, and it will be the reason for me to switch to Delphi 2005 only if there's cross platform support.
Since I just purchased Delphi 8 with 7, four weeks before Delphi 2005 was released, neither Borland nor Programmers Paradise would let me have it as a free upgrade! With service like this who needs Microsoft!
Thank you for an excellent article.
I'm a Win32 developer. The company I work at has developed several Win32 applications using Delphi.
We use Delphi 6 for our programs, and we didn't upgrade to Delphi 7 because of the existing code base which is large and which isn't easy to upgrade.
We are planning to purchase Delphi 2005 or a future version of Delphi.
What do I want in a future version of Delphi?
1. Windows Longhorn will have a new user interface. I want to be able to take advantage of that user interface - that is, to very easily develop applications which make full use of the new Longhorn GUI.
2. Productivity. We use Delphi, and we don't use Visual Basic or Visual Studio .NET because of it's productivity. Increasing productivity should be the focus of the next Delphi versions.
3. Teamwork. The next version of Delphi should fully integrate a good, easy to set up source control system (also called a version control system). This should be easy to use, reliable and productive. For example CVS with it's requirement of dropping to the command line is NOT productive by Delphi standards.
4. Component compatibility. Because we use many third party components, it is very hard for us to upgrade from one version of Delphi to another version. We have to reinstall (that means recompile) every component.. and many components that compile in Delphi 6 without problems don't compile in Delphi 7, etc. Borland should fix this, if possible.
5. Easy to install components. Let's say a coworker starts a project. He uses 10 third party component libraries (this is a common situation at the company I work at). Then he sends all the code to me, and is assigned to another project. I have to install all the components of the project before being able to work on the source code. I would like a feature in which the coworker creates, in the project directory, another directory called "USED COMPONENTS". When I load the DPR of the project, Delphi should automatically load and install (temporarily or permanently) all components in the USED COMPONENTS folder of the project.
These are some small (or big) things which would make working in Delphi easier, more productive and more pleasant.
Thank you for taking the time to read my comment.
I would like to comment more on my own comment above:
> Component compatibility.
> Because we use many third
> party components, it is
> very hard for us to upgrade
> from one version of Delphi
> to another version. We have
> to reinstall (that means
> recompile) every component..
> and many components that
> compile in Delphi 6 without
> problems don't compile in
> Delphi 7, etc. Borland
> should fix this, if possible.
This is one of the features that made Java a killer language.
A manager knows that if a developer writes Java 1.0 code, that code will most likely compile and run even when Sun releases Java 15.0.
So for the manager, Java code is something that doesn't degrade in time very much.
However, for the same manager, Delphi code is something that does degrade in time a lot. Write a Delphi 6 project, with some custom components, and then upgrade to Delphi 7, and try to compile the components and the project.
Puf! The components and the project don't compile. You have to do significant extra work, and often to figure out obscure Delphi internals, to get the project to compile.
So, the comparison between Delphi and Java is this:
Java: You write a project in Java X, and it also compiles in Java X+1. Therefore Java code doesn't degrade and it's valuable.
Delphi: You write a project in Delphi X, and when trying to compile in Delphi X+1, you have serious problems and have to work on modifying the project AND on testing the resulting project (because you can never be sure if the conversion is 100% ok without testing). Therefor Delphi code degrades in time, and it's a lot less valuable than Java code.
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