Mega Code Archive

The .NET smoke has clearedwe can continue programming with Delphi 6.0, (7.0, 8.0 coming soon)

Title: The .NET smoke has clearedwe can continue programming with Delphi 6.0, (7.0, 8.0 coming soon) Question: What exactly is the status of .NET, Delphi and Java marketplace? Answer: The .NET smoke has clearedwe can continue programming with Delphi 6.0, (7.0, 8.0 coming soon) by Aram Janigian of Personal Delphi Agents The following is my opinion about the status of the Delphi, Java and .NET marketplace. Established in 1999, Personal Delphi Agents (PDA) is the only company in the world that specializes in placing Delphi professionals in permanent positions throughout the U.S. I have personally spoken with thousands of Delphi programmers all over the U.S. and around the world as well as hundreds of Delphi clients. I have also been the featured speaker at several different Delphi Users Groups all over the country. My presentation is 2-hours and covers the Delphi job market in great detail. PDA has heard the following questions or comments for the past several months from various Delphi programmers around the U.S. including: .NET is going to be the end of Delphi. .NET is more powerful than Delphi. C# is going to be the Java killer. VB.NET is going to be the Delphi killer. What should be my primary Web programming language? Where do you see the future of Delphi? Delphi has been around for over 17 years if you include its predecessors Turbo Pascal and Object Pascal. Officially the beta version for Delphi came out in 1994 and the first release was in 1995. During that time, Borland has created a very extensive client/server tool. Once engineers begin to use Borlands products they usually switch to using them and are loyal for life. A good analogy is Microsoft is like Kmart (although Microsoft is not under Chapter 11), they provide cheap products and you can go down the street and buy them just about anywhere. They are going after the PC masses. Borland is like Sears. Our fathers and grandfathers used their quality, Craftsman tools and become loyal Users for generations. You build a good product and people will use it. Sun Microsystems took a bunch of guys and put them behind closed doors for a period of time and they needed coffee to stay awake so lets call it Java (very creative!). Sun Microsystems had lots of money and marketed Java very well although it is much slower than Delphi. However, Borland has recently been successful at selling its new JBuilder tooDelphi is their #1 selling product still and JBuilder is #2. A Delphi Web-based application is much faster than a Java Web-based application because (1) development time is about 50% faster than Java and (2) Java is an interpreted language and has to interpret each hit to the web site. So if you are getting a million hits per day or per month, Java will slow down everything. Java will never die (at least not at the hands of C#). Java has too much of a head start on .NET and too many established developers. And the same goes for Delphi. Microsoft was very good at creating lots of hype for .NET. About 250 books have been written about .NET, Microsoft has lots of money, Microsoft has lots of lawyers, Microsoft has ownership in many different companies and they are entering a competitive Web development tool marketplace. The question is, Will they have the resources to support .NET? The smoke has now settled and most of the Visual Basic Developers we have spoken with say VB.NET is not all it is said to be. C# is really not the Java killer. All of these Web development languages are just competing against each other now. Microsoft and Sun Microsoft will eventually give up in this client/server, Web development tool marketplace in my opinion. Microsoft is trying to do too much at one time and will spread too thin in this marketplace. Microsoft is known to enter a marketplace and drain it if they are not successful in making money within that marketplace. Then, they just walk away. Its unusual how Microsoft paid $100 million in patent infringements to Borland in 1999 and then turned around and bought a $25 million (10%) equity investment in Inprise/Borland the same year! Then, Microsoft hires Anders Hejlsberg with a $2-3 million signing bonus and any house in Redmond, WA to create their VB.NET architecture. The top Delphi guru from Borland is now the creator of VB.NET. My point is that the VB.NET architecture will have the Borland Delphi flavor built in. This makes you think, doesnt it? Borland will keep on chugging along like a powerful locomotive and be able to provide Delphi, JBuilder or C++ Builder and their other products to any of their clients worldwide depending on what they are looking for. A majority of the small-to-medium size companies use Delphi because it is priced competitive and there are lots of available programming resources. Most of the Delphi Users are from the Technology and Finance sectors where they have to quickly develop their applications since time is money. Additionally, there are programmers that have application experience across all verticals. As of February 2002, our clients are hiring Delphi professionals at record numbers. Our clients are posting lots of Delphi jobs with Personal Delphi Agents. Delphi is very much alive and well in 2002 and beyond. Delphi will be the tool of choice for client/server development for many years to come. Consulting is down but the end client is getting smarter and making their money last a lot longer by hiring permanent programming resources. We have seen a lot of C++, Visual Basic, and Java programmers switch to Delphi because of the power, ease, and the ability to quickly generate Web applications for your business. There are approximately 1,000,000 Delphi Users worldwide (250,000 are in the U.S.), there are about 2,000,000 Java Developers worldwide and about 4-8,000,000 Visual Basic Developers worldwide depending on who you ask. Microsoft will have to convert the top 20% of those VB Developers to use VB.NET (since they will be able to understand true RAD OOD) the rest of the VB folks need to think about getting a job at McDonalds. C++ is the most widely recognized language worldwide. It is on more platforms than any other language. Borland must have at least 500,000 C++ Builder Developers today and that list is growing as well. My point is that all of these languages compete in todays marketplace, especially here in the U.S. Borland is setup to really perform well during the next 4-5 years if they continue improving Delphi and penetrate the International markets as well. Most of the International marketplace is still based on Object Pascal technology. This is a great time for Borland to move forward and penetrate these markets. Borlands President and CEO, Dale Fuller, is doing a fantastic job and is keeping his promise to market Borlands core products worldwide. Borland has recently added Charlie Hixon, Regional Vice President of the Americas. Charlie has 14 years of sales and management experience with IBM and will lead the charge for Borlands sales teams. Some final thoughts and things to remember include: Borland has obviously released Delphi 6.0. Well, they are already working on Delphi v7.0 and 8.0 as we speak. These new versions will continue building on their Web Services architecture. Now, Delphi not only supports major Web Services technologies but .NET and BizTalk as well. So, even if .NET gains momentum (which is doubtful), Delphi is never out of the picture and you can bet that Borland will do everything necessary to ensure that. Borland could very easily be a $1 billion software company in less than 5 years. My guess is that they will achieve this goal and they have the track record to prove it. Also, you have a very driven team of intelligent people at Borland like David Intersimone, John Kaster and Karen Giles leading and supporting the success of Delphi worldwide. Delphi professionals have nothing to fear. Delphi is going to be around for many years to come. Author: Aram Janigian is the Founder of Personal Delphi Agents (a division of permIT, Inc.) a unique recruiting firm that currently represents 3,000 Delphi professionals worldwide and supports 40 Delphi clients requirements coast-to-coast. PDA is also building the worlds largest Delphi and Kylix Q&A database for its online certification system (to be launched in April 2002). Visit our web site for more information about our Delphi placement service and certification at www.personaldelphiagents.com