Over the years, one of the recurring conversations has been around how to get started in computer programming, what language to learn first and how to prepare for a career. There have been numerous articles, blog posts, conference talks, videos, white papers and studies done. Colleges, placement centers and employment agencies also offer advice to students, entrepreneurs/start-ups, retirees, laid off workers and others looking to get into the software and technology industries. We want to make it easy and affordable to come join the fun and rewards of modern software development.
I’ve received many emails and had hundreds of conversations with students, developers and interested parties asking for advice about how to get started. With Embarcadero Delphi XE Starter Edition, we give you the ease of learning of the Pascal language and added the modern power of language enhancements like components, interfaces, events, enhanced runtime type information, attributes, operator overloading, generics and anonymous methods. With C++Builder XE Starter Edition you have an industry standard language with all the power of C++’s language, object and runtime libraries as well as our visual components and IDE. All native code, full access to Windows and no managed runtime.
Here are just a few examples (there have been thousands) of the messages and comments I’ve received over the years from many, around the world, wanting to get started:
- "As an independent contractor currently looking for work, I’d really like to see an additional, lower-cost package that would be aimed at people like me: use Delphi for personal programs, occasional freeware, etc."
- "In my spare time, I do development work for local charities. It would be great to have an edition of your developer tools at a lower price so that I can continue to help non-profit organizations in my town."
- "I am starting my own company. I know it will take some time to get some revenue going, do you have a version of Delphi and C++ that can help me get started? When I start generating revenue, I will gladly buy your professional or enterprise versions."
- "At work we use the Delphi Enterprise edition. I would like to have a version of Delphi for projects I build at home but I just can’t afford a copy on my own. Are you working on an edition now that Turbo Delphi is no more?"
- "I was recently laid off. I have a lot of time but little money. I’d really like to try and get into the software development field. Does Embarcadero have products that can help me start a new career?"
- "I am a retired programmer with extra time on my hands. I’m thinking about teaching young developers and doing some volunteer development work. I know you used to have the free Turbo Delphi Explorer, do you have something at a reasonable price that I can use to build Windows applications?"
With our recently release Starter Editions for Delphi and C++Builder, we now have versions of our native code development tools that allow you to get started, start building a career, do some volunteer work, using some of your spare time to help a non-profit organization and writing applications for yourself and your friends. Use our professional quality rapid application development, visual design, component-based designers to quickly build Windows applications.
With the Starter Editions you can take advantage of the large ecosystem of components and tools to help you learn and get started. We do not restrict any component from being installed into Starter edition and there is nothing inherent in Starter to prevent a component from being installed. However, some ecosystem partners may choose not to support the Starter Editions or may choose an installation dependency that is not included in Starter (such as command line compiler which some vendors use during component installation). Check with your component vendor or component project to make sure their components install properly into the Starter edition.
The FAQ describes the independent developer, "indie", style license that we are using for Delphi XE and C++Builder XE Starter Editions. Think indie music, indie artist, indie films, etc. The indie style Starter license allows for freeware and limited "for profit" commercial use. The license is designed specifically as a low cost solution for hobbyists, students, and independent developers to be able to get started building and distributing applications, including commercially for profit, without a significant up-front investment. It is modeled after the self-publishing music and literature models and has become popular within the game and mobile development tools market. We think an indie license is a better alternative to the traditional non-commercial license. The Starter Editions with their indie license allow us to provide our latest tools for both personal use, hobby use and for developers getting started.
Once you get started, learn some development chops, start building a programming reputation, gain some mojo and earn a little spending money, we offer an upgrade price and path to move up to our Professional edition. Make some more money and upgrade to our Enterprise and Architect editions. Learn the skills of Delphi and C++ programming and move up to our RAD Studio XE Professional, Enterprise and Architect editions. If you are a professional programmer our Professional, Enterprise and Architect editions will boost your productivity and help your company stay ahead of the competition. If you are a student and faculty member, we have academic pricing for our products that fit your budget and educational needs.
For Delphi, Bob Swart quickly created a free Delphi XE Starter Essentials ebook. After you purchase, install and register Delphi XE Starter Edition, you can download the eBook “Delphi XE Starter Essentials” at http://cc.embarcadero.com/reg/delphi. if you have an extra $18.82US you can purchase a printed version at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/delphi-xe-starter-essentials/14723094. We are encouraging all of our Delphi XE and C++Builder XE ecosystem partners to take advantage of this new developer opportunity and create lower priced component and tool sets to help beginners get started even faster.
Come join the software development fun. Get started!
{ 15 } Comments
There has been some discussion that leaving out the VCL Source from the starter edition is counter productive to bringing in new developers.
There is a LOT of truth here. The VCL source is both the best documentation that exists for Delphi and a great example of how to do things.
I can’t imagine WHY it was left out - it isn’t as if you should be worried about letting out the crown jewels - the VCL source has long been distributed with Delphi. It just doesn’t make sense to leave them out - I don’t think anyone is going to pay an extra grand just to get the VCL source, but the presence of the VCL source as part of the starter edition might very well make them choose to pay for the starter edition.
Don’t strip features out just to strip them out. I get you want to reduce the features to make it worth upgrading, but don’t devalue the product so much that people starting thinking the free options are at least as good a choice, if not better. The VCL definitely feels like it was stripped out just to strip it out. Code completion is another example. (shift-ctrl-c) - might as well remove bookmarks and expect that to drive sales instead of just annoy people to move on to other products.
Please consider it seriously. Delphi needs the lower level SKUs to have a future - It would be silly for the effort to create such a SKU to be self sabotaging.
C Johnson writes "I can’t imagine WHY it [the VCL source code] was left out"…
There is tons of example Delphi and C++Builder source code all over the Internet, in our Code Central Repository and in the help files. The help files have all the info about VCL components, how to build applications and more.
For beginners and starters the VCL source code is not necessary to build applications. For component developers (an advanced, professional development area) this might be a different story. There is a load of great component articles, videos and component examples everywhere as well if a beginner wants to do some component work.
In any case, these are the first Starter editions and we are listening to all the feedback. I am especially interested in speaking with beginners/starters about their experiences. I will be reaching out to all of those who purchase and register the starter editions and help them get started
Greetings, I would like to share a short story with you:
In winter 2003 I got my first PC, I was so obsessed with programs that I wanted to create my own, 4-5 months later I meet someone who became my friend, he presented to me Delphi 7, he bought me a copy of Delphi 7 and installed it on my PC(a 700 Mhz Duron…), I was a beginner PC user with a development environment on my hands, where to start?! well first thing’s first: the help files, few hours later I’ve discovered code navigation with CTRL+CLICK — I was speechless — I’ve opened Delphi demos with the idea that I have a starting point, however it didn’t get me far because I had no idea about what a procedure/function/class/etc. is(was 15 years old…) but in ~20 hours with documentation(way better documentation THAN the current one) and code navigation plus ambition I’ve created my first notepad application — I remembered being sooo happy, 2-3 months later I’ve created my first chat application based on the demo, 1 year later I’ve created my first custom component. ALL THIS was possible due to the fact that I had GOOD HELP and the SOURCE CODE at my disposition.
Please tell me how can someone who might NOT have Internet(I’m talking about poor countries — which are plenty) at all can use any resource available on the Internet?
I have a personal curiosity: which Delphi version was sold best and how many licenses were sold?(my guess is that either Delphi 7 or Delphi 2010, but that’s just me), at any rate, no matter which is, I bet that if you double that number you get the number of pirated Delphi copies spread around the world, is that better than lowering the license price so that more people can come into the Delphi world?! All Delphi developers hate the fact that they need to ditch Delphi for C# or for a undetermined period… please think about this aspect.
P.S. I totally agree with C Johnson.
Dorin - thank you so much for your success story. It’s great to hear from others about the productivity gains using our developer tools.
One of the goals (and there are many) of the starter editions is to grow the number of developers that are using Delphi and C++Builder.
Which Delphi version has sold best? All of them
Why are old (Wanting to be loyal) customers less important than new customers?
Sincerely,
An old Delphi user who is has been programming in c# for the past 2 years.
@Mike it’s a strategy adopted by all major corporations, I don’t think this will change in the near future.
Sincerely,
An old Delphi user who WILL be programming in C# for the next couple of years…
@Dorin, I don’t agree with you. I know many old Delphi programmers moving to FreePascal/Lazarus because they love Object Pascal and need multiplatform support. Why move to C# if they still target Windows? Delphi is the king on Windows programming.
Leaving out VCL source code has been the traditional way lower priced Delphi (and even Turbo Pascal) versions have been sold. I prefer this to other alternatives I could think of.
Mike writes - "Why are old (Wanting to be loyal) customers less important than new customers?"
All of our customers are very important to us. We continue to do everything we can to help you be successful. At the same time, we are also looking to help new developers get started and old customers to get re-started.
The Starter edition is a good idea, just like the Turbo was, but it also has its limitations, that I guess also limits its adoption. If you are someone that is trying to learn Delphi for the first time, its ok. You have the IDE with basic components to create sample projects for testing. But if you are a hobbyist that wants to learn how to use new technologies or just have fun discovering features. Or if you are a starter developer that wants to develop new applications, you are very limited in terms of ‘available technologies’, because the Starter Edition does not provide the state of the art features that the normal editions have.
There is no DBExpress, DataSnap, WebServices, Communications components, Reporting, IntraWeb, dbGo. Not even TClientDataset.
Why removing so may features from it? Why not just limit its use, like you do with the Interbase XE Developer edition?
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The idea of a Starter Edition is nice, but for an independent person the price tag of $499 isn’t really a ’starter’ price tag and the limitation on for-profit use until you reach $1,000 (really?) in sales means you can’t use it for profit really. I was a fan back from the Borland days and tried to sell the first version of Delphi to the people I worked for (in terms of having it be at least an option of what we developed in) but they went the VB route and later VB.net. I would love to try to get my foot in the door again with Delphi, etc. but seriously a 30 day trial (vs 90 days for MS products which is more reasonable for getting up to speed ont he platform) and then prohibitively high (at least for me) price tags mean I at least won’t be joining the bandwagon.
I am trying to install the trial version of C++; but am asked for a licence number?Where does the licencde number come from: there is no indication on the installation process!
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[...] http://jdmullin.blogspot.com/2011/02/delphi-starter-edition-database-support_02.html?spref=fb, http://blogs.embarcadero.com/davidi/2011/02/04/40398/ de David Intersimone, la publicación del primer manual en inglés de esta versión por Bob Swart [...]
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