Talk:Delphi programming language

Afaik Delphi isn't even a programming language, it's the name of a Borland programming tool in which you use Object Pascal to program. In that case, the article title would be incorrect. And further... Why am I getting the impression that this text was ripped out of some advertizement broschure for Deplhi?

Untill last year the langauge was called Object Pascal and the IDE / product was called Delphi. Since Borland was making significant improvements on the langauge, yet again, to support .NET as well as other changes the changed the name to the Delphi langauge. This should probably be two different articles, one on Delphi Studio (the new name of the IDE product) and the other on the Delphi programming langauge. I didn't write the original article (I don't think), but AFAIK this is not based even loosly on any Borland adverts. I think that if the article were split in two then it would read better since one would be about a product while the other would focus on the langauge itself. The "features" and "selling points" could be isolated to the product article while the technical aspects could be in the language one. -- Jim

In that case, shouldn't "formally known as Object Pascal" be "formerly known as Object Pascal"? By the way, many of the (POV) "remarkable features" of Delphi sound like features that appeared in other languages long ago, in one form or another. (e.g. transparent getters/setters were in CLU 10 years ago). (With some of the features, I can't tell exactly what they mean; e.g. how does a "type safe method pointer" differ from an ordinary type-checked function or method pointer?) —Steven G. Johnson

You are correct on the formerly part. I fixed that. Feel free to NPOV the article any if you feel it is too POV. I don't have much emotional attachment to it. -- Jim 01:00, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I made an attempt to NPOV it. What it could really use is a list of disadvantages. BTW, I removed "Support for latest technology and standards" from the advantages list, because it seems like a bit of an empty claim. Which new technologies and standards are supported? -- ComaVN 21:37, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)

AFAIK the name change Object Pascal -> Delphi already predates the .NET extensions in D7. It's a sideeffect of a renewed focus (at least on PR level) on Delphi after the namechange back from Inprise to Delphi. Marco van de Voort.

Delphi's/Object Pascal's main adversary is C/C++. Most claims (the type safe proc-pointer) must be seen in that light. Personally, I think the outdated library design (even though the VCL is quite cool) are a bigger problem than the language. E.g. the possibilties of interfaces were never exploited in newer versions of the VCL Marco van de Voort

I also don't like the .NET angle that has been added. Delphi and Delphi.NET are quite different, since only basic GUI and db operation can be .NETized easily (due to pointer and win32 use), and even for that, the VCL.NET framework is probably only temporarily supported for legacy reasons. All normal pascal code must be rewritten, and 3rd party components structurally updated for .NET. Maybe a split in a Delphi and Delphi.NET page (that reference eachother) is wise. Marco van de Voort