Poll : - about Pascal / Delphi -

[marmin]

A Poll.


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Question no 1:
- Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language

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Question no 2:
- How long have you been programming in Pascal

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Question no 3:
- Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years

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Question no 4:
- Were these games (applications) succesful?

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Question no 5:
- Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.

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Question no 6:
- What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?




Thanks!___________________________________________ _____
Your answers won't be used in any profitable ways.. :D DD

[marmin]

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Question no 1:
Pascal seemed to me a very good language, and Delphi 2 was very interesting, so I sticked to it.
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Question no 2:
For about 4-5 ys.
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Question no 3:
Not fully finished projects, but a lot of unfinished projects.

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Question no 4:
n.a.
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Question no 5:
Yes, lot of difficulties, most tutorials are written in other languages. But it's possible to translate. And have the code in REAL nice fashion like Pascal. :D

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Question no 6:
-more publicity? More companies who use Pascal to make games.
edit: i want also to stress that Pascal devs must be proud, and not shy , to defend their language. This site is a very good example as how to make it grow.



]

[JSoftware]

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Question no 1:
My father thought me how to make a calculator in delphi 3 when i was 11. I've used it ever since
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Question no 2:
4-5 years
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Question no 3:
i can't brag about any seriously completed project. like marmin, lots of unfinished projects :roll:

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Question no 4:
nah.. they never worked when i wanted to show then to my dad :cry:
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Question no 5:
I started out with applications consisting of forms where i didn't have to move too much into code. Not any problems there however when i started to look at graphics programming in opengl, dx etc. i got a few problems finding enough ressources in delphi
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Question no 6:
I think it's not good. People at my school think of pascal as a learning language though they've never seen any bit of pascal-code. Who would start to learn a language that "is just made for learning purposes"?
So more ressources about delphi. More publicity. School deals, at my school we can choose programming as a class. java has been choosen the last 7 years as they don't have access to any legal delphi packages anymore! I've tried to tell them about freepascal but they say that they're happy about java so why change?

Regards Jeppe

[Mirage]

- Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language

Pascal/Modula 2 which Delphi is based on is a well thought-out language. Main benefits - rapid development, low debugging time, self-explaining code.


- How long have you been programming in Pascal

~10 years.


- Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years

A lot. Including 3 games.


- Were these games (applications) succesful?

Yes, some of them.


- Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.

No.


- What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?

Oberon 2.

[LP]

Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language?
Because it was a logical step after using Turbo Pascal *many years ago*.


How long have you been programming in Pascal?
~10 years


Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years?
Applications: countless
Games: several


Were these games (applications) succesful?
Applications: all of them
Games: only two


Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.
No.


What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?
IMHO very clouded.

[technomage]

Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language?
I did a course at University on Object Oriented Programming, the language we used was Delphi v1, I've been hooked ever since. :D


How long have you been programming in Pascal?
8-10 years


Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years?
Applications - quite a few, I was fortunate to land a full-time delphi programming job.
Games - none, working on one though.
Components - a few namely the SXMedia components for DelphiX


Were these games (applications) succesful?
Applications yes, and the components were used in at least one comercial game, so I count that as a yes :wink:


Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.
not really, but I know C++, C VB and C# to varing degrees. It is difficult to get Delphi work though.


What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?
not sure... I'll still use it anyway :D If you want an application developed quickly which can run on any windows box without any extra runtime libraries, I still think delphi is the way to go. :D

[K4Z]

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Question no 1:
'cos I'd wake up in the middle of the night, screaming with a cold sweat, after having nightmares about c code :lol: .

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Question no 2:
On and off for 5 years.

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Question no 3:
Yes.

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Question no 4:
To me yes :wink: , but most my projects are for personal use and not really interesting.

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Question no 5:
Overall no, I haven't found many sources that couldn't somehow be duplicated in pascal. It can be quite anouying to have to go through soo much criptic c code all the time to find answers to specific problems.

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Question no 6:
I think the future is good, but at the same time very fragile. There are quite a number of those developing and using Pascal languages, but not nearly enough willing to stand up and defend it.

After all these years Pascal is still considered a Learning Language. Which is funny because I think everything language is a learning language :). I use a number of languages nearly everyday, Java, PHP, C++, Pascal, Delphi...And I'd be darned if I don't learn something new everyday :wink: . When the learning stops, that's when coding stops being fun and becomes a chore.

[alexione]

- Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language
- The first language I was teached (after BASIC, of course), was C - :shock:! Then, I learned Pascal by myself, and I use it ever since.

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- How long have you been programming in Pascal
- > 10 years

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- Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years
- Several commercial applications in Delphi, lots of home-utilities, still working on a game :D

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- Were these games (applications) succesful?
- As for applications, they all are. As for games.... hope it will!

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- Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.
- Not very much, nothing worth enough to chose C/C++/...

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- What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?
- The biggest problem Pascal has is - bad reputation. Famous sentence "If you want to make serious games, you have to use C++" is still very frequent and loud. Let's show them the opposite!

[Traveler]

Question no 1:
- After basic I wanted something new, better. It became Turbo Pascal. The real fun started when I got a demo of Delphi 1. Got stuck to it ever since.

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Question no 2:
- Not really sure. +10 years

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Question no 3:
Applications, tools, 1 finished game

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Question no 4:
- Applications yes
- Tools yes
- Game, not really sure, could be.

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Question no 5:
- nope.

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Question no 6:
- Pretty good. I think it has a solid userbase/

[Sascha Willems]

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Question no 1:
Because Turbo Pascal 7.0 was cheap back at the time when I was looking for a full IDE. I was using C++ before that, but C++-IDEs were rather expensive at the time, so I went for TP7.0 for 100 DM (or something around that price, don't remember)

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Question no 2:
For over ten years now. I started with Pascal after the release of TP7.0, which must have been some time around 1993/1994.

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Question no 3:
Yes, plenty finished apps and games. When counting the apps and games form Pascal and Delphi together, I think it should be some dozens that were finished.

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Question no 4:
Yes. One of my most successfull one was a 3D-Bomberman called "Napalm Bomber 3D". I stopped counting at around 50000 downloads and it still gets some hundred downloads per month. It also can be downloaded from many free game sites and has been on the cover CD/DVD of at least three german gaming magazines.

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Question no 5:
For games not, players are not interested in what language a game has been written, they care about the game itself.
For apps, sometimes yes. Some customers prefer an application written in C++ or C#, mostly because they don't know anything about Delphi.

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Question no 6:
Well, it's hard to say, but I don't think that Pascal will ever come out of it's niche (hope that's spelled right). There aren't really big innovations, and the only real innovations are currently coming from FPC, which isn't created by a money-heavy company. So I don't see a very bright future for Pascal, as long as Borland doesn't start to put in some innovations.

[FNX]

- Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language

It was the first language I learnt at school when I was 13.


- How long have you been programming in Pascal

Since I was 13 (but for job purposes last 5-6 years)


- Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years

I did many cause I use Delphi at work too (financial field, tools, utilities etc..)


- Were these games (applications) succesful?

(Apps) Sure, or else I would not be working in the field anymore :P
(Games) I finished many but little and not interesting. Only lately (as you
already know) I'm working on some 2d games with a little potential I'd like
to finish soon.


- Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.

No as for now I didn't have any application I was unable to develop in
delphi. For the rest I know also C, C++, Java, VB (mostly java but only
for web stuff) ;)


- What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?

Pascal is a wonderful language and very powerfull. About delphi all
depends on borland but lately they seem not to choose the right directions
on the market (IMO) so people see borland as "not a safe choice" for their
products (in Italy at least). Anyway I faced, in my 7 ( :oops:) years career
lots of project managers that didn't know delphi at all and was impressed
when I showed them some alternatives to their pathetic VB programs
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

I hope Delphi/Pascal will never die!

[cairnswm]

Question no 1:
- Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language

I like the ease in which Delphi prgrams can be read. I typically can pick up any delphi program and read the source to understand it.

Question no 2:
- How long have you been programming in Pascal

I have been coding in Pascal since 1989 - ie 16 years.

Question no 3:
- Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years

Yes. In my job I have done 2 enterprise level applications, as well as countless utilities.
I make a lot of small games.
I have my name as a coder in one Boxed game where I wrote the game modules in Delphi which were integrated into the C++ code.

Question no 4:
- Were these games (applications) succesful?

Yes.

Question no 5:
- Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.

Yes. Not really because its Delphi but because I have specialised ion only one development language. This is now causing me problems as I need a wider base of languages to proceed in my career as an IT Architect.

Question no 6:
- What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?

Unfortunatly I do not believe it very bright. I believe that Java and C# are taking the place of Pascal as the easy to use yet powerful languages. Also as Java is cross platform it automatically gets a lot more attention and as Linux becomes more widely used in large corporations the use of Java will continually grow. My only hope is that FreePascal (or similar) will soon become usable at an enterprise level, unfortunatly I think that the FreePascal team is at least 3 years away from making this a reality.

[Balaras]

- Why did you choose ( Object ) Pascal / Delphi as a programming language
It was actually the other way around. Pascal chose me. It was what they tought at school. Before that, we were used logo and comal80 :D
By the time I was introduced to other languages it was too late. Pascal had become my precious (not that I'm complaining).

- How long have you been programming in Pascal
Wauw, 17 years on and off. My daytime job centers around PHP. I have not had the opportunity to sneak in pascal yet.

- Have you made any finished games or applications, in the past years
Only small utility applications.
I have started a lot and have plans to start even more.

- Were these games (applications) succesful?
I made one application for the danish Guinness museum of world records. Two training bicycles connected to the parallel port. Two gauges and a background picture. Pure VCL. Really crappy stuff :)
That was about 8-10 years ago. If they still use it I would deem it a success. :D

- Are you experiencing difficulties, because you have chosen Pascal as your main language and not mainstream languages like C, C++.
No.

- What is, in your opinion, the future of the language Pascal?
Fairly bright I'd say. I don't see pascal gaining much more market, mainly because of C#, but on the other hand I don't think it will deminish either. One of the reasons is that pascal has a very strong, knowledgeable and passionate user community and Delphi still is one of the strongest GUI builder tools.