Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene #97
29 Dec
- Marco Cantu and Cary Jensen are planning a series of Delphi Developer Days in the US. Should be great events, as both of these guys are experienced developers and presenters. Each event will be two intense days of training. Register in the next two days and get a pretty good discount.
- Delphi 2009 now has a Help Update. Dee can tell you more about it.
- I’m surprised it took this long. I haven’t even considered buying a desktop machine in years.
- TMS Software has a very nice new set of "smooth controls" for Delphi. Sweet.
- Jamie has some good tips on converting Delphi for .Net code to Delphi Prism.
Nick,
If you have not seen this post, you should read…
http://thedorictemple.blogspot.com/
Happy New Year
December 29th, 2008 at 5:39 pmChris, reading this post won’t help Nick.
We tried to say absolutely same things last two years.
But neither Nick nor local office are able to listen.
They are so thrilled by new languages, new technologies, new haircuts, err, may be they are not intersted in haircuts, but looking at results like they are
They just don’t get basic stuff in development tools - first you need good number of developers(cheap start version), next you need exeptionally good service(good help and support, fast fixes), and only as result you could sell garantee programs with corporate versions. If you move in opposite direction you’ll get current Delphi state
To conclude.
EMBARCADERO NEADS TWO NEW DELPHI VERSIONS:
1) FREE, ANALOG OF TURBO DELPHI PROFESSIONAL, ABILITY TO INSTALL COMPONENTS. .NET FREE IDE. SIMPLE SMALL INSTALLER. PORTABLE VERSION OPTION. NOT FOR COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT.
2) MICRO ISV VERSION, ALL SAME, BUT IMPROVED NUMBER OF COMPONENTS, LITE VERSION OF TMS PACK INCLUDED, COMPLETELY CONFIGURED SVN CLIENT AND BUG MAINTENCE TOOL INCLUDED. COULD BE INSTALLED ON UP TO 5 COMPUTERS. $99 PRICE.
BOTH VERSIONS MUST HAVE MUCH IMPROVED HELP IN CHM(!) FORMAT.
December 29th, 2008 at 11:21 pmwhere is your new roadmap ???
‘real soon’ TM ?
December 30th, 2008 at 12:49 am"Free, ABILITY TO INSTALL COMPONENTS". That would simply kill Delphi. You could build a pretty complete development tool with some free controls and/or commercial ones (and maybe some pirated ones). I know that’s the unspoken dream of many Delpphi developers, but even the free versions of VS has some limits.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:04 amAnd how do you control "non commercial development"?
"MICRO ISV VERSION, etc. etc". Maybe including a coffee machine and a pretty secretary too for $99? Aren’t you asking too much? How many copies should be sold to see a decent ROI? And why shold it have *your* feature set and not *mine*? Not everybody uses TMS controls or SVN… and there are plenty of open source VCS clients and defect tracking software.
I’d sell a "barebone" Delphi for a lower price, then you would be free to use free components, or TMS, or Developer Express, or whatever you like.
I agree that actual price/features ratio is too high in the actual market, IMHO it could be lowered, but not to that point without going bankrupt. On the other side, they could improve the feature set (controls, better db framework, remoting, etc. etc.) … and not only. For example it’s a shame that a tool that costs thousand of euros gets desupported a year after its release.
Any news on the SA problems in Brazil? I still didn’t get mine.
Best Regards,
December 30th, 2008 at 2:09 amMarco Sangali
I would not expect to get Delphi for free, since EMB is a developer tool company not a platform like a Microsoft. On the other hand, I am concern with a high price. Myself as a SA customer, this year had a difficult time to justify a renewal price to my boss. Since I do a lot database development I need more expensive version. To be honest, I am looking at an alternative solution and next year I will be starting some Java projects with NetBeans. As much as I like developing applications in Delphi my budget will be eventually cut. There is still hope, since EMB is a privately own company, therefore changes can happen (Delphi Prism and RAD 2009).
December 30th, 2008 at 2:57 amI would like them to release an equivalent of
Delphi 4 Standard priced somewhere netween $99 and $199
which I belive would be more or less equivalent of the
Delphi 4 Std price + invlation.
@Luigi D. Sandon
December 30th, 2008 at 10:44 pmBorland once claimed (not clearly though) to have over
million Delphi developers do to answer your question
>>How many copies should be sold to see a decent ROI
plenty of those poeople would buy Delphi for their personal
fun if priced in that range. On the other hand spending
$1000 or 1000 euro (the present lowest level SKU price)
just for fun is not fun at all.
If only the "series" of Delphi Developer Days events came west of the Mississippi
December 31st, 2008 at 7:39 amIn the very early past Borland released Standard or Personal editions of Delphi/C++ Builder for a low fee or even for free! In 2006 Borland released Turbo Explorer for free. Borland always releases Academic licenses of their professional line or even higher products, but the licensee SHOULD BE ABLE to prove that he/she is member of an academic institution or school. Microsoft also releases Academic licenses, but for MS non-commercial home usage is sufficient not to break the license. Borland, codegear or Embarcadero should issue a new NON-COMMERCIAL license for a low cost in order to provide hobbyists, open source programmers and/or students with a PERMANENT license of the high-end products.
January 3rd, 2009 at 4:46 am