BorlandTalk.com

[Mike Vance]

There was a posting I read in this newsgroup about a week back, where
some guy made a comment about he was surprised the Delphi community
still existed and had not passed away a long time ago. That comment
bothered me, because like most Delphi programmers I have a past history
of coding in C++ and I *know* how weak the C++ community really is. The
C++ community has a few strengths but in almost every area that really
matters to most people, the Delphi community is many times stronger.

The reason the Delphi community is so strong is because just about every
Delphi programmer is "on the same page", meaning they use the same GUI
framework to write Win32 executables, so they can share both graphical
components and non-graphical components easily and readily.

For exactly the opposite reason the C++ community is weakened
considerably by the fact that so many of them are using different visual
component frameworks. One guy will use MFC (yuck), another wxWidgets,
another Qt, and others will choose one of the hundred or so frameworks
lying in the C++ dying-and-almost-forgotten heap. They are not all "on-
the-same-page". They cannot share their graphical components.
Sometimes they can't even share non-graphical code due to library or
compiler conflicts. Oh yes, they have all the diversity out there, but
it comes with a price.

Here is an example: For years I have been checking out wxWidgets and
contemplating moving my projects over to c++/wxWidgets. It takes me
this long to keep looking because I just can't believe how awful the
situation is for c++ programmers. There are components available to
Delphi programmers that I take for granted and just cannot believe their
is no C++ equivelant. My disbelief causes me to look again and again,
each time to be shocked anew. I see nothing like the EasyTable database
engine that I use; go and find me one complete with C++ source, that
allows many tables within a single file, and can match its extensive
feature set. I just don't see it. Everything available for C++
programmers looks crummy by comparison. There are **SO MANY** great
embedded database engines available to Delphi programmers. Find me a
good toolbar component that can match Toolbar2000+TBX. Nothing! A
really great treeview component. Nothing. The simple components I take
for granted every day have so much more richness than anything that Qt
or MFC or wxWidgets has. And don't go recommending some ActiveX stuff
-- I want something written using the framework I use.

Try to find some high-quality native MFC components out there. After
All, MFC is suppose to be the biggest of the Win32 Graphical frameworks.
Well I tried, many times, and whatever is written purely for MFC is
pretty stinky compared to what Delphi users get. MS's MFC holy grail
was to talk their MFCers into making everything a separate little
ActiveX file. wxWidgets components? There is so little out there for
wxWidets that it is ridiculous! Qt components? Same scene, unless you
program for the Linux KDE desktop.

I read there are over 1.5 million C++ programmers in the world. How
many Delphi programmers are there? 400,000 or so!!! There are *NOT*
400k C++ programmers "on the same page". I wish I had figures for the
number of MFC, Qt & wxWidgets programmers that are out there, because I
think if we had some really good figure here folks, we would be either
laughing at them or crying for them. I think we would be shocked to
realize that many of those 1.5 million C++ programmers are just
interested in embedding their code in some appliance ROMS. Appliance
ROMs are not written in Delphi, they are written in C/C++, and appliance
ROM coders could add up to several hundred thousand coders easily?

<groans>

No wonder the C++ community is so weak-looking.

The more I look, the less strength I see among the C++ community. They
did pretty good to release the BOOST libraries, and they are very usable
because they are non-graphical, but when it comes to the most necessary
of things such as, full-featured graphical components, the C++ community
shows its true weakness.

I pity them.

Now go prove it to yourself by reading the MFC forums. Weak! Wimpy!
So few topics compared to the Delphi forums. Now go read the Qt forums.
Tiny! The wxWidgets forums. Less traffic than just Delphi.non-
technical alone! But whatever you do, do not look at the c++ public
usenet forums because it will just bring a tear to your eye, because its
just full of people asking why they get such-and-such indecipherable
error, or why a certain library refuses to compile.

Delphi is way ahead.

[Mike Vance]

I just had to post that, because I have been wanting to that off my
chest for a long time. It just comes natural for a programmer to keep
looking for the "next big thing" to code in, but that thing just doesn't
exist, not if you're into producing Win32 executables. Delphi 2005 is
it. C++ has pretty much stalled, and for all the publicity C++ gets you
still have to wake up to the fact that its third-party component
availablilty for graphical components is very pathetic in contrast to
Delphi. And I hate to say it: it will stay that way.

I am not a language bigot. I root for C++ all the time; but man, they
have fallen behind. I want them to whomp all over Delphi to give it
some competition, but I just do not see it happening.

[Captain Jake]

Mike Vance <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote in message
<MPG.1d290b7e85ff0d64989687 (AT) forums (DOT) borland.com>

[Roger Lascelles]

"Mike Vance" <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote

<snip>

[VT Venkatesh]

I have done programming with delphi & Borland C Builder.
Though i am a Delphi only programmer, I feel with Dexter(latest version of
Borland C ++ Builder) coming this year you can have best of both worlds(ie
VCL components & C++).
Though i could not confirm it I was told by a source that it is getting
released in Oct 2005
Venkatesh
"Roger Lascelles" <rogerlasAToptusnet.com.au> wrote

[Robert Marquardt]

Roger Lascelles wrote:

[Mike Vance]

[Pete Goodwin]

The biggest issue I found using Delphi was other people's perceptions of
it. Nobody wants to touch it, as it's not C++ and they have to learn a
new language. Or, "it's Pascal, I did that at University", then you see
their eyes glaze over.

Where I sit today, GUI components are not the issue, cross-platform is.
That makes it C++.

Pete

[Chad Z. Hower aka Kudzu]

"Roger Lascelles" <rogerlasAToptusnet.com.au> wrote in
news:42bf9006 (AT) newsgroups (DOT) borland.com:

[Kirk Halgren]

"Pete Goodwin" <pgoodwin.nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) sensaura.creative.com> wrote in
message news:42bfb038 (AT) newsgroups (DOT) borland.com...

[Bruce McGee]

Chad Z. Hower aka Kudzu wrote:

[Dennis Landi]

"Chad Z. Hower aka Kudzu" <cpub (AT) hower (DOT) org> wrote

[Tony Caduto]

Cross platform is really only good for servers, the desktop world is still
win32 not Linux, not solaris or anything else. Even the Mac only has a few
perecentage points.

I really don't think a application is going to be succesfull or not
depending on it's cross platform capabilities.

[jacques oberto]

"Dennis Landi" a écrit

[Jason]

"Mike Vance" <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote