Delphi Handbooks Collection


Delphi XE Handbook


Delphi 2010 Handbook


March 31, 2007

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support

Odd as it might sound, CodeGear is well ahead of Microsoft in supporting Vista specific features (like the Aero Glass UI) at a higher level than having to do direct API calls. And Microsoft is also killing FoxPro.

After killing J#, Microsoft is now killing Visual FoxPro. Nothing to say, but it is certainly the end of the dBase era. And the first time I hear not to trust Borland/CodeGear because they do kill products, I'll have an extra arrow.

On the other side, it seems Microsoft is going to reinvest on MFC and native Win32/Win64 development, besides .NET. Interesting. This means they are catching up with... Delphi!

It really seems Delphi 2007 for Win32 is the first tool out there to natively support Vista with a class/component library. Microsoft isn't there yet: What about a WinForms application that extends the "glass area" and make it work properly with components inside? Hard to obtain, AFAIK, as it is hard to have it done with Delphi 2006. What about MFC support for the new features? CodeGear is late on .NET support, but it is ahead of Microsoft in supporting their own operating system at a native level, and if Microsoft says native is not dying... that's good for Delphi.

Go Delphi, go!

Update (MFC)

Sure, I failed to give any reference for the renewed interest in MFC by Microsoft. You can see this link for new features, this interview with Steve Teixeira and Bill Dunlap, which this Montreal blog comments by saying "C++/MFC are here to stay, and plenty of resources assigned to it, as the Orcas release can attest to." Several VisualC++ users seem to be relieved by the news...

posted by marcocantu @ 5:07AM | 9 Comments [0 Pending]




 

9 Comments

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

"it seems Microsoft is going to reinvest on MFC and
native Win32/Win64 development, besides .NET."

Do you have a source on this you could link?
Comment by Tim S on March 31, 06:14

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

AFAIK the difference is Visual Studio user will get 
Vista support with a service pack (free) while Delphi 
users have to upgrade (not free).

Also, the renewed interest in native development just 
shows how much resources Borland wasted in .NET 
development.

Not to speak about porting the BDE to .NET...

Anyway, please stop complaining about MS. They are a 
great company, they do what their users ask and their 
product are marvelous. They are really commited to 
their products. They exactly know what is best for 
their customers. Those complaining are just a small 
percentage of their user base.
Comment by on March 31, 15:50

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

Tim S

Here is one link at Channel 9:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=281987
Comment by Bruce McGee on March 31, 16:36

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

Excuse me... Microsoft wath?

Speaking of some more bucks in their pockets, any 
developer that has ever known something about unix, 
or mac, or IBM can tell you that Microsoft has 
demostrated again and again, that what they are 
commited with is exactly with their pocket, not their 
users. 

From my very personal point of view (along with 
the 'small' percentage of their user base) Microsoft 
is always taking advantage of the ignorance of the 
people (everyone is ignorant in some way), gaining 
power from them, and then using this power to do 
whatever they could do to get more bucks on their 
pockets, instead of doing something new for a change.

Borland in the old times, and now CodeGear, obviously 
is guided by money, but they know they can make it 
doing things right.
Comment by Salvador Gomez Retamoza [http://salvador.oversistemas.com] on April 2, 05:55

Some questions for...anonymous :-)  

>>>>>
AFAIK the difference is Visual Studio user will get 
Vista support with a service pack (free) while Delphi 
users have to upgrade (not free).
<<<<<

Which Service Pack are you talking about? It's not SP1
for sure, because as far as I know it doesn't add none
of the features mentioned in the post.
Are you referring to a second, newest Service Pack?

If this Service Pack has a codename like "Orcas", I
doubt it will be free. :-)


>>>>>
Also, the renewed interest in native development just 
shows how much resources Borland wasted in .NET 
development.
<<<<<
As a person who asks to stop complaining Microsoft,
which has put everything in .NET, I think coherence is
really missing here. ;-)

Even if resources spent on the .NET side were wasted -
and I don't agree with that, anyway - it seems that
CodeGear is ahead of Microsoft even in turning back to
native development. :-)


>>>>>
Not to speak about porting the BDE to .NET...
<<<<<
BDE has not been ported to .NET, only the components
that act as wrappers to it, as far as I know.

However, Borland has really proved to take care of
their developers while porting a long time
self-declared obsolete library, while this is not the
case with Microsoft and VB6, a development tool used
more than BDE for sure!


>>>>>
Anyway, please stop complaining about MS.
<<<<<
While should anyone stop complaining about a company
if there are reasons to do that?
No one is complaining, we are just talking. :-|


>>>>>
They are a great company
<<<<<
Undoubtedly, even if sometimes "big" is a more
convenient term. :-D


>>>>>
They are really commited to their products.
<<<<<
Especially to J# and Visual Fox Pro, recently.


>>>>>
They exactly know what is best for their customers.
<<<<<
Mmm... It seems that they often know the right way to
make their products look like as they were the best
for their customers. :-)

Bye,
  Marco.
Comment by Marco Breveglieri [http://blog.marco.breveglieri.name] on April 2, 18:37

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

Mmmh... looks irony is unknown in this blog. If you 
were able to read through the lines, the arguments 
used about MS *were the same* used here to stop 
criticizing CodeGear.

Anyway: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-
us/vstudio/aa973758.aspx

And sorry, Orcas will deliver much more than glass 
frames and bug-fixes - and not at $1200.
Comment by on April 2, 23:51

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

Thanks for the blog Marco. It is good that you point
out these MS actions, cause there is too many MS
fanboys in middle management who blindly select MS
product as an assurence for longveity.
Comment by Richard Foersom on April 3, 02:36

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

I made a similar point several weeks ago with this post:

http://www.stevetrefethen.com/blog/WritingNativeWin32ApplicationsForTheWindowsVistaAeroUI.aspx

For Win32 it doesn't look like MS will have Vista
support for awhile.
Comment by Steve Trefethen [http://www.stevetrefethen.com/blog] on April 3, 03:29

CodeGear Ahead of Microsoft on Vista Support  

Steve:
"For Win32 it doesn't look like MS will have Vista
support for awhile"
I wonder how they wrote Vista itself... <g>
The Vista SDK is already available - it's MFC which 
does not support Vista yet. 
Anyway many of us think that little things like 
Unicode support and 64 bit compilers are a somewhat 
more important than transparent windows. Our 
customers think so.
Probably you spent more time to find how to add more 
properties to TForm without breaking compatibility 
than activating the new style. BTW, did you themed 
TGrid?
Comment by on April 3, 19:43


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