السلام عليكم و رحمة الله تعالى و بركاته
مقالة جميلة لـ Tim Anderson يتحدث فيها عن قوة الدلفي كبيئة تطوير و لغة برمجة قوية ، كما يعرج على بعض نقائص هذه البيئة .. أيضا بعض الملاحظات تهم المطورين تحت منصة NET.
<a href='' data-cite= كتب:http://www.itjoblog.co.uk/2008/08/delphi...r-win.html[/url'> ']Delphi: a secret weapon for Windows developers
Tim Anderson
Ever since .NET burst onto the scene back in early 2002, Microsoft has promoted it as the primary platform for custom applications. For sure it has plenty of advantages, including automatic memory management, a modern programming language called C#, and a rich class library encompassing both Windows and Web development. The Windows Presentation Foundation, touted as the next generation of the Windows user interface, can only be programmed using .NET.
Unfortunately .NET also has downsides. The first is potentially troublesome deployment, thanks to the large runtime required. The problem has not gone away even though Windows now comes with .NET as standard, since new versions appear regularly. The second issue is performance. Although a just-in-time compiler enables .NET code to run at near-native speed, there is still a heavy memory overhead. The result is that .NET applications generally load and run more slowly than native code equivalents.
The trade-off here is that ease of programming compensates for slower performance. It's true; but not all developers realise that the choice is not only between C# and Visual Basic on the one hand, and the intricacies of Visual C++ on the other. Before turning up as Microsoft's chief architect for C#, Anders Hejlsberg worked at Borland on a language called Object Pascal and a development tool called Delphi. There is some family resemblance, particularly if you include Delphi's Visual Component Library (VCL), which wraps the Windows API with a class library that is equally as capable as the Microsoft Foundation Classes, but much easier to code against. Unlike Microsoft's .NET tools, Delphi compiles directly to native code, and it is feasible to create applications that have zero dependencies, run like lightning, and work on versions of Windows right back to 2000.
Delphi's recent history has been unsettled. Borland delivered some unsuccessful .NET editions and messed with the IDE. The Delphi side of the business was then spun off into a separate entity called CodeGear, which was recently acquired by Embarcadero, best known for database design tools such as ER Studio. Fortunately the compiler remained as good as ever, and the signs are that Delphi's new home will be good for the product. The company has just released Delphi 2009, the first version with proper support for Unicode. A companion product called C++ Builder has the same VCL, but uses C++ in place of Delphi's Pascal variant. These releases also introduce language enhancements including generics and anonymous methods.
Delphi is not the answer to every software problem, and its documentation is poor compared to what you may be used to with MSDN, but in the right context it works like magic. Aside from .NET, every corner of the Windows API is open to it, including services, native code DLLs, COM components, and fiddly software like custom actions for the Windows Installer. The Delphi IDE is once again mature. If you have ever looked with horror at the tens or hundreds of megabytes demanded by .NET for your small Windows Forms utility, or found yourself troubleshooting some obscure problem installing the .NET Framework, Delphi is well worth investigating
المصدر : http://www.itjoblog.co.uk/2008/08/delphi-a...on-for-win.html
من يدري بعد نسخة 2009 ماذا سيؤول إليه الأمر خاصة بعد انتقاله إلى أحضان Embarcadero
إنها سنة شيـِّقة خاصة للذين يتعاملون مع هذه البيئة منذ نسخها السابقة
