What We Did on Christmas Break
The team at CodeGear had a pretty intense December. As we finished up the announcement of CodeGear , we got together and made a decision together we were going to make something happen. Between November 14th and mid December we locked down a plan and started to execute for 07.
I won’t bore you with a lot of our internal stuff, but the plan is not rocket science or compiler development: Simplify, Innovate, and Grow. As you can see we have started on our plan with our announcement of a RAD PHP platform and our Win32 Delphi release.
This did not happen overnight, it just happened over the Holidays. The team includes a lot of people and I don’t want to leave anyone out but I am sure I will. To hit a few with great blogs Steve Trefethen, Allen Bauer, David I, Nick Hodges, Michael Swindell, Joe McGlynn, and Steve Shaughnessy, these developers worked hard to get what is going to be an exciting couple of products out for developers.
I think over the next few weeks you will also be excited to see the other innovations we are doing from how we better support customers, to how we market ourselves, to how we deliver our products. All of this is built around one core idea, we believe developers matter. While not every developer is going to found Google, build a great site for Delphi plug ins, components or more components, pro or build the most important innovation in my 7 year olds life, Disney Fast Pass, but every developer from Silicon Valley to Munich to Beijing matters because they build really great stuff.
- We built Delphi for Win32 because you asked for it.
- We committed to Eclipse and delivered the best in class enterprise and personal IDE built with Eclipse because our customers begged for it. (We should have listened earlier.)
- We built RAD PHP on Delphi, because PHP is important to developers and developers matter.
We are not done. The roadmap improvements are exciting, the conversations we are having with developers are invigorating, and our developers are going to make some interesting things happen. These two products are just a first step in our long path to being the dominant developer tools company, where developers matter.
So what did we do on Christmas break? We got a head start on moving forward on our path to helping developers by getting two great products built, Delphi for Win32 and Delphi PHP, and a whole lot more that we are looking forward to you seeing over the next couple of months.
As you read through a lot the team’s blogs you will also probably find out we broke Swindell’s pinball machine, were cleaned out by a 7 years old playing craps in a casino night, and one of us lost over 30 pounds while building Delphi and playing basketball, so we had a little fun too.
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Posted by Ben Smith on February 20th, 2007 under Uncategorized |
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February 20th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
I think it’s very important that you, Mr. Smith, are blogging.
I really hope you continue doing so.
Andrew
February 20th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
I second Andrew’s feedback.
February 21st, 2007 at 1:04 am
Mr Smith,
I have a few comments on Delphi for PHP.
Please read ‘em by following the url.
Andrew
February 21st, 2007 at 2:10 am
When can we see a roadmap? Are you listening?
Telling us here are two items and there’s more to come is meaningless!
February 21st, 2007 at 8:40 am
It’s unfortunate that there’s no "Contact" option on your site, however I simply wanted to say "thank you" for having commented on my blog. It’s very important to see that you took not only the time to read through the whole we, your customers, wrote, but that you also took the time to actually drop a line and comment.
Thus, this is a - in my opinion - well deserved "A+" for you.
Cheers,
Andrew
February 21st, 2007 at 8:47 am
The PHP product indeed looks very interesting and I might have been tempted to get a copy. But having found out the copy of Turbo Delphi 2006 Pro I purchased ( At an inflated UK price like most softwate in UK ) a month ago has been basically obsoleted by Delphi 2007 for Win32 and there is no upgrade path to it as its part of the ‘Studio’ line I think I will pass on ALL future CG products if this is the way GC is going to operate.
February 21st, 2007 at 9:05 am
Derek,
I agree that you feel betrayed, I would, too, if I was in your situation.
This has been, however, explained by Michael Swindell in the Borland forums.
I’ve been very critic of Borland when the time was "right", but this time I *think* these are "youth" errors, after all, it’s an old/new company as it’s been outlined over and over again and mistakes, I guess, are part of the process.
Considering how *us all* have been treated by Borland, the simple fact that Michael Swindell said "we’ve probably done a mistake" is a huge point in favour of CodeGear.
I understand, however, that this may not be your point of view.
Cheers,
Andrew
February 21st, 2007 at 10:19 am
Tired User,
I can definitely see the frustration and I never said that "sorry" was enough, but I confirm that it’s already more than you’d see in the past and that can hardly be argued on.
What I was trying to say, however, is that - to my understanding - this is the first time the guys(and girls…) writing the product are at the "front line".
I defintely agree, however, that some sort of path should be given, either upgrading to BDS or to another Turbo release. From what I read in the newsgroups, it appears that a new Turbo Release will come, so maybe that will be a reasonable one?
Plus, Andreas Hausladen has a "merger" tool for Turbos to make it a "mini studio". You can download it at: http://http://andy.jgknet.de/misc/TEMerger.7z
I don’t know, however, if it’s ever going to be possible to buy - say - Turbo Delphi Win32 first and then, with a small overprice(by small I mean <=$100) another personality to merge into the mix.
I think it’s still a bit too early to judge however - it’s not even a full year yet.
Cheers,
Andrew
February 21st, 2007 at 10:20 am
Sorry, the correct url is:
http://andy.jgknet.de/misc/TEMerger.7z
February 21st, 2007 at 10:23 am
I appreciate all the email and comments I received on my "first" blog post. A couple of things I wanted to try to address. In terms of our efforts on PHP, we are truly excited about the team we are working, the jumpstart we were able to leverage, and the passion that is being shown in Scotts Valley on it. In the long tradition of this team, we are going to take an area for developers and bring something new to the table.
Second, we will continue the two way and active dialogue on what we are working on going forward. We won’t always tell all for competitive reasons or because of legal restrictions, but more importantly we won’t do things that set us up to miss expectations as we build back trust with developers.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:42 am
I see my response to Tried user was deleted.
February 21st, 2007 at 10:43 am
What was wrong with it ?
February 21st, 2007 at 11:05 am
re: Turbos - to be clear, I didn’t say Turbo’s were a mistake - entry level editions for beginners and students are a good thing and necessary for a developer focused company. However I have said that our approach of releasing Turbo’s editions with pro features a year after the Studio is released isn’t the best model for providing timely editions for beginners and students. So we will tune the turbos so they are more aligned with their purpose and they are not 12mo old when we release them. They aren’t being done in… and the D2007Pro upgrade is roughly the same price as the 2006TurboPro price was. When we launched the Turbo’s we tried to be clear that they are not intended as an upgrade or sidegrade path for Delphi Pro customers, also the reason why there weren’t upgrade pricing avail for them. So we’re not killing Turbos, we’re going to tune them so they better fit together with the rest of the Delphi product line.
February 21st, 2007 at 11:07 am
WOOF! Welcome to the blogging mayhem, may your posts be plentiful!
Its good to see you post, we often hear from the same few, it will be good to have your input on life as time goes by
February 21st, 2007 at 11:14 am
Great post Ben and great news indeed!
Keep up the gooj job, go fot it CodeGear!
February 21st, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Derek, do you own *any* previous version of Delphi (back to D1) other than the Turbos? If so, you qualify for the upgrade pricing to D2007:
http://blogs.codegear.com/nickhodges/archive/2007/02/21/32080.aspx
February 21st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
If the Turbo line is to get more developers on board, if I were CodeGear I’d offer an upgrade path from Turbo to Studio - for example if someone after buying the Turbo decides to buy the Studio at the same level I’d detract the Turbo price, and maybe something alike for an upgrade to a different version.
IMHO it is very important to attract new developers to CodeGear - a low risk - financially speaking - approach could pay. Buy the Turbo, and if like it go up. If once one get the turbo is constrained within and has to pay a full license again when he outgrow it, he will think twice or more before buying either.
I’d suggest an intensive marketing training…
February 21st, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Hi Craig :-
No I explained my position on that blog thread . Im a new user
February 21st, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Tried User :-
Basically what I put in the post regarding what I would expect the upgrade from Delphi 2006 Turbo Pro to Delphi 2007 Win32 if it existed and that got deleted for whatever reason.
February 21st, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Derek,
Did you look at the URL I gave you?
Michael,
Sorry if I sounded like you said it was a mistake altogether. That’s not what I meant, rather I was meaning that you acknowledged that there were problems in that regard.
How is it feasible to have an "added personality" license within the $100?
Is it *not* feasible or can you(you as in "CodeGear") look into it?
Cheers,
Andrew
February 21st, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Andrea, it looks Derek is not interested in building a mini-studio. They already own VS for C++ and C# development. And he owns a pro (paid) version of TurboDelphi. I guess it is not interested in buying another three different turbos - AFAIK there is no rebates - and putting them together in a DIY mix… He is interested in the new Delphi 2007, but he has no upgrade path. D2007 Pro looks like a Turbo, but it isn’t, Turbo will change then, but they did not tell us how, thus D2007 is a part of BDS but it is sold alone, and to get BDS or you get SA or it’s another upgrade - but again we are not told how - what a mess!!!!
February 21st, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I am off in our quarterly business review today so all your feedback is great. I won’t have time to take a look at all the comments and get back to you on everything, but it is still appreciated. I have found my first blogging experience at CodeGear educational. We probably need to improve our own capabilities as we continue to broaden our dialogue. On that note, sorry if any comments were deleted. Feel free to repost. My positioning on my blog is simple when it comes to the dialogue. I grew up in a cultural environment where the living room is where you hosted guests and held some pretty heated discussions. I love a good quality discussion and even like an argument. But much like in my living room, don’t call my brothers and sisters at CodeGear stupid (our team) or our children (the products) ugly. —Not that we won’t take input if you think they need some braces or better piano lessons or even a little family counseling.
Other than that–welcome to my living room, where we are here to discuss the future of CodeGear, why developers matter, and maybe have a little fun.
As long as I am here, it has been an interesting morning of some good information on all the innovative things we are doing around Eclipse with JBuilder and even extending our use of Eclipse and open source further. It was also great to see what we are doing to improve our sales focus around the world and how great some of our guys are doing around the world. It is also great to see what we are doing with CodeRage.
February 21st, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Personally I find Mr Smith(is it ok to call you "Ben"?) remarks about being in his living room quite appropriate.
Please keep it civil.
Now, on to the point.
Tired user,
Correct me if I’m wrong: we’re constructively addressing issues we find, aren’t we?
What is more constructive? Demolishing everything and say "it sucks" or trying to propose alternatives that CodeGear folks may want to pursue? Maybe they’ll not be adopted in the proposed incarnation, or maybe they will.
I’m just throwing ideas around. Will they be adopted? I don’ know but I think it’s very important that - along with criticism - there’s a proposed solution.
It could be done, for example, something like this:
- Provide additional personalities in the $100 range, $50 for three(each).
- If a new version comes out and you have bought at least 3 personalities(in total), then you qualify for the upgrade.
Not sure if this can work at all, but maybe it’s something worth to look at.
As for the inelegibility of Turbos for upgrade to BDS, I think it had been stated looong ago and a simple search in Google brings up a document stating this in pretty clear words, to be really honest.
Although I can understand Derek’s position, I’m afraid I have to point out that the simple google search for "Turbo upgrade BDS" would have brought up a document stating that BDS and Turbos are two different product lines. What can surely be CG’s fault is the very simple fact that it should have been said from the start: "Turbos are thought to be a lighter and less complete product line in respect to BDS. The fact that current explorer and Pro editions are single-language, full featured products is just casual and due to our willingness to push this Turbo line forward as soon as possible. Following versions, along with being single language, will also be somewhat reduced in functionality".
This, along with the upgrade path I proposed above, should make a fair deal, methinks.
Last, you can’t make all people happy. Someone’s however going to complain.
I really hope, however, that some way around the issue can be found.
Andrew
February 21st, 2007 at 2:59 pm
re: inelegibility of Turbos for upgrade to BDS
Thanks for bringing that up Andreas. I thought that was a mistake when I read your comment so I checked back with the team and they are going to make sure that you *can* upgrade from Turbo Pro to Delphi Pro 2007 or BDS… I can’t imagine why we would prohibit that upgrade path, I’ll make sure we take of that. Thanks for bringing it up. Re the messaging on Turbos, you nailed it - some people carrying the Turbo message out had trouble communicating it, but you articulated it perfectly well. I’ve been trying to articulate it as well as you have in the NGs.
February 21st, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Michael,
I’m sure I read many times that there was no upgrade path from Turbo to BDS. Are you saying that this is going to change?
If this is the case, please, give us a clear blog post stating this, so that I can reference to it with fellow italian programmers(some are quite grumpy because of this fact).
As for raising the issue, I’m simply trying to be helpful, as I always am.
Cheers,
Andrew
February 21st, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Ben, Michael & Andrea,
thanks for the great feedback everyone on this ! I suspect my previous post I thought had got deleted might have been a blog system problem as I was getting some ‘invalid cast’ messages a bit later on.
So sorry for any confusion Ben.
My suggested course of action would be have a Turbo Delphi 2006 to Delphi 2007 Win32 upgrade pricing something along the lines of been the difference in cost between the 2007 Win32 full price and the Turbo delphi Pro 2006 Price or a variation of it.
I would certainly be interested in that after release most probably with a purchase of SA too if the pennies allow.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:49 pm
>> there was no upgrade path from Turbo to BDS. Are you saying that this is going to change?
Yes, this was clearly a mistake or miscommunication. Team is working on getting that fixed. If you are on Turbo Pro and want to upgrade to Delphi 2007 Pro - go for it, you qualify for the upgrade.
February 21st, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Well,
Since I’ve always trusted you as a team, I always took the BDS package.
But I can see why some have considered the Turbo Pro a deal.
I really think you people are doing a great job!
Andrew
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:08 am
Glad to see this blog! Not sure how, but when the whole team blogs, we customers feel ‘closer’ to the people behind the products. It is reassuring, I guess..
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 am
Ben, Kudos on the great work you and the gang are doing at Codegear. I have been a long time PHP developer, and frequent with a lot of other PHP developers in the Arizona area. From analyzing the local user groups here, about 90% of our gang are all deploying on Linux due to a general feeling of vulnerability with Windows.
In our case, we have applications that are developed for BOTH the PC Desktop market and as hosted solutions. We never really been able to cross leverage both environments to get the best solutions for both worlds. All cross leveraged solutions lowered the quality of either the PC user experience, the web user experience, or the security vulnerability issues. ASP.NET doesn’t work for us because we don’t want to deploy on Windows.
Delphi for Win32 is the perfect choice for us for PC applications, and we have a major commitment towards it. PHP5 is our web development platform of choice, and are developing large scale applications.
When I heard the news that you had a solution that promised some level of synergy between both platforms (Delphi for PHP), I was over the moon. I have pre-ordered on the promise of what it may be able to do. We would like to be early adopters because if this can do what I think it can, this is probably one of the best things to happen to the PHP community ever.
Please keep in mind that the majority of PHP developers deploy on Linux. The OSS thing seems more ‘comfortable’ in that world. But most develop with a PC as well. Also the PHP developers that I work with are very focussed on design patterns, particularly MVC style development. This means decoupling the UI from the business logic of the applications. Its not just about being able to scale better this way, but its just neater in terms of code management, etc. I love the idea of drag & drop components onto HTML pages as your demos suggest, but I cringe at the thought that this might involve a ‘forced coupling’ between the UI and the business logic that isn’t desirable in our PHP apps.
With all of this said, the CodeGear team have renewed our optimism dramatically and I say GREAT WORK to everyone there. We look forward to seeing the product, and assuming it does most of what it says it will, I will be evangelizing it to our PHP community here in AZ.
Myles
March 14th, 2007 at 12:25 am
My god!When will c#2007builder come out?