Many people have predicted that with the introduction of .NET, from a language perspective, Delphi will decline or die. This prophecy has appeared many times in the past few years, but Delphi still maintains stable development, and even a few times. I believe that with the continuous growth of .NET, Delphi will not only retain its support, but it will increase their use and support. This is the opposite of the opinions of many people today, and I will explain this.
Who will benefit from .NET?
.NET is a good thing. But most things provided by .NET are only beneficial to programmers. In addition to programmers, end users can only get very little benefits. No end users will restart their computers and say "Yes, I want to install .Net today." The user will only be installed when the .NET application is required.
For personal concerns, .NET's greatest attraction is that we finally have a cross-language compatibility of code. This has been delayed for a long time, but cross-language compatibility is only a programmer's tool. End users will not care about whether C # codes can work with Delphi very well. End users only care about whether this program has done them to do it.
.NET is for the server
This declaration never really before you refute me. .Net is of course not designed for the server. .NET is also designed for desktop computers, however, on the upper level of similar terms, .NET is designed for servers, which is why .NET is now and will be used as this similar terminology. Installing .NET, version 1.0 version is required on a machine, 1.1 version has been released, larger volume (1.1 version is 23m, and the final installation requires 110m). This is just in terms of installation, in addition to the size of the size, it will also become a core part of the operating system.
For users who are not a problem, it is also a problem. For those companies with hundreds of computers, no software system is deployed simply, and certainly don't do many of the central software that is like .NET.
For home users, it is not only installed, and there is a bandwidth problem. Of course, it is also released through the CD, but most home users use non-game software to download directly from the Internet. Of course, many users have broadband access today, but most of the home users do not have broadband access outside of the programmer. Most downloadable programs are between 1-5m, which is an acceptable download size. The volume increases to 5-20 times that will not be very downloaded.
Once you have installed it, it is there, no. Once you have installed .Net, in fact you have it, and it is available for all .NET programs. It is available. However, .NET Framework 1.1 release has been released, apparently 1.2 or 2.0 has also been developed. Previous experience tells us that every version will be larger than the old version. If a user has already installed 1.0, but your program needs 1.1, this end user needs another bigger installation. Finally, you can imagine that end users will need up to 4 different .NET frameworks to support installed software.
Programmer's point of view
.NET is cool. .NET is very new. This is enough to make most programmers expect .net. Of course, .NET also does have enough real materials to make it worthy of programmers. However, we still look at it from the perspective of different languages:
C - Brief, C is a code that cannot be hosted, so it can't work well on .NET. C users will be classified into non-hosting code or device driver development. Microsoft has been encouraged to transfer C developers to C #, and the last non-hosting code will not only be encouraged, but almost not allowed. Although C # is similar to C in many ways, it is obviously (whose syntax) rooted in C , but still has a lot of difference with C . Most C developers are a pureist, and they have very fanatical persistence to their language. Due to this, many C developers don't like C #, and they are reluctant to move to C #. Visual Basic - Visual Basic does not exist in .NET, but becomes Visual Basic.net. VB.NET is incompatible with VB, which is only similar to some basic syntax. (On .NET) The VB program must be rewritten, and almost completely rewritten. When VB finally has some changes to make it a "real" language, VB users have begun to oppose. Many VB users are very unsatisfactory, namely VB.NET is Visual Fred, and the vow does not move to the .NET platform, or simply travel Delphi. Delphi - Delphi 7 users already have a Delphi for .NET compiler DCCIL preview. Delphi 8 will provide a complete Delphi for .NET compiler. Existing Delphi code, of course, it takes a little change, which will be easily ported to the .NET platform. what does this mean? This means that Delphi will be a minimum cost of porting to .NET. If you are a Delphi developer, you know that you can transfer to .NET with minimal concerns, if you are a Microsoft developer, you have to choose whether it is completely rebuilt or maintained two different languages, two The choice is dragged. That is, the existing VB or C system continues to maintain the existing VB or C , or build a new system with C # or VB.NET.
.NET needs two development
Due to language compatibility issues, .NET is basically a relatively extreme thing. Since many companies will only deploy .NET on the server instead of desktop computers, the existing applications will probably not be ported to .NET, developers must develop in two languages, one is VB or C , The other is C # or VB.NET. In addition to developers must be trained twice, it is also necessary to remain separate from two-way code bases in the foreseeable future.
Few developers can completely transfer to .NET's end users, even if they can, they have to support old applications or rewrite the code. On the other hand, Delphi allows developers to maintain only a universal code base, which can be used as a Win32 (not .NET) and .NET to be deployed across platforms. Delphi also allows developers to deploy applications on Linux through Kylix (recoiling source code). For existing Delphi developers, only requires rare training for developers.
But now there is no delphi.net
There is no Delphi for .NET, but many developers have seen this trend. Delphi for .NET in Delphi 8 will provide a unique cross-platform selection with a simple and easy graft path. After it is expected to be, many developers are turning to Delphi.
.NET opened the door
Due to the existing library, code and third-party support (there are many non-Delphi languages), the lack of language interoperability has prevented many developers from using Delphi. There is .NET, language is no longer a problem. .NET will transfer more developers to Delphi. (Here, more) developers are those who have previously considered Delphi, but due to this constraint without transferring. Delphi 8 impact
As a component supplier, we can study our own customers. Although Delphi7 is a successful product, many users are still using Delphi5 and Delphi6. These users just only did not see any need to use Delphi7. However, Delphi8 with .NET support will provide them with a very powerful upgrade motivation, now many such users are waiting for Delphi8. As far as I seem, delphi8 will be a very successful release version, which will not be just the upgrade target of Delphi7 users, will also be the expectation of many Delphi5 and Delphi6 users.
in conclusion
I hate .net? No, it is exactly the opposite. However, transferring to .NET is not a chance, but also pay some cost. Delphi provides the best graft path, especially after .NET is popular, its advantages are significant. All of these factors will make Delphi 8 get huge success and push Delphi more used more.
About the author: Chad Z. HOWER is the original author of the Delphi component set inde, the founder of Intraweb, the founder of Atozed, often travels around the world.
Translation: The original publishing date is September 11, 2003, this article is translated by the author agrees, and the translation is completed on September 17, 2003. Reprint, please indicate: www.delphideveloprs.com, and retain the author's name.
