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vendettanet
25-01-2008, 01:30 AM
Dear Friends, let me share my sadness story.

I am living in Indonesia - if you didn't know where is it, it's in south east asia right above australia and very near singapore.

I learn Pascal in University 1991, before that I do Basica & Quick Basic, learned in junior and senior high school, "what a DOS days". Then since I know Pascal, I fell in love with it, like there is no other. Even though after getting Logic & Algorithm (Pascal) course, I do took C course (Turbo C), but still I do my hobby programming at home only with Pascal, especially because new Turbo Pascal 7 is very nice that days (I even develop a tools application to generate Pascal code for a full feature windowed GUI for DOS applications by visual way, much like what Delphi did for windows environment). Then even came Delphi, now I fell in love with it and never look back 1995/96.

After graduated, my position rapidly raising as IT Manager in a Movie/TV company, can you imagine that ? Most what I've done there is manage computer hardware, networking, server admin, web designing, 3D animation, movie special effect and almost no programming. But still I have keep my hobby doing game programming, such developing a combination of Diablo & Ultima 7 Action RPG and I really love doing it in my spare time, it's the days of DirectX and Windows 98.

Then came the "south east asian monetary crisis", my company goes bankrupt, I do quit before it happen though (I can't stand my good boss pay my salary, just by doing nothing, because at that time the production almost got no order at all). Try my luck to work as a database programmer on a merchandizing company, but I can not stand in the office politics over there, and so I decided to quit again - 1999.

After unemployed almost a full year, my girlfriend told me there is an advertising of a new Game Company (an Australian company) looking for game programmers. It was really a shock for me, because it is the first Indonesian game company ever exists and before that, I never dream that I can work in a game industry at all. I do manage to impress several interviewers then got the job easily (by showing demo of my Action RPG mentioned previously). It is a very happy day and we are only 3 programmers accepted from 150++ applies.

But the happiness is soon over, when I face the fact that the company is using C++ (Visual Studio 6) instead of Pascal. Then I think why not using powerfull Delphi ? I even have to argue with my boss (from USA) on an assignment to develop tools & applications for supporting the game development in progress. My argue is: "it is faster and better to develop it uses Delphi". But my boss expression is just raising eyebrow and said: "What is Delphi? NEVER HEARD IT!".

Quite a shock and I thought: "is it really unpopular, Delphi outside of my country ?", so someone can simply said "Never Heard It" ?

Well OK, I think I must face the fact that this company is uses C++ and I thought to my self: "what did I've done by deciding to love Pascal and Delphi all these years anyway?".

I've tried very hard to love C++, REALLY, I do several project with success, even more weird, after that I must use Java (what the hell?) for a a web game project. Lucky me Java is just like a C++ with different name. Even tough I do really hard to try to love other languages, but still I cannot... I can't love C++! I can't love Java! I really really sorry to say my heart is only for Delphi. In course of almost 2 years I keep doing Delphi game programming in my spare time, though in office, I am also doing game programming, but at home, I do enjoy my Delphi game programming the most.

I have even showed the demo to my colleague programmers (they are all fresh graduate), and what are their response: "What language do you use?", I said: "Delphi", then they like look down on me, like what a low class and idiot language of choice.

It really break my heart, I don't know is it the world is change? do I really idiot by using Delphi? or something wrong in the world with Pascal, Borland and Delphi which I didn't know for past years since I've graduated ?

Well later I learn latest news is Borland - Inprise & DBase with many others Borland fiasco did the job done and Microsoft marketing and strategy aggresiveness have fatally done it over.

I tought heck man, what on earth the fact of an individual "nobody" like my self will be affected by such worldly event! Do I sorry for letting my love only to Pascal - Delphi ? Not yet...

Then I do quit from the Game Studio to form my own business with friends, simply an internet cafe store. It is a booming business that days 2001 till 2003 then it start to fell over like dominoes, since there is so many new competitor opening newer and better internet cafe (they have newer computers ofcourse while I need to reinvest all VGA, memory, processor, motherboard heck! NO), the price war is ON.

I did still doing several Delphi programming during those days, including "game development", but most of it, just for prototyping of an engine and testing it.

Today the fiercest market really hit me, income from internet cafe is no longer sufficient, I must apply for work. My whole family is in the USA like about 5-6 years already. I think I should move to USA too and working as game programmer or whatever programming I can take over there.

Really unlucky for me since 9/11 to get VISA on all purposes is really - really HARD. That is not all, I'm browsing job vacancy all over the world, and realize that, using my lovely language is not available at all for any vacancies. Darn, it is present days and I really need money for a living and my skills on Delphi like nothing. The only all of those vacancies requirement is C++, the LARGE - LARGE C++ all over the job requirements, also C#, LUA, etc.... And NONE about PASCAL or DELPHI!

I want to CRY! Is it my decision is really wrong? what a pity of fate...
I don't know about you guys, how you all keep this Pascal thingy rolling ?

But even I truly praise Pascal - Delphi, it is time for me to realize, the fact is: "the world is not a Pascal world", it is really cruel end to my love, a heart break, a sad story of Delphi goodbye...

My last program in Delphi 7 is my Game Tools & Engine "Moongate Tools", purpose to let "everyone develop their own game", without the need of prior programming knowledge at all. It is a game which something like I love the most: "Diablo + Ultima 7" again, but this time it has MMO capability ala Ragnarok if you know this korean MMORPG anyway. You can find the tools in this site too. I still have a lot of confidence when develop it, trying doing many multi thread trick there, network engineering algorithm such client prediction, bandwith optimization, anti cheat, also implementing persistent world Artificial Intelligent, etc.

But really, that is enough, now I am in the progress of relearning of C++ and trying to delete Pascal from my brain. Very very hard!

Before doing it, I am even considering to switch to Free Pascal - Lazarus - Linux programming, but the chance of future is still slim since in linux C++ also dominating.

Saddddddd :( like I wanna die, stupid me fell in love to a wrong language! My heart is still love Pascal, my mindset is Pascal, my code style is Pascal, but my stomach told me to get real money for buying food from C++!!!

How cruel this world, how stupid you "Borland", you fall and dragging me down! Or may be not the world which is wrong, but my self stupid-stupid decision in my university days, why should I quickly fell in love with Pascal in the first time? why should not I wait to fall in love with C a bit later? How unlucky there is no C++ in those days...

I wish I can turn the time over, and learn the mindset only for C and C++ for later...

I really wish!!!

It is really hard to forget a 17 years romance story with a language!
Even when I learn C++ I still open my old Delphi sources, still visit Lazarus's site, searching in google of "Why Pascal is not a language of choice", and typing this stupid story here...

I just can not understand why you people still stick with Pascal and have a happy days ? Please help me what should I do? at least please tell me is it this time my decision is correct ?

Why there is no vacancy for Delphi programmer?

Why?

Please...

LP
25-01-2008, 03:52 AM
It really break my heart, I don't know is it the world is change? do I really idiot by using Delphi? or something wrong in the world with Pascal, Borland and Delphi which I didn't know for past years since I've graduated ?

No, you use appropriate tools for the appropriate job. Delphi can be really good both for games and software development. Yes, you shouldn't close your eyes on other languages - every language and its accompanying IDE have their advantages and weaknesses.



Then I do quit from the Game Studio to form my own business with friends, simply an internet cafe store. It is a booming business that days 2001 till 2003 then it start to fell over like dominoes, since there is so many new competitor opening newer and better internet cafe (they have newer computers ofcourse while I need to reinvest all VGA, memory, processor, motherboard heck! NO), the price war is ON.

Yes, that's pretty much what happened to my partner and me when we opened our Internet/Gaming Cafe. IMHO this business becomes less viable every day. You might open a diner cafe or sell icecream and have much more income than from Internet Cafe these days.



Really unlucky for me since 9/11 to get VISA on all purposes is really - really HARD. That is not all, I'm browsing job vacancy all over the world, and realize that, using my lovely language is not available at all for any vacancies. Darn, it is present days and I really need money for a living and my skills on Delphi like nothing. The only all of those vacancies requirement is C++, the LARGE - LARGE C++ all over the job requirements, also C#, LUA, etc.... And NONE about PASCAL or DELPHI!

There are actually much more ways of paying for the living, it's just that you have to be very creative sometimes. As I said previously, don't get very attached to just one language. C# and Visual Studio both are great development environments - try them and you may actually start to like them. :)



I want to CRY! Is it my decision is really wrong? what a pity of fate...
I don't know about you guys, how you all keep this Pascal thingy rolling ?

Honestly, I get most of my income from working with PHP (mostly business applications). However, with our game Wicked Defense (http://www.wicked-defense.com) and other two games planned to be released this year - I hope to get more involved working in Delphi.



My last program in Delphi 7 is my Game Tools & Engine "Frank's Moongate", purpose to let "everyone develop their own game", without the need of prior programming knowledge at all. It is a game which something like I love the most: "Diablo + Ultima 7" again, but this time it has MMO capability ala Ragnarok if you know this korean MMORPG anyway. You can find the tools in this site too. I still have a lot of confidence when develop it, trying doing many multi thread trick there, network engineering algorithm such client prediction, bandwith optimization, anti cheat, also implementing persistent world Artificial Intelligent, etc.
This is probably a common mistake most people do. Don't work on game engine - it's a waste of time. It won't sell well and you may not use all of it for your game. Focus on the actual product instead and you will see that *there is no generic engine that fits a particular game perfectly*.

Don't develop engine so that you can work on some game later on. Design your game and its architecture, and start working on your first prototype.



Before doing it, I am even considering to switch to Free Pascal - Lazarus - Linux programming, but the chance of future is still slim since in linux C++ also dominating.
IMHO Linux is not a viable platform for commercial development. You may have better luck with Mac OS, but cross-platform will require a significant effort (unless you use OpenGL, which will make your game barely playable on Windows user machines where native OpenGL drivers are not installed by default), so the development for these platforms is "too expensive" to worth the trouble.



I just can not understand why you people still stick with Pascal and have a happy days ? Please help me what should I do? at least please tell me is it this time my decision is correct ?
We work with Pascal because you can still make money developing software and games.

Also, do you realize that to getting product complete is more a psychological challange rather than technical? Push it to get the work done, avoid distractions, be open-minded but not easily disappointed even if people say your game/prototype sucks, etc.

In our game Wicked Defense, technical stuff was easy. The difficult part was to push my partner to finish some artwork, to *avoid playing Starcraft/Alpha Centauri/X-COM/Master of Magic/UT 2004* in our office instead of working, to keep coding even when having a massive hangover, try to stay motivated and keep improving the game when your best friends say it's crap, to limit the time you spend with your girlfriend (and let her understand that you will get a return later on on your time investment), etc.

There was *no single technical problem* that delayed the development of our game. All problems were psychological and/or emotional. If you can control your emotions, you can do pretty much anything in this life. Having said this, the fact that you use Delphi becomes less important and even a minor issue.

Brainer
25-01-2008, 04:27 AM
I just can not understand why you people still stick with Pascal and have a happy days ? Please help me what should I do? at least please tell me is it this time my decision is correct ?

You can try to make software to order. :) This is what I do. Althought I'm only 15 years old, I earned a couple of money by doing this. :) I have to admit - it's hard to find a customer. Especially for a kid like me.

In my humble opinion, Pascal/Delphi is not a bad choice. You might not find an interesting job offer on a team using this language though, but you can always try to make a game and then find a publisher. For all I know, publishers don't care about the language the game was written in. ;)

There's a hope for you and for all of us! :D Just don't give up, man!

Mirage
25-01-2008, 06:28 AM
vendettanet: Yes, there is no many Delphi vacancies (depending on country), especially in gamedev industry. Actually I know only two modern games made with Delphi - Act of War and XIII Century. Plus many casual/shareware games.
So if you want to work in a gamedev company as a programmer you should recall C++. And Pascal coding style here is a plus in my opinion.

Of course you can program (yes, and games too) in Delphi and make money selling your programs as shareware as many people does, including myself.;)

wodzu
25-01-2008, 08:20 AM
@vendettanet:

Situation is not so bad as you may think and it is getting better (because of all the good stuff going on around FPC and Delphi 2007). In my country there is like 10 Delphi jobs per month so... if you are ready to travel..;-)

I am having luck to write this post in my office with Delphi 7 oppened in the bottom tab (soon 2007;) )

And I think that situation in UK or USA is way better. Just don't give up. You may also want to start your own company and fill a lot of gaps on the business market, by making smaller applications for individual customers.
And after getting back from work you may try to use Lifepower's Asphyre :D or even pure Direct3D to write your own game with hope of selling it someday.

Good luck!

JSoftware
25-01-2008, 01:53 PM
...Act of War..

Are you actually sure? Eugen System only searches for C++ and C# programmers at the moment

Edit: And to the OP. Yes Pascal is my main language. I could never forget how to code it :)
However there are not many Delphi jobs up here either. I was lucky to get a job in a nice company where my starting task was to convert some old Delphi code to VB.Net

chronozphere
25-01-2008, 03:57 PM
I agree that it's very sad, that many companies choose C++ and almost none chooses Delphi. :(

I'm not ready for a career as a programmer/software designer (Too busy with study). However... i allready ordered "C++ for dummies" so i can start learning that, to spread my chances to become a succesfull coder. But i think it will be harder and less fun than Pascal. Pascal will remain my "Mother programming language" :D



Well later I learn latest news is Borland - Inprise & DBase with many others Borland fiasco did the job done and Microsoft marketing and strategy aggresiveness have fatally done it over.


Damn... Microsoft indeed only supports C++, C# and VB AFAIK. That will have a bad influence on delphi populairity :(

I would encourage everyone to start companies which use delphi/FPC and pascal. It would be great if the world knew what a powerfull and elegant language it is. :P

vendettanet: At first i thought it was really odd to associate programming (languages) with phenomenons like "passion" and "love", but as my experience and motivation grew, i found out that programming (which seems a bit dull) really has to do with emotions etc....

I suddenly realized this, as i was reading your post. ;)

Mirage
25-01-2008, 05:18 PM
Are you actually sure? Eugen System only searches for C++ and C# programmers at the moment

PE Explorer shows Delphi-specific signature in .exe. Also there was d3dx81ab.dll in game's folder which needed only for delphi.

JernejL
25-01-2008, 05:48 PM
Are you actually sure? Eugen System only searches for C++ and C# programmers at the moment

PE Explorer shows Delphi-specific signature in .exe. Also there was d3dx81ab.dll in game's folder which needed only for delphi.

It could have been BCB...

Aniway, delphi is great for game dev, but tbh borland really ****ed up delphi with all the wrong choices over the years, if we want a delphi programming market now we need to make one.

chronozphere
25-01-2008, 07:37 PM
Aniway, delphi is great for game dev, but tbh borland really ****ed up delphi with all the wrong choices over the years,

Didn't know that :? What are those wrong choices if i may ask?

dmantione
25-01-2008, 09:56 PM
Didn't know that :? What are those wrong choices if i may ask?


* Killing products with active user communities. Notably Turbo Pascal and Kylix. Note we started coding Free Pascal because we and the world did need a Turbo Pascal successor.
* Underestimating the power of the bits. Borland had a 32-bit compiler when the world had already converted its software to 32-bit systems. They did so without Borland tools. Codegear will have a 64-bit compiler when most software is already converted to 64-bit, again without Codegear tools.
* Going with .NET and wasting valuable resources on being two stepts behind Microsoft all the time.
* Not doing improvement on their compiler for years (has to do with .NET)
* Introducing questionable improvements into the language
* Releasing buggy Delphi versions
* Killing the Delphi help system

Want more?

dmantione
25-01-2008, 10:03 PM
In some good news, two indicators indicating programming language popularity show interrest in Pascal is increasing:

Tiobe TPCI index:



At the beginning of 2007, I thought C# and D would become the winners and Perl and Delphi the losers. C# was indeed one of the big winners, and Perl one of the big losers. But the forecasts for D and Delphi were completely wrong. There has been no breakthrough for D. On the other hand, Delphi reclaimed a top 10 position...


http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm

Ohloh language popularity statistics:

http://www.ohloh.net/languages/14

JSoftware
25-01-2008, 10:26 PM
* Introducing questionable improvements into the language
Ah, in which sense? It has made quite some nice improvements to class definitions. I think the operator overloading is more Pascal-like and intuitive than their FPC equivalents, but indeed less powerful in some situations.
Sure FPC is racing ahead(I love the generics in FPC. I can't get enough of specialized TFPGMap's :) ) but overall I've liked Delphi more than I have of the competitors on the Pascal market


* Releasing buggy Delphi versions

You've got a bit of a point there. Delphi 7 was the epitome of a nice IDE. But Turbo Delphi Explorer likes to crash on me on completely random occasions

dmantione
25-01-2008, 10:49 PM
* Introducing questionable improvements into the language
Ah, in which sense? It has made quite some nice improvements to class definitions. I think the operator overloading is more Pascal-like and intuitive than their FPC equivalents, but indeed less powerful in some situations.
Sure FPC is racing ahead(I love the generics in FPC. I can't get enough of specialized TFPGMap's :) ) but overall I've liked Delphi more than I have of the competitors on the Pascal market


I could make a long list, but some of the features I find most disgusting:
* Accepting 0 as a valid pointer value
* Dynamic arrays have pointer semantics, but value syntax
* Records can have methods
* Proprietary, less powerfull operator overloading syntax
* Making pointer dereferencing optional
* Constant arrays have set syntax

JSoftware
25-01-2008, 11:15 PM
* Accepting 0 as a valid pointer value
Come on, it issues a warning at least :)


* Records can have methods

Ah, great stuff. You'll have to incorporate this into FPC. I love it!


* Dynamic arrays have pointer semantics, but value syntax
* Constant arrays have set syntax
Could you elaborate on those two?

LP
26-01-2008, 01:41 AM
I could make a long list, but some of the features I find most disgusting:
[...]
Well, they are still features, aren't they? :) Surprisingly, some of this stuff I've been using in Delphi for quite a long time, but when porting some code to FPC I've been quite annoyed at its extremely strict syntax resembling old days of Turbo Pascal (e.g. MyItem^.Hello instead of MyItem.Hello).

Actually, I see features introduced to Delphi language by Borland/CodeGear as a big plus, in addition to improved IDE in BDS 2006 / Turbo Delphi. Their move for .NET has been seriously a mistake.

cronodragon
26-01-2008, 01:47 AM
I learned real programming with Pascal. So thanks to Pascal I could understand and learn other languages as well. That's why I love it.

I'm happy watching how much FPC and Lazarus have advanced, and I'm starting to love them over Delphi... Once I thought about leaving Pascal, but today it's just amazing to compile my engine in Windows, Linux and DOS just clicking a button. I even recovered code I wrote back in 1998 (10 years ago!!). So cool :D We will have Pascal for a long long time.

dmantione
26-01-2008, 08:42 AM
* Dynamic arrays have pointer semantics, but value syntax
* Constant arrays have set syntax
Could you elaborate on those two?

var a,b:array of byte;

begin
setlength(a,1);
a[0]:=1;
b:=a;
b[0]:=2;
writeln(a[0]);
end;


A and b are basically pointers to arrays, but because they don't use a pointer syntax, the above result is unexpected for many.


procedure a(const b:array of byte);

begin
end;

begin
a([1,2,3,4]); {Set constant or array constant?}
end;


Now in this example things are pretty clear, but if procedure a is in a different unit, it is not clear what that constant means.

dmantione
26-01-2008, 08:55 AM
Actually, I see features introduced to Delphi language by Borland/CodeGear as a big plus, in addition to improved IDE in BDS 2006 / Turbo Delphi.

Borland/Codegear have introduced great features, no disagreement about that. What I did want to state is that they lost their sense of good taste and the language is more baroque than it should have been. They are going to need vision to evolve the language help it remain competitive, but completely lost that, look at the list of recent new features, they are all from .NET. Now I don't say anything .NET is necessarily bad, but you need to be able to think independently and that I haven't seen from Borland/Codegear for a long time.

JernejL
26-01-2008, 10:58 AM
* Records can have methods

Ah, great stuff. You'll have to incorporate this into FPC. I love it!


Ever heard of packed objects?
Too bad fpc doesn't support bit packing in packed objects or methods in records, but i guess you can't have it all at once yet ;)

wodzu
26-01-2008, 12:10 PM
You've got a bit of a point there. Delphi 7 was the epitome of a nice IDE. But Turbo Delphi Explorer likes to crash on me on completely random occasions

Maybe it is just me but my Delphi 7 crashes everyday, especialy when I close it;)

However, my Delphi 2007 had no single crash since I am using it.

chronozphere
26-01-2008, 01:48 PM
I think that Delphi 7 is one of the best delphi versions available. It works very nice and stable on my machine. BDS explorer however raises AV's every 20 minutes, even when i'm only changing my source. I also tried Delphi 2007. It is quite nice, and the language has more features. On the other hand, there are things i don't like about it.

> The help system is totally messed up. In Delphi 7 everything work's fine.
> The nodes in the code explorer tree, are expanded by default, which i think is really annoying. I have to scroll for ages to find a specific method or var. :( This was no problem in Delphi 7. The nodes only expand, when you clicked the + and only collapsed when you click the -. That's how i think it should work. :)

I really hope that Codegear will make their new products a bit more stable, reliable and user-friendly. Delphi 2007 has great features, but i REALLY need a good help system. So i'll stick with Delphi 7 for the moment... until borland releases some better version.

JernejL
26-01-2008, 04:26 PM
so.. let's wikify the help files of D7?

wodzu
26-01-2008, 06:27 PM
I really hope that Codegear will make their new products a bit more stable, reliable and user-friendly. Delphi 2007 has great features, but i REALLY need a good help system. So i'll stick with Delphi 7 for the moment... until borland releases some better version.

Have you tried Update 3? They improved help a lot. Now it is like 80% of D7 help :D

yassersoft
16-09-2009, 05:31 PM
Delphi is a good language. But I prefer Macromedia Flash, python/pygame or Gamemaker. I use delphi for helping tools programs. I got GLScene for delphi 7, but I have not try it.

wodzu
16-09-2009, 07:53 PM
And here we are. One and a half year after that topic was started.
Is Pascal still your lovely language?;)

For me it is.. but evil Microsoft's clouds are covering beautiful Pascal sky more and more.... but wait! There is this fresh Free Pascal wind! Also, does Delphi reborn like a phoenix? ;) Who knows what will happen?

arthurprs
17-09-2009, 11:02 PM
Cuz pascal code looks better 8)

WILL
19-09-2009, 09:52 PM
You know. I've been horribly disappointed by Delphi since 8 and even 2005. But seeing 2010, wow! They are starting to see past just what their competition is doing and they are starting to return to what made the compiler/IDE combination great. Flexibility and availability!

No more do I expect more lame components that do nothing more than what me and my 'friends' (*ahem* you guys *ahem*) could do. lol There is some real practical and modivational innovation going on here these days. Yes, late, but better late than never. And it doesn't look like they are going to be slowing down either. [The impossibly hard to say|or remember how to spell] Embarcadero Technologies really looks like they are the best people to own the tools and the team that makes them. They have made more progress in the last year or so than in all those years since Delphi 7 with Borland. They even corrected a few messes made by Borland.

Delphi is indeed reborn! I think 2010 is a step in the right direction. I can't wait for what they do next with it.

wodzu
19-09-2009, 10:07 PM
Yes WILL they are making a good progress starting from Delphi 2007. However they refuse to make a free version of Delphi like they (Borland) did in early days. Without free version there is no new user base and without a user base...
I think the next one or two releases will definie a future for Delphi. They said that they will deliver a cross platform solution in the next release. This is hard for me to belive and they want to target Linux and Mac OS at the same time.
If they manage to do it and people will buy that version (hope that story with Kylix won't happen again) the future will look bright.

WILL
19-09-2009, 10:55 PM
I doubt a Kylix repeat. I mean that was just pathetic Borland marketing trying to run the development side of the tools.

As far as the free Delphi is concerned though, that was Code Gear that set that up not Borland. The Code Gear team was the team behind that 100%. I thought it was good, but I doubt that the Turbo Delphi releases would alone bring back a strong era for the Delphi tools. What I think would be a better idea would be a stripped-down compiler/IDE package for Small Businesses and Students/Hobbiests at a reasonable price for those small-time developers. They still only have Architect and Professional editions of Delphi. 'Standard' still hasn't seemed to have make a return yet.

But maybe something like a 'Delphi Lite' at say... $60 - $100 might bring in some extra users of the tools.

wodzu
19-09-2009, 11:09 PM
WILL,
Delphi had free editions long before Code Gear has been born.
I am sure Delphi 3 - 7 was free for personal usage. If it wasn't I would not know that language. In those days Delphi was at schools at least in my country and it was in schools because it's licence allowed that. It was free for personal and educational usage.

Ñuño Martínez
21-09-2009, 02:36 PM
AFAIK Delphi isn't free for any purpose since Embarcadero bought CodeGears. They removed the Turbo edition and they put an evaluation copy with "time limit". I think it was a bad idea. As you said a free full functional version will help to get new users from schools and universities and self-learners. I've read at Lazarus' forums and mailing list that there are several schools and universities that are using Lazarus and/or Free Pascal right now. I think Embarcadero must re-think about it.

BTW I did read some good words about Delphi 2010. I can't remember where I read that it will support both .NET and Mono. I hope I can test it someday for free because I can't buy it. ::)

wodzu
21-09-2009, 03:35 PM
?ëu?±o it is the best release from all Delphi releases so far :-)
Excluding help...

However it doesn't support .NET. To use .NET you would have to use Delphi Prism which is also a good tool.

I think for any future game development I will use Free Pascal since it gives so much platforms besides Win32. It is awesome :-)

awilum
24-10-2009, 07:00 PM
Is Pascal is Still My Lovely Language
Yes :)