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OriginalGriff wrote: The depressing bit is that since 2010 I've been trying to find the time to rewrite it from scratch, because it's really badly written compared to how I'd do it now ... 
It would be more depressing if it still seemed well written and your programming style had not evolved and improved over all of that time.
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OriginalGriff wrote: The depressing bit is that since 2010 I've been trying to find the time to rewrite it from scratch
I've been doing same with my first C++ app (a time tracking app) since I wrote it 1997
OriginalGriff wrote: because it's really badly written compared to how I'd do it now ...
Same...
Java, Basic, who cares - it's all a bunch of tree-hugging hippy cr*p
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I'm curious where you came from prior to C#.
I went from FOTRAN (via VAx Assembler) to C . The C code, for a while, was written like it was FORTRAN using C syntax. Then, suddenly, it wasn't.
As for C#? I used it a few times and even remember the introductory articles and how it was planned to attract and replace VB.NET users. Also, the resentment that the help library for VS had lots of examples of C# and C++ got the short and smelly end of the stick - I often had to guess at things.
Ya' know - I still think I resent C# because of that
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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FORTRAN, then PASCAL, then to realtime embedded assembler - decades of that, slowly migrating to a C / assembler mix, then C++, then C++ / assembler mix (some embedded, some Windows), then to C# / Windows pretty much exclusively.
There were others in there (COBOL, ALGOL, VB) but fortunately they died a death and no-one used them for real-world projects! 
The worst combination? Windows 3 apps in C ... brrrrr! Nothing was simple in those days!
The best fun? Z80 assembler in a tiny RAM / ROM combination. Hard work that you really had to think about and plan ahead - but when it worked, that was a really good feeling.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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First work in Windows was, mercifully, delayed until NT .
But the best fun was DOS - C w/inline assembler and also just make .COM file and C-callable function in assembly (a tiny graphics library for my FORTRAN) and the odd TSR.
The C/inline mainly went for the ROM BIOS and the incredible fun that offered; also, when in need of memory, using unused video memory.
The most fun, pound for pound, were the TSR's as they were for mischief. One of them kept rewriting the input buffer back to the command line backwards but stored the correct value, as well, so it still executed. My favorite, however, was one that took every eighth 'd' or 'D' and replaced it with an 'f' or 'F'. Just enough to cause havoc yet extremely hard to investigate unless you already knew what you were looking for.
Funny thing - that creating an annoyance was such a good time.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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"I didn't mention the bats - he'd see them soon enough" - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Since my first Real Job(tm) in 2005. I've done other stuff on and off between; but C# is probably 60-75% of my professional career at this point.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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OriginalGriff wrote: I've been trying to find the time to rewrite it from scratch, because it's really badly written compared to how I'd do it now ...
You and God share the same problem. 
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I think Oracle might still.
You could try asking Oracle@Delphi ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Just don't put your hand in his mouth! 
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
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The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain
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I tried asking...but the Sphinx asked me a question and I couldn't answer it and he ate me.
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Ever Since 1400 BC!
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I still use Delphi, mainly to support my old code base or to dosomething real quick that isn't good in Python. My new projects are in .Net, C# or F#
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr.PhD P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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From my point of view, nobody has implemented visual inheritance as transparently and perfectly as Borland / Embarcadero (more than 20 years ago). Neither WPF nor others can hold a candle here...
They where also the first who gave the tools to split UI and DAL in an effient way (also before more than 20 years).
Unfortunatelly the Borland management was not able to profit from that and last but not least MS bought the VCL chief developer from Borland.
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I used to maintain a few applications using Borland C++ back in the day. I remember liking it very much.
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Yep it is something nice and yes I know it also only from the c++ side
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wrote: From my point of view, nobody has implemented visual inheritance as transparently and perfectly as Borland / Embarcadero (more than 20 years ago). Neither WPF nor others can hold a candle here...
So true...
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I have read online that the language is not dead, but dying. Delphi is losing more programmers than gaining.
Delphi is primarily used still for legacy apps.
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Slacker007 wrote: Delphi is primarily used still for legacy apps.
Yeah, that's what I thought too. That's definitely the situation where I work.
Also, it is interesting to me, because the MFC was far better than Borland stuff (IMO), but you certainly are not going to see a new book released on developing with MFC. And there are a lot of MFC devs around. Maybe more than Delphi. Maybe not.
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MFC was better than Borland OWL, by far. But not even close to Delphi. Delphi was VB done right (with component developers, users, and extenders all using the same tools/language), but too late to steal the market. Delphi was/is all the power of a full blown native language, with a lightning fast single pass compiler, inline assembler, and easy access to the entire Windows API. It has(had?) built in OLE compatible reference counting and interfaces for simple memory management (without the cost of garbage collection).
I was the first person to ever ship a commercial application written (partially) in Delphi (I was at Borland at the time, and got special dispensation to ship using a pre-release version of Delphi, otherwise Delphi would have been the first). After leaving Borland, I used Delphi to build many commercial systems, and the productivity it brought to the team significantly outweighed the learning curve (I particularly appreciated that moving old C programmers to Delphi helped them to learn and write true Object Oriented code, which migrating to C++ would not have done).
There are still things I like about Delphi better than .NET (like the way fields are modeled for SQL), but as I've been working for Microsoft for the last 15 years, I've come to appreciate a lot about .NET (Although I still have quite a bit of old Delphi code sitting on my home computer, I also have not been able to use Delphi for quite a while, so my experience is quite dated  ). But I would certainly give it a good look if I left Microsoft and was looking for something cross platform (although .NET Core is doing a pretty good job in that space now from my limited viewpoint).
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That's a great story and reminds me of a friend I worked with at a local computer shop back in 1992. He called Microsoft Office vapor-ware and always lauded the fantastic abilities of Borland Paradox (database that I'm sure you remember). He was right too.
Borland had a better Office before Microsoft, but MS knew how to say, "but just wait, when we get there you going to see something...."
Anyways, really great story and I believe you about it being better than VB.
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not true,
there are still new projects started in Delphi today.
Yes the number of users is much less then c# that is true, but as happend so often it's not always the best technology that makes it...
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Delphi.7.Solutions wrote: there are still new projects started in Delphi today.
nothing to write home to mother about, though.
I have not seen active job placements, recruitments or hiring for Delphi positions in over 10 years in my area.
I used to though, and that is part of my point. Delphi is dying, whether you agree with the world on that or not.
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Kind of nonsense. It is neither dead nor dying, nor are only legacy apps developed in Delphi. Or Object Pascal in general (including FreePascal & Lazarus here)...
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