Delphi vs VB(.NET)

[ThePentiumGuy]

I heard of a language called Delphi, I have a few questions about it:

 

1) does Dephi have autocorrect? (auto capitalization)

2) Vb is considered a "Starting" language, would you say Delphi is the same?

3) Is Delphi easy to use like vb?(like, no semicolons, easy syntax)

4) what OS do Delphi programs run in? I heard it is primarily for DOS, is that true, or is it primarily for windows?

5) does it have a "form designer"? or do you have to "code" the form?

6) is delphi for RAD(rapid application development) like vb?

7) opinion - would it be harder to move from Delphi to VB, or VB to Delphi

 

8) if you want - please give me some simple code(like a messagebox) in VB and the same thing in Delphi

 

Thank you SO much.

Please give me your opinions

Edited August 11, 2003 by ThePentiumGuy

[mutant]

Delphi is a RAD language like VB, but the syntax is more difficult and yes there are semicolons :). Yeah, it has a form designer. Delphi was made for Windows but with another tool from Borland you can compile your delphi program to run on Linux. And I think it actually costs more than VS.NET. Well you can develop for VB.NET for free with the SDK, Delphi is like VB6, the IDE is cobined with the compiler, so you would have to buy it.

I didnt have much experience with Delphi but I can say that VB is better.

[ThePentiumGuy]

ill take your advice,

 

from what i heard, the syntax is easier than vb(i guess i heard wrong)

 

u have to type in semicolons??(that part really annoys me :lol:)

 

ill stick with VB

[Madz]

Well that's great features of Visual Basic. but i faced a lot of problems with VB, i have a background of C and you know When i tried to do some thing in Visual Basic i faced a lot of problems because at the end of every line i put ;

and that caused too much problem for me , so i decided to use only c family. Cheers !

[wyrd]

I personally like semicolons because you can visually see where the end of a statement is.

[Volte]

Vertical seperation of statements doesn't do it for you? ;)

[wyrd]

What can I say, I'm weird.

[divil]

An important point that you missed off, is that there is virtually no job market for Delphi programmers, compared to VB programmers.

[ThePentiumGuy]

An important point that you missed off, is that there is virtually no job market for Delphi programmers, compared to VB programmers.

 

is this for vb or vb.net?(or both)

[mutant]

I would say that both now. There is still jobs for vb6 programmers, ive seen a lot of job offers on all kinds of programming sites for vb6 programmers. But a lot of compaines are switching to .NET now.

[ThePentiumGuy]

yeah, the reason i asked this was because a lot of people dont like migrating from Vb to Vb.net, they say the interface is totally changed around

 

and they say its harder to use because instead of like:

 

form1_click

 

end sub

 

its

 

bybase_click(byval e as form eventargs) handles mybase.click or something

 

end sub

 

o well, thats their opinion, for me, i thik thats better because you use e as your event argument:

 

e. something

 

thanks everybody

[divil]

Whether they like it or not, they're going to have to update eventually :)

[Derek Stone]

That and most people don't have a clue what's good for them anyway... :)

[sjn78]

Going back to Divil's comment on being no market for Delphi programmers.

 

I'm not putting VB down in any way (I prefer it), but I have seen applications written in Delphi and they win hands down over VB apps.

 

At work we have a contractor who does a lot of programming for us and he uses Delphi.

 

I think Delphi can be used to programme a wider variety of software were VB.NET is still to reach that point. Give VB.NET time and I think it will be up there as a high end language.

 

Another thing I have noticed is that there are so many little apps around, written in Delphi, for download from the web its not funny.

 

I have also read a few articles about Delphi and if you have a good knowledge of C++ then switching to Delphi isn't as hard as it is to go from VB to Delphi.

[Volte]

There is no disputing that VB.NET is an extremely high-end language, even moreso than Delphi IMO. I'd think Delphi may win over VB6, but in terms of sheer power and flexibility, there's no contest with .NET... And in response to the comment

 

"I think Delphi can be used to programme a wider variety of software were VB.NET is still to reach that point."

 

That is not true at all. Make me a web forum package in Delphi. :) .NET can be used for anything under the sun.

 

You are right, however, that Delphi does have a rather massive following, and it is much more popular than .NET; that may change, or it might not. However, one thing is for sure: .NET will continue to get better and better.

[sjn78]

Delphi is integrating .NET in future versions.

 

Im not to sure on the web side of things as I have never done it. I guess that with Delphi going with .NET, you should be able to start doing this stuff.

[KenpoMatt]

I've been witing Delphi & VB6 for several years. I use them both regularly. I grew up on VB and then learned Delphi. I can tell you that VB6, syntactically is easier than Delphi. Delphi is not hard. It is just different. IMO it offers many mnay advantages over VB6. It gives you the power of C/C++ and is fully OO. Everything is compiled into a single exe and files are small. Delphi allows you to do everything you can do in VB6 plus much much more.

 

An intersting point: MS actually hired one of Borland's original Delphi engineers to help pioneer the .Net framework. VB.Net is much more similar to Delphi now. It is fully OO, is strongly typed, uses standard exception handling, etc.

 

Delphi rocks. I was actually considering abandoning VB. But, then .Net came along. MS languages will probably always be my bread & butter languages. But, Delphi will always hold a special place in my heart.

[dahaase]

I can't quite understand what your hangup is witht ";" but whatever:

 

I have been using Delphi since version 2 (about 1996). It is BY FAR the best IDE available. I have worked in a primarily VB shop (only because they have a Microsoft bias) for about 6 years now. I can code an application in Delphi in about 1/3 to 1/2 the time it takes to do it in VB. I can do anything and everything C++ does only more simply and easily. Delphi and VB are like comparing a Porsche with a Taurus. Thanks, but I'll take Delphi!

 

The biggest downfall with Delphi is its userbase. Borland never has had the advantage of M$. If you're looking for momemtum, then I guess Bill will have the edge. If you're looking for quality, Borland has always been on top.

[wyrd]

dahaase:

We're comparing Delphi to VB.NET, not VB6.

[samsmithnz]

You know, I think one of the biggest problems VB6 had, was that it was too simple, and too many 'common' people picked it up. It really has given VB a bad name in some ways, because so many applications have been thrown together in a shoddy form.

 

But VB.NET is a lot different. People aren't going to be able to pick it up as quickly VB6, so I think its reputation will be better.

[quahog]

The problem with Delphi is: Borland. They can't market a product. Any product. They develop great products but can't sell them.

 

I dabbled in Delphi briefly but I never got too into it. Did anyone say that it uses turbo pascal? For all those who were forced to learn pascal in college. It is great.

 

From a data standpoint, delphi is much easier to code than VB.net. The components are data aware as soon as you drop them onto the form. This is great for developing when you can see how large you need a field to be.

 

Other borlands products include:

 

Quattro Pro

Cold fusion reactors

Quantom Flux Capacitors

Perpectual motion machine

[Sammy]

Delphi vs VB.NET

 

I have yet to find a developer who actually tried Delphi and VB and decided against Delphi. Comparing the 2 language implementations is not a 1-to-1 comparison.

Delphi gives you the power of C++ without the language hindrances and the simplicity of VB.

 

Borland always implements MS technologies better than MS themselves for e.g.

1) Delphi 3's implementation of COM completely blew VB and VC++ away

2) Delphi6's implementation of Web-Services won awards beating VS implementation

 

Web-Development with Delphi using IntraWeb is exactly like programming Web-Forms in ASP.NET (and IntraWeb came before ASP.NET implementation of VS.NET)

 

Regarding the .NET Framework language choice is not really that important anymore unless you want to write unsafe code.

I agree that Borland lacks the ability to market it's tools as MS does but that should not stop a developer from influencing his management on buying the better tool as eventually it's the developer who's got to live and breathe the tool daily :)

 

-Sam

[Mehyar]

samssmithnz,

 

Amen...