Increasing traffic on PGD...

[LP]

Sorry, if I barge in as I am rather new here, but please do not drop support for Freepascal. I am not interested in Delphi but searching for good tutorials for FPC.

How did you infer from me suggesting to promote more materials for Delphi, to drop support for FreePascal? Seems like a irrelevant thesis fallacy.

I disagree, this is because they still have choice that you can capture new recruits.Though in that reguard Delphi starts with a severe disadvantage as there is no "free" option anymore besides Lazarus.

I don't recall that there was free version of Delphi before Delphi 6 personal and it was still popular. Also, you may wonder why many developers, myself included, are paying a thousand dollars (!) for a product, where they could have simply used a supposedly free alternative.

In addition, Embarcadero is offering (similar to what Borland did) Delphi versions to academic institutions at huge discounts (90%-97% discount).

I disagree here too, institutions are in practice either universities (where they usually don't have any serious grasp of game programming) or work-sponsored (and bosses ain't gonna pay for game programming).

This is a common misconception. There are many institutions, including the one I was in, that have a very strong software engineering program. This program makes you competent not only for game development, but for any software development in general. After you finish, you can also optionally opt for M. Sc and even D.Sc. degrees, which are highly competent as well. Yes, studying is not easy here at ITESM, you will probably have to study overtime, working on projects at night and so on, but it's totally worth it.

Sure, there are some universities where some teachers stink, but this is part of life. In one point or another, you will have a lousy teacher, a business partner that is a jerk, a boss that stinks or even a president that sucks. This, however, does not mean that you should put away the education.

Just by getting first university degree, you can get a work as software engineer for an average salary of $55,000 ($4500 per month for Software Engineer) in US. A higher position requiring more advanced degree gives $115,000 ($9500 per month for Software Architect). Average salary for Game developer is around $80,000.

Also, many universities worldwide have a scholarship program. In my own case, 12 years ago when I went to study Computing Systems Engineering, I've got scholarships from many universities in US, Canada and UK, many of which included 100% of study coverage plus staying expenses. This is still the common case for many students that are wiling to put all their effort to learn and build their careers.

Being a software engineer, learning new/different language is a trivial task, since programming language now is just a way to translate your architecture/design into code (and there are tools that can help you).

Educating new members is the best way to insure new members stick around. most of us don't have the luxury of school training. and what classes are out there for delphi/fpc users anyway. any good group takes care of it's own.

Sorry, but what you imply is simply laziness. If you have enthusiasm, interest and are wiling to learn, you can always get a scholarship in one of universities with a good computer science program. Here in Mexico, lower class students with family earnings of less than 1000 $MXN per week ($80 per week) can still get to the university almost for free and if they are talented, even get paid to study (!). [Granted, some prefer to consume drugs and shoot their neighbors instead, but that's another story]

Plus, if you get to study to university, you can always opt for Delphi Academic Program and pay roughly $100 for a Professional version.