New Site Name!

[savage]

I understand the fear of changing the name away from being Delphi centric, but the fact is that we need to broaden the scope of the site in order to reach a wider audience. Having Delphi in the name reduces our visibility and make it more developer specific.

The points I wanted to make were...
1. For Pascal ( or Delphi for that matter ) to be taken seriously as a viable game development tool, it needs to be more cross-platform.
Though Borland has gone some way with this ( Kylix ), I think that FreePascal has gone even further. They currently support Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, DOS, Win32, OS/2, BeOS, SunOS (Solaris), QNX, AmigaOS and announced last week that a beta version of the MacOS X compiler is available from ftp://ftp.freepascal.org/fpc/beta/macosx-powerpc-1.9.3.
I do not want to use C/C++ unless I am forced to, so having this flexibility means a lot to me.

2. To be honest, I am disappointed, thus far with Borland's commitment to native compilers ( like 64bit support like FPC ) and also to their cross-platform compiler, Kylix. Yes I understand that they have a small team, hence the reason for focussing on Delphi.NET, but I still have faith in the growth of Linux, as indicated by Mandrake's recent return to profitability and exit from bankruptcy. This was an opportunity for Borland to take the lead on a new platform, if only they could stick it out and have also brought out a MacOS X compiler. So my point being, I for one am not putting all my development energy into a Delphi specific code. I ensure that my code compiles on Delphi, Kylix and at least FPC, just in case Borland decides to stop supporting Delphi ( as they seem to have done with Kylix, for the time being ).

3. If Pascal Game Dev sounds too old fashioned, how about "Object Pascal Game Development" akd OPGD or an anagram like PDOG or GODP, as this is more accurate as to what most people will be using to create their games. And most of the non-Delphi compilers support a subset or more of the OP syntax and in some cases have more language features than Delphi. Actually another just dawned on me... OPGOD which could be Object Pascal Gathering of Developers .

4. Keep in mind that both the DelphiGamer.com url and the dgdev url would redirect to the new site for at least another year or so. This should give current Delphi developers plenty of time to realise that the new site caters for more than just Delphi Game Dev. The site would also be optimised so that if you type "Delphi Game or Pascal Game of Object Pascal" it should almost always hit our site. We need a way of pushing our site to the top of Google for starters and any other search engines as well.

So to wrap up, though I would be sorry to see DelphiGamer.com disappear, as it has been part of my life for so long now, I realise that to catch more fish, we need a bigger net. I really want the Object Pascal Game developing world, to be taken seriously, and a bigger/wider targetting site will hopefully bring this about.

Appologies for the length of the post ops:

[Bobby]

Hi, I agree with will, although I think it should be called Pascal Game Development and not Games, it just sounds better

[Sly]

Is it just me that reads PGD as "pigged"? Or PDOG as "pigdog"? We could have a pig as our mascot. Why not? Linux has a penguin.

While Borland has officially dropped the Object Pascal name and called the language Delphi along with the IDE, it is still known as Pascal by the world at large. Delphi does not have the monopoly on Pascal development either. There is FreePascal, TMT Pascal (and probably some others that I have missed) that are quite simply not Delphi. In many ways, these other flavours of Pascal are pushing Pascal further into the future than Borland has been recently. In this regard, having "Delphi" in the title does seem to exclude other Pascal users from the site.

[TheLion]

I personally like the name DGDev, even tho the website extends to FreePascal too on occasion. I just like the way the name can be pronounced easily!

Besides Delphi is said to be Pascal, however Delphi is also said to be the language Delphi and Pascal is called Object Pascal in Delphi, which brings me to the end conclusion that Delphi is the name of an "improved" Pascal language, so in theory the name ofthe language Delphi would also be correct for FreePascal, since it aims to be Delphi compatible!

PGDev allready sounds a lot better tho!

[lithander]

In my opinion the emphasis should lie primarily on game development. What is the language and the IDE more than a tool that enables the developer to create apps/games? Thus, to reach a significantly wider audience, I'd propose to leave all language specifics out of the name and welcome everybody who could share his knowledge and experience regardless what language he uses. :roll:

But, as for the decission PGD yes or no:

First of all, I think both the main pro and contra argument are very strong: As the new Delphi versions aren't overly innovative compared to competitioners I can imagine that many Delphi coder look for alternatives. Some of them will for sure move over to FreePascal. It would be nice if they still coulf feel at home at these pages.
On the other hand Delphi used to be more than an IDE or a compiler. It is the synonym for the programminglanguage, too. ("I've coded this in Delphi")
Thus, we should make sure that Google still hits this sites when the search querie contains Delphi instead of Pascal, because as allready mentioned most people won't search for Pascal.

Well, time for a vote: I'd agree with Dominique to use the term "object pascal" because it's a big difference compared to plain pascal in my eyes.
--> Object Pascal Game Development

-lith

[Karaman]

I am 2 thumbs up for the name

[WILL]

Just a small footnote, so everyone doesn't mistake what we intend. We are not going to move away from Delphi. This is the home for not only Delphi but ALL Pascal game development. Think of it more like adding a few family members to a party already in progress.

I'm quite sure that we will not alienate any Delphi users by using the term Pascal instead. And to be frankly honest if we do... well they should have read a book or two before they started using the software. Object Pascal is still the language the IDE uses no matter what you wish to call it.

Alternatively we could call it OPGD, but just PGD is more generic and covers the most of the languages(2 by my count, if that depending on what direction Free Pascal decides to do).

As for search engines, ever hear of Meta Tags? The wonderful little things allow you to add keywords without needing to be seen within the content of the site. They're great for search engines. We will have these so we may call the site whatever we want it it matters not as to weither search engines will rank us high or low, just based on the actual content(which will have lots of 'pascal', 'object pascal' and 'delphi' words in it).

You name something for what you want it to be, not want you want to attract.

[LP]

Using Delphi Game development or similar is best approach since that's where games are developed (even though there're enough pascal languages over there, be it more or less features than Delphi). Never the less, I've cast a vote for the Pascal Games Development since it's more generic, defined correctly (Delphi Games development really is nonsense since Delphi itseld is just an IDE with some tools... would do the same as Notepad Game Development) and probably somehow reminds of old DOS days where some of us tried (and failed... j/k) developing games in Turbo Pascal, etc.

Cheers,
Lifepower

[WiZz]

I like site name which is now. i don't know why it must be changed. for me everything must be in the same way how it is now.

[Canderel]

Erm... I guess it's too late to suggest titles, but, I like the idea of a generic name, but also the word pascal (like some previous ppl said) brings up kinda old and outdated associations.

[size=16px]Pascal++ Game Development ... [/size]



Or something to indicate the less archaic associations with 'pascal'.