Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene #96
17 Dec
- Some folks have been asking questions about what the requirements are for posting comments on our blog server. John Kaster put together a nice article on it. Key point: All of our emails are opt-in. We don’t send you emails unless you specifically ask for them.
- From 16 December through the 15th of January, the FastReport guys are giving a 25% discount on all their products and licenses. Find out more at http://fast-report.com/en/new_year_discount.html.
- Could have easily been 50, but they made me stop at 10.
- What religion is Delphi?
- Oh, good grief. That is just terrible.
- I have a new email address: nick.hodges@embarcadero.com. The codegear.com address will still work for a while, but it will eventually stop working.
Nick, we still don’t have answers on questions posted in comments to previous blog post.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:43 pmCould you be kind to clarify Codegear,er,Embarcadero position on 64bit Delphi and overlass native code Delphi.
This is especially meaningful for Micro ISVs.
Do you still have developers able to work on Delphi, or all that we see is a bunch of managers trying to catch last money before they wanish in financial crysis waves?
Nick, I’d echo the calls for clarification of the 64 bit plans. Having not seen the webinar, we can only go on Pawel’s blog. If that is reliable, we are very concerned. Having re-read it several times, the only interpretation I can come up with is that you now intend to produce a Delphi release with some cross platform element before a 64 bit Delphi with the year 2010 in mind. Concern, is too mild a word if this is the case.
If you cannot comment directly at this stage, I believe you should hasten to post the webinar online.
This will now necessarily form part of our discussion today with a partner company. We will have to couch our own comments in caveats to cover the uncertainty that we now feel.
December 18th, 2008 at 12:18 amAs I read the cross plataform stuff:
December 18th, 2008 at 7:06 am32 bit is a plataform
64 bit is another plataform
So they need to create a cross-plataform (for 32/64) strategy.
It would be in the future the basis for a Mac OSX, or Linux native compiler but for now it means 32/64 bit cross plataform compiler
Daniel –
You are getting the picture.
Nick
December 18th, 2008 at 10:03 amIf you listen to Episode 2 of the Podcast @ Delphi.org with Nick he says something similar:
http://www.delphi.org/2008/08/episode-2-nick-hodges/
I don’t remember the exact quote .. .
December 18th, 2008 at 10:36 amI still can’t get official position from "You are getting the picture"
), but for serious developers it sounds weird.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:34 pmPlatform and cross-platform stuff talk related to 64bit compiler is ok for students (or product architects
As for MacOS future, it is just some fantasies.
I really don’t see problem in creating compiler (32bit EXE) that could create both 64bit and 32bit.
It looks dabgerous that we see more and more leaving and angry developers posts without any replies and help offers.
Last time I saw it, company wanished in few months
Jim - thanks for the pointer to the podcast. It is of course from August and combined with Nicks "nod and a wink" above doesn’t acutally dispel my concerns. At the very least I suspect we will get 64 bit next, but with an increased delay to allow for more cross platform work to be incorporated. We’ve been led to believe through the existing roadmap that early/mid 2009 would be the target for Commodore. Going only on Pawel’s comment, 2010 is the rumor. At the very least in loo of an updated roadmap I’d like to see for myself a replay of the webinar that is causing all the concern.
December 19th, 2008 at 1:38 amx86-64 is not so different from x86-32. Unless CodeGear is also targeting IA-64 and/or other processor architectures, I can’t see the reason to delay a long awaited product to develop a wholly new compiler, losing precious time while already having to catch up a lot with competitors still. The lag is broadening, and targeting new OSes would require much more than a compiler.
December 19th, 2008 at 1:46 amAnt to gain acceptance on Linux/Mac you would need to regain your old "best of breed" Windows status first, your actual position won’t attract many Linux/Mac developers, while transition for Windows ones is not easy at all - they dream until they are faced with reality, developing on a wholly different system can be hard…
IMHO it would be far better to release as soon as possible a x86-64 compiler and a VCL64 library to catch up, and later review the architecture. Vitaly may be right citing "In search of stupidity", it looks you’ve entered a Ashton-Tate/dBaseIV cycle: release buggy products, fix them slowly or never (and ask lots of money for that masking them as "new releases"), complain at users because they don’t upgrade from D7, delay important improvements, let competitors overtake, acquire/develop applications noone feels a need for, don’t let your customers know where you are going to. Oh, but I forgot, you’re the company who bought Ashton-Tate, you’ve got the rights on that!
I could easily find 50 reasons NOT to upgrade to D2009 from D7.
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:19 pmPratt –
How about you give me 10 of them for starters, and I’ll see what I can do to remedy them?
Nick
December 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 amHere’s my list on why not to upgrade to Delphi 2009:
1. It doesn’t have a new icon.
2. Smell the box. It stinks.
On the other hand, the version2k problem is cleverly solved: D7 -> D2009.
I’d still like to see on the roadmap how the v10K problem is going to be solved damnit.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:37 amNick,
I would but QC is down again…
Pratt
December 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm