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I worked at an automated manufacturing facility from 1986 to 1998; two years ago, they shut it down... all of the code written that was specific to that site... gone.
In the early '80s, the company invested $250,000,000 to upgrade the facilities.. I still don't understand the thought behind shuttering the place; I guess it wasn't making a high enough profit margin.
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: Does anyone remember the OWL framework?
Yes - thanks for reminding me how old I am 
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yes ... I tried to use Borland OWL in 1996-97 for one of my projects, but I finally went for VC++/MFC instead ... 
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bcc and TurboDebugger. TWindow. Good times. And, again, thanks for pointing out how old I am.
onwards and upwards...
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Sure do. I remember stuffing like 35 3.5 floppies into the disk reader to install. You had to set aside one or two of the early disks because they had to be re-installed at a later stage. I used it to write a natural language parser in C++ in 1993, on OS/2 because that was the only operating system which could reach enough memory to do chart parsing.
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OWL was the coolest framework way ahead of MFC... I miss it...
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A_Griffin wrote: though adjusted for inflation it's not quite so dramatic
Adjusted to inflation it would be around $70... $1500 is a magnitude larger than that...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Yes, OK. I actually had a decade earlier in my head, which would more or less double it - even so, it's still an order of magnitude away.
So I exaggerated used poetic licence.
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A_Griffin wrote: adjusted for inflation it's not quite so dramatic
Beer was 70p a pint, today it is £3.50 so inflation doesnt account for that increase.
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No - but beer might account for (some of) the inflation of certain waistlines
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Its the red wine for me. Lethal stuff.
Still, dropped another 2 kgs, getting there...
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It ran great on my Apple II clone
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
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Well, that's kind of comparing apples and oranges. And if that would be a stretch, if you compare the capabilities of Turbo Pascal 2.0 and Delphi 10.2.
But in general, yes, it is a shame that Embarcadero went way overboard with their pricing, that's why I stick with FreePascal/Lazarus instead...
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I still use Delphi 6 for maintenance of a codebase where I work.
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Both C++ Builder[^] and Delphi[^] have free versions called Starter versions. These went away for a few years but are back.
If I recall correctly they compile to windows only. The other versions for Andriod, IOS, Windows or whatever else they support are expensive.
I also have Delphi 2006 (to support some old apps) but their more recent offerings will compile the code just fine.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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It's embarcadero. They are still hanging on currently, but one of their feet has stepped in grave since years ago, which serves the right. Their doom came from their greed.
Who in the right mind would want to fork out 2,500 US dollars for an IDE, when there are Visual Studio Community and Intellij IDEA Community and Android Studio?
Also the online learning resource for their Delphi is too few, while Java and C families have plenty.
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I use Delphi regularly. On Delphi XE7 these days.
I still don't see any of the other popular IDEs deliver the same blinding-fast compile time and self-contained EXEs. Deployment is true xcopy-deployment with no runtime dependencies other than Win32. So for me it delivers great value.
I will however agree on the pricing issue. Major reason why I don't upgrade the IDE often . Embarcadero releases a new version every year or so, but I find it harder and harder to see what's new. At least they are still working on the product.
One application I maintain is built using Delphi 7 (from 2002). The EXEs still work flawlessly on Windows 10 - even look like proper Windows 10 applications. That may be more a testimony to how well MS backwards compatibility works, but still...
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Lets not forget that it was a top engineer from Borland that went over to microsoft to build something small, what was it called again? Oh yes C#
Everything good from that language has been thought up by the same guy that made Delphi so great back then.
I use VS too when at work, but my own projects are all still in Delphi.
Even Delphi 7 (now more than 10 years old) still is a lot more productive than the latest VS.
Delphi was always best until and including Delphi 7. Then it went backwards real hard because Borland just did not care anymore and they where trying to incorporate dot net in Delphi.
Now thanks to Embarcadero Delphi XE10 is getting back on track again, granted the price is not cheap but the product really is way better then VS.
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Agreed. I am glad Anders (now doing TypeScript) has given so much back to the community through microsoft...
But in my mind, Delphi was always the fastest way to get Windows Programs done well!
I hope it stays around for a Long long long time...
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Delphi still is the fastest way to get Windows programs done well.
VS en C# are not bad, but when talking about database programming and memory managment VS is still decades behind Delphi. I miss DataModules so hard in VS and EntityFramework is just way to much overhead, slow and not flexible.
Also visual inheritance in VS is very bad supported.
Its just unbelievable that a tool like Delphi 7 (from 2002) can often do a better job than the latest VS !
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Delphi was always more expensive.
It was one of the few "RAD" platforms that compiled to native exe and did not need a "run time"; i.e. harder to decompile if that was a concern.
(Never thought of C++ as "RAD").
"(I) am amazed to see myself here rather than there ... now rather than then".
― Blaise Pascal
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You can always use Lazarus[^]. It's free.
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Can't resist bringing up old memory, don't you? Absolute direct memory access. I still remember a small app I wrote as screen saver which inserts arrow keys, Page UP, Page DN into the keyboard buffer simulating like someone is editing the source code. Drive our network guy crazy thinking someone has taken control of the PC. Another one is simulating a crack on the CRT screen too, by manipulate video buffer directly. Fun those days. Yes all Delphian are grandpa/grandma now, I'm included.
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