Poll : - about Pascal / Delphi -

[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
(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 ( ops 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
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.

- 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.