I know I’m supposed to get excited and all that, but I’m not. Improvements to the IDE, no matter how useful or needed just don’t do it for me. I guess it’s analogous to an accountant getting excited at improvements to his favourite calculator. (although I guess accountancy is so boring that a few new buttons on a calculator might just warm an accountant’s cockles!)
I get excited at real innovation. Improvements to the language for example. Ability to do things with my preferred language that’s either impossible or difficult to do with any other language. Innovation to the underlying Compiler etc etc
I guess I’ll have to wait until Delphi 2011 comes out.
Posts
24 comments:
As an accountant for the last 40 years, I would like to offer a different perspective. An accountant's calculator is one of the tools he uses, like a chef's knives or a carpenter's chop-saw. Similarly, the IDE is the tool that a programmer uses and adding to its functionality is important.
I don't know if I had any effect, but, a while back, after attending a talk by David Intersimone, I asked him if it was okay to make a suggestion for the IDE. He said "Of course" and I suggested that string lists were something I used a lot and it would be nice if viewing the contents of a string list was something that happened natively in the IDE. And, along that line, if I created a multi-line SQL statement that I wanted to pick up from my code and test in my DB administrator, it would be nice if Delphi would give it to me with multiple lines instead of #$D#$A strings. The new version has a bunch of debugging visualizers and it sounds like they will provide just the functionality I was asking for. This is going to be very productive. Being productive is important to me.
I agree with you about improvements to the language, but on the other hand, improvements to what I can get done in a day is equally important to me.
Keep in mind, they only showed off a few of the 120 features in 2010. I would be a complete hypocrite to say "Why are you taking apart 2010?". Since, I was really harsh last year when 2009 came out. But I did reserve my opinions until I got a chance to use their 14 day demo. Then I went nuts. I will put it through the same process again this year. But from the "little" I have already seen, I like this update. To me Delphi is a production tool (I don't work from home, would be nice), and new programming innovations aren't bad (sometimes they can be great). But they do not solve the number one reason why I use the product. And that is to make money. So those IDE enhancements should be there every release. And hey, at least let them get a chance with their demo before quitting on them this year. I'm sure they need the sales like everyone else.
And if the demo does not meet those desired expectations, let them know. I did, and I will at least give them my respect since they were responsive to me on some of the points, even though they may have not made it in this release.
Thankyou !!!!
Very true. Until now, nothing had impressed me. Bring back the real improvements like in the good ol' days of D1, D2, D3...
I fully agree with you. Delphi 2009 brought Unicode and generics. Delphi2010 is only adjustments, improvements on paving the way for major updates in the future. Good in general terms, but dont know if enough to upgrade.
But, it is indeed a good upgrade to people who stayed on Delphi 7, or Delphi 2007. Not enough for a guy on Delphi 2009.
I think, but no official announcement has been made yet that we have a new compiler on Delphi 2010, but, it could not be the case.
Yeah, I wrote sthg similar on CG newsgroups: I don't need enhancements to the IDE, I need language fixes for a currently very stable and yet usable D2009.
D2010 is somehow compareable like Vista and Windows 7: Windows 7 is just a new Service Pack to Vista as D2010 is for D2009.
Michael
Just to let you know, posts like this really undermine your credibility. You may not care, because its just a blog.
At least several of the articles on D2010 said that they are showing the IDE enhancements first and then language enhancements, DB enhancements etc. etc over the next few weeks.
At least take the time to read whats out there before making snap comments that others may read. Or wait until Delphi 2050. I am sure there should be some new interesting stuff in there even for you by the time it comes around.
yes I agree with you. I cant understand why there would be any fuss about the features recently published. My initial reaction is one of mild curiousity. I hope its a warm up act and the main star of the show has yet to come on stage.
I agree that it looks to be a strange release. IDE improvements are welcome (I like especially the debugger improvements), but is going to miss the "upgrade appeal".
It is true that we have still too see the VCL improvements, but again touch and gesture support have a narrow scope.
Windows 7 support could be another interesting feature - but how deep is this support? Would they support native ribbons? Do control use Direct2D?
Maybe I'd buy it just to get the old palette back <g>.
Not sure there'll be anything innovative in D2011 either. 64 bit and cross platform are the two items I know they plan for it. If they have something truly innovative they've kept it a bit of a secret so far I think. Hoping to be proven wrong...
...or alternatively just wait until the bloggers start talking about language enhancements. In the comments on one of the blogs Nick said something along the lines of "this week's theme were IDE enhancements" and in response to comments similar to the sentiment expressed by your blog post "just wait until next week - there's more to come" - which makes it sound like the field testing bloggers were instructed to blog about certain areas of improvement in the product in some kind of coordinated or concerted manner...
I think you are assuming the IDE improvements they have announced are the only changes to Delphi 2010. I get the impression they are announcing the features slowly. I'd wait until you see all the features before you right this release off.
New language features would help produce more quality compiled product in less time. Then again, so can IDE enhancements.
I think Delphi 2010 is still being revealed. I'll reserve judgment till it ships.
I do have to say that IDE productivity enhancements do get me excited. Data visualizers - for how long have we needed those for TDateTime values? And IDE insight looks like a winner.
Having said that, I do think you are right in that we do need to see some significant movement in the VCL and language too. I wasn't part of the beta and no blog I've seen has mentioned any language changes yet. Perhaps these will take a back seat given the stated aim of rewriting the compiler.
But any new version is more compelling when it has a good balance of new features in the IDE, VCL and language. Let's hope there's more to be seen.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of language enhancements are you looking for? Got anything particular in mind?
Ok, how about something like LinQ to SQL (from the .NET world). Ok, that's not just language enhancement, there's a lot of work to be done with designers etc etc
I haven't written it off yet, just not excited yet.
My main concern with an update is "is it a breaking update?". I am still trying to get all D2009 components and tools to work, so if I have to wait again for vendors to be D2010 compatible then I will skip (as I did all versions between D7 and D2009).
@Q++Studio: The problem with Delphi 2009 is that component vendors have more to do than adjusting their $DEFINE compiler directives. Since Delphi 2 it was only/mainly this to add support for the next Delphi version. But for Delphi 2009 they had to do more work (AnsiString != string = UnicodeString). And especially component vendors who aren't interesting in writing Delphi components anymore will take much more time for the switch to Delphi 2009.
Delphi 2010 should be back at "just adjusting $DEFINEs".
Yes, I agree with article. VCL without compress support, crypto support, network support is little bit strange.
Delphi cannot be back until VCL will not be at FCL level.
"just wait until next week - there's more to come"
Perfect timing - when in Europe the summer holidays are at their peak and that ensures the least visibility in most countries here. Why did Embarcadero hire ex-Borland marketing too? Disembark them, please!
Disappointing post from a usually good blog. The accountant comment was crass because I doubt our profession is viewed as anything else from the outside.
IDE enhancements are very worthwhile and although you may not make the leap from D2009 to D2010 just for that, you have to bear in mind they're still trying to bring new users to Delphi as well as give existing developers on older versions to have a reason to upgrade.
PC power has increased dramatically since D7. It is about time the IDE leverage this power to assist the developer. Other development environments have overtaken Delphi in this regard.
Language additions need to be done with the utmost care to avoid breaking changes, and to avoid cluttering it with the latest fashions that need to be supported for years to come.
I find RAD development is very much accelerated by good IDE assistance. This is a MAJOR reason for me to upgrade.
Imagine having to code in Notepad.
I agree with you.
Even after all these incarnations the VCL part is not updated to take advantages of services offered by Windows. After all Delphi is designed to generate apps that run on Windows only at present.
I am not talking about the future.
Against that look at .NET its framework is ever expanding and new services, etc. keep getting added to the core framework that really helps make life easier for developers.
Post a Comment