March 26, 2008
Choosing a Development Stack for Windows
I found a nice blog post by Andy Brice titled Choosing a development stack for desktop Windows applications, that only mentions Delphi but has several good points in general. The author spends a long time explaining why .NET is not the best solutions for small desktop applications, as you are never sure the target machine will have the correct version of the framework, which is also growing in size.
When trying to pick the best-of-breed tool he ignores Delphi mostly because of lack of confidence with CodeGear, but my impression is that he has never really used Delphi... experience with the product might have led to a different decision. Notice that in the comments a few readers mentioned they use Delphi and are happy with it. The blog author instead highlights C++ based alternatives (bashing MFC), and seems to be looking for a cross-platform solution.
What I don't get is people crying foul for not using .NET, saying that is saves to much time because it has a great library. Granted, .NET has lot of classes and components, but the VCL (and probably other libraries like Qt) are not second to it. Features like Actions of the VCL are still not part of WinForms (the last time I checked) and can make a difference. Claiming if you don't use .net you have to write more code seems childish to me.
7 Comments
Choosing a Development Stack for Windows
A framework is not made only of widgets. The VCL is still a great UI framework, but its RTL is now somewhat poor. It lacks many features readily available in other frameworks (i.e. advanced containers, regular expression). It's true some of them are easily found in free libraries like JCL, but they should have become part of the RTL itself. And don't forget that even the TCP/IP library Delphi uses is a separate project that isn't "stable" enough yet.Comment by Luigi D. Sandon on March 26, 12:07
Choosing a Development Stack for Windows
> Granted, .NET has lot of classes and components, but > the VCL (and probably other libraries like Qt) are > not second to it. I think .NET probably wins in terms of sheer size and the number of classes, especially if you include all the .NET 3.5 stuff. How much of a framework is actually useful to you is a separate question. > Features like Actions of the VCL are > still not part of WinForms (the last time I checked) > and can make a difference. True, but you can go back and forward about particular favourites being included or not. I was never that fussed about Actions, as it happens :-) > Claiming if you don't use .net you have to write > more code seems childish to me. You could come up with examples to make any framework the winner in that contest, I'm sure. But if you've come from an MFC background, .NET is going to look pretty good :-) I felt too that the original blog did miss the point that most developers have little say in their development stack, unfortunately.Comment by Jim Cooper on March 26, 13:03
Choosing Desktop's Development Language
I use Delphi as my primary language since Delphi 1 (good days...) and now, I use RadStudio for desktop and web (asp.net) development. I agree with you when you say that for deskyop development Delphi is the most complete language but sometimes we have to do some windows applications in other languages. An exemple: one time a had to sync a customer's schedulle with Google Calendar. I had two options to do it - use the Java way or .Net assemblies. No doubts: .Net assemblies but since it had to be a Windows Application, I had to use WinForms to do it. Yes I could choose VCL.Net but at that time (actually until now) it seens not "trustfull"... But my point is: sometimes you have to use .Net to development Windows applications.Comment by Carlos Gabriel Arpini [http://www.tectrilha.com.br/bh] on March 26, 17:30
Choosing a Development Stack for Windows
>my impression is that he has never really used Delphi That is true. I have heard a lot of good things about Delphi, but I have never used because: -I prefer to use C++ to Pascal, because I have much more experience with it. -I prefer to develop cross-platform. -I worried about the commercial viability of Borland/Inprise/CodeGear. But, judging by the comments on my blog, it looks like Delphi has a very healthy user base. Lets hope CodeGear don't mess up.Comment by Andy Brice [http://www.successfulsoftware.net] on March 26, 17:56
Choosing a Development Stack for Windows
Google Calendar can be accessed using HTTP and XML. No need to use .NET or Java, unless you want to.Comment by Luigi D. Sandon on March 26, 21:27
Choosing a Development Stack for Windows
I was an early .net/C# believer and i still find potential in it, but not as i did before. Microsoft still changes things way too fast for us over-burned developers to follow. You get some time to build something big and before you ship ti the framework has changed 2 versions already... I was using Delphi for some time before but it cannot offer me a future so i do not go back there. So, about 1 year now i have settled in Python and PyQt, just as a guy tell in that article (and many other have done too) It is s pleasure to use this combination, stable and cross-platform as is, even if portability is not on my priorities list this time. But it feels good to know you have this option for the future. Going from Windows Forms to Qt is something that it can surely make you feel wondering for many things in MS developement platform...Comment by Kingkikapu on March 26, 22:56
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Choosing a Development Stack for Windows
Comment by Lex Y. Li [http://lextm.blogspot.com] on March 26, 03:43