Modern application development can seem like a minefield even for experienced developers. Choosing the right Windows tools for developers that can guarantee increased developer productivity can be a seemingly overwhelming task.
In most areas of life, productivity is often correlated directly with speed. Unfortunately, some developers buy into this kind of thinking, especially during the nascent phase of Rapid Application Development (RAD). If developers complete a project in half the time expected, they are deemed productive. But in modern application development, speed does not necessarily equal productivity. Does your application meet the needs of the end-user? Is it easy to use? Is it secure? Does it contain unnecessary bloat? The list goes on and on.
Developer productivity depends on many factors, and simply being a fast developer doesn’t make you productive. If anything, It involves building applications in the most efficient way possible from an end-user perspective.
However, most Windows developer tools were built for fast application development. And although a few have evolved over the years to adapt to modern developer productivity, many are becoming less and less productive. Hence the need to define the expectations and reality of Windows developer tools.
Are Windows tools for developers generally productive?
The software development industry is constantly evolving. Every new developer making their first foray into the industry will most likely be met with a new tool or framework that’s expected to help them maximize productivity – build high-quality products efficiently. Today, we have more sophisticated and “intelligent” Windows tools that would basically write, debug, and compile large swathes of code for you if you ask them to. Hence, helping developers produce more code faster. Unfortunately, some developers misconstrue this as productivity. However, in reality, writing more code can stifle productivity. And it begins with picking and constructing your toolchain carefully, with tools that enable you to write less code – only what’s necessary to develop high-quality applications.
Tools like Delphi, with a low-code approach to developing applications without leaning on huge dependencies, such as libraries that contain more than the needed functionality, are productive. Delphi is capable of enabling productivity without compromising quality. It ticks all the boxes of sane modern software engineering. It offers intelligent code editing, which flattens out that learning (and memory) curve. A low-code wizard creates nicely laid-out, easy-to-understand, cross-platform apps that work on just about anything – Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, or Android.
However, other tools like Visual Studio are now not as productive. For starters, it is insanely huge with an unnecessarily high amount of overhead for simply writing code. For not so high-end PCs, this can slow down its performance and ultimately reduce productivity.
There’s also the problem of complex toolchains. With Visual Studio, what Windows UI framework do you even choose? Things can get a bit more complicated when your application needs a user interface, and you need to identify the best GUI framework for your project. On the other hand, Delphi uses the VCL framework for Windows and the FireMonkey (FMX) visual framework for cross-platform responsive UIs. Delphi also supports WinUI 3.
For more information on how you can increase your productivity with Delphi, check out the tutorial video below.
You can download a free trial of RAD Studio Delphi today and see for yourself how it can boost your productivity today.
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