How much would you pay for this concept for a "Light" Delphi Edition?

[Super Vegeta]

I don't really care that much for the IDE - I write most of my code in simple editors; syntax highlighting is enough, I rarely even use autocompletion. So unless the packages included something FPC does not have, the compiler produced better executables, or it had better multi-platform support, I don't think I would be anyhow interested.

[laggyluk]

I wouldn't buy it unless it had some bitchin features which I don't see listed here

[wagenheimer]

I would pay more than $200 if it would be backwards compatible with old Delphis and truly really cross-platform (Win/Linux/Mac/iOS and Android) with easy installation.

I do use FPC for cross-compiling for Windows/Mac/iOS. And it works very well.... But, for iOS for me it still a pain because :

- It was a pain to make it works first time, I had to apply lot of fixes and configure everything by hand. Until now I had to compile everything using command line scripts (thanks Andrey Kemka) before using the XCode. I upgraded twice my Mac OS, and I would like to format my Mac and reinstall everything, but I'm very afraid of doing this and does not be able to make everything works again!
- Debugging for iOS is still a pain! I have to "use my imagination" to be able to set breakpoints, and the Stack Call Trace sometimes simple does not works.

[laggyluk]

I would pay more than $200 if it would be backwards compatible with old Delphis and truly really cross-platform (Win/Linux/Mac/iOS and Android) with easy installation.

true. If it had one button deploy on each platform it would be worth saving time and nerves for $200

[SilverWarior]

Yes but only if it does support both 32 bit and 64 bit compiler/debigger. The biggest advantage of current Starter edition is absence of 64 bit compiler/debugger.
Also I would expect to have fully featured code editor and not limted as in current Starter edition.

[WILL]

I wouldn't buy it unless it had some bitchin features which I don't see listed here

Do you mean in the code editor? Does language features and code manipulation/navigation features count?

[WILL]

I don't really care that much for the IDE - I write most of my code in simple editors; syntax highlighting is enough, I rarely even use autocompletion. So unless the packages included something FPC does not have, the compiler produced better executables, or it had better multi-platform support, I don't think I would be anyhow interested.

Really? Not even code navigation to jump from declaration to implementation and back? My game projects get so big with all the different "systems" it supports I would die if I had to find everything without this feature.

[dazappa]

They do already have a product named Delphi Starter Edition priced at $199 usd: https://store.embarcadero.com/542/ca...?id=dQI9xhHa2E

Granted it's not ideal in many ways.

[pitfiend]

Nothing can beat FREE, as in Free Pascal Compiler. For a bare bones Delphi compiler with some headers, 200 bucks is too much. FPC has 32/64 bits, has more targets and a very good library, and also can use 3rd party stuff. I think that 99 bucks is more affordable for any indie/young/starter developer for the extra tools like debuger. The IDE navigation features are cool, but anyone can use a good editor like notepad++ to write code as you don't have form designer, so that's not too important IMHO. If you ask me, I didn't include Indy in the packages, but Synapse could be a better choice. Again it's not important, just because the 3rd party availability.

[WILL]

Nothing can beat FREE, as in Free Pascal Compiler. For a bare bones Delphi compiler with some headers, 200 bucks is too much. FPC has 32/64 bits, has more targets and a very good library, and also can use 3rd party stuff. I think that 99 bucks is more affordable for any indie/young/starter developer for the extra tools like debuger. The IDE navigation features are cool, but anyone can use a good editor like notepad++ to write code as you don't have form designer, so that's not too important IMHO. If you ask me, I didn't include Indy in the packages, but Synapse could be a better choice. Again it's not important, just because the 3rd party availability.

Well I understand that there are parts of Delphi that have been successfully superseded, (ie compiler platform targeting) but I'd put Delphi's debugger against GDB any day. How about you? Or would you miss your SIGSEV and other incomplete error messages?

And you might not use them, and that's cool, but you can't completely wave off all of the code editor features. Many of them inspired the incorporated features included into Lazarus. I find them essential for any of my serious game projects (with lots of source files and lines of code) and I personally wouldn't want to code without that. Notepad++ or otherwise doesn't do any of that so it doesn't come close to measuring up.

There could be more added to give more value to the whole package and/or pricing shift I'm sure. The strengths of course being the dev environment versus what else is available that others don't do as well. Despite Delphi on the whole (as it is now) not being up to what we've expected for years, doesn't mean that the core of the product doesn't have advantages it's self.

At face value sure the free alternatives are "better" as a concept, but it's when you start developing and getting into the deeper usage of the tools that's where the differences, pros and cons, come out. Believe me, I'm a fan of Free Pascal and Lazarus both, but I still believe Delphi can stand up to that and offer more to us if they change their strategy and thinking about indie developers.

They do already have a product named Delphi Starter Edition priced at $199 usd: https://store.embarcadero.com/542/ca...?id=dQI9xhHa2E

True, they do, but I'm talking about a different product concept instead. Something more geared towards what our community would be interested in using. Much of it based on feedback from this community!