I have to buy Delphi XE2 by tomorrow to get a discount but I'm getting
confused by all the Embarcadero products. For example, could someone tell me
the difference between Rad Studio XE2 and Delphi XE2?

They offer free companion products with the Delphi updgrade but I don't know
that any of them are useful to me. For obvious reasons I don't need a
database product and have no clue about TurboRuby or Rails or FireMonkey,
etc., or if any of these work with Delphi or are just separate development
products.

Though not a PHP programmer (how tough can it be), the only product that
does seem to tweak my interest is RadPHP if it would give me the ability to
create mobile versions of our apps and decouple from IntraWeb. And, of
course, the big question is does DBISAM work with any or all of these
products. Not interested in the product if it doesn't.

A decade or so ago I wrote one or two simple Web Broker apps but then jumped
into IntraWeb. What's been the experience of you Delphi programmers that
went a different route than IW?

I'll have two weeks to make a secondary product choice, so any thoughts on
these matters that any of you, including Tim, might have would be most
welcome.

Jerry

<<For example, could someone tell me
the difference between Rad Studio XE2 and Delphi XE2?>

Rad Studio includes Delphi, C++Builder, Prism and RadPHP. Basically if you need two or more of the products then buying Rad Studio is likely better than getting the products separately.

You should check out product feature matrix to determine which edition you need - Pro, Enterprise or Architect.

<<database product and have no clue about TurboRuby or Rails or FireMonkey, >>

Firemonkey is part of delphi and is framework that is not tied to platform like Windows. technically you can use it create windows apps and iPhone/iPad apps but it needs to mature a bit - my own experience with it is minimal but based on emb NGs there are quite a few issues and limitations with it still. Either way if you get delphi you get it as well.

3rd rail and Turboruby are separate products but i never used either of them.


<<Though not a PHP programmer (how tough can it be), the only product that
does seem to tweak my interest is RadPHP if it would give me the ability to
create mobile versions of our apps and decouple from IntraWeb. >>

It can help with that - it generates php but you'd need to evaluate and see how good it is. Maybe somebody else can answer it - i found php easy enough to use without a special ide.

<< big question is does DBISAM work with any or all of these products. >>

It works with delphi and C++Builder. In Firemonkey it should be possible to use it  (since its non-visual component) though i don't know if anybody has tried.

None of the other products support it though i assume using the DBISAM ODBC driver should work but i'm guessing you're lookign at more native support.

<< What's been the experience of you Delphi programmers that
went a different route than IW?>>

Most of my web development is php + javascript so the new EWB product from Tim is of great interest.

Raul

Jerry


I for one will be glad when they stop extending the offer and I can stop resisting it. I'm being a luddite and squatting on D2006 for now. I've calculated that if I resist the next couple of upgrades it will be cheaper for me to buy the undiscounted version rather than the upgrade costs

They may also shake most of the bugs out by XE5 or whatever. Its only a gut feeling statistic but there seem to be more complaints about XE2 than any other version since I've subscribed to the borland/codegear/embarcadero newsgroups.


Roy Lambert

"Roy Lambert" <roy@lybster.me.uk> wrote in message
news:4B61FB3F-14F9-4CD6-969A-89AB2F61727D@news.elevatesoft.com...
>
> They may also shake most of the bugs out by XE5 or whatever.
> Its only a gut feeling statistic but there seem to be more complaints
> about XE2 than any other version since I've subscribed to the
> borland/codegear/embarcadero newsgroups.
>

New features brings new bugs. Firemonkey is new and that is what people
complain about. The "old stuff" is generally very good.

Actually we are seeing the most bugs at the moment, when we are compiling
our code with the Prism 5 compiler. It simple generates wrong IL code for
correct source code, so we have had to revert to Prism 4.

Uffe

>New features brings new bugs. Firemonkey is new and that is what people
>complain about. The "old stuff" is generally very good.

Whilst I agree that "new features bring new bugs" my view is I'm seeing a lot of complaints about old stuff and the IDE messing around. I'd actually say that the volume is quite a lot higher than the switch to unicode with D2009.

>Actually we are seeing the most bugs at the moment, when we are compiling
>our code with the Prism 5 compiler. It simple generates wrong IL code for
>correct source code, so we have had to revert to Prism 4.

Ouch

Roy Lambert

Roy Lambert wrote:
> Whilst I agree that "new features bring new bugs" my view is I'm
> seeing a lot of complaints about old stuff and the IDE messing
> around.

Absolutely. I love Firemonkey (but then again, I was a KSDev user long
before EMBT got their claws on it). It is, of course, packed with bugs,
but I'm so used to navigate around them now, I'm considering them
"features."

IDE, on the other hand, is acting up now and again. Especially code
completion, which I switched off.

Raul (and Roy and Uffe),

Thanks for your responses, which are helpful. I actually upgraded to the Rad
Delphi XE2 package yesterday (Professional ver) and have learned a bit
since. The downloading, install and subsequent Help upgrade took some two
hours -- though it would never end, but it did successfully.

I've been trapped in D5 forever because of (mostly) the lack of Rave
upgrades (and lack of support) and then their switch to a version in D2009
(which I also have) that required component conversion and a new but
apparently buggy upgrade of their product. I stayed with D5, though it's
brutal in XP because XP broke lots of things, Nonetheless, I've managed
workarounds. Just slow.

I long ago gave up on Rave's RTF and HTML versions and now generate all my
own RTF and am slowly converting their HTML to my own generation. The XE2
version brings with it another Rave version so we'll test it. If it's buggy
or the component conversion is more than I want I guess I'll just pass on
the PDF generation or find another 3rd party API that will convert the RTF
or HTML to PDF programmatically. I fear that Nevrona either is or is near
being a defunct company but dumping it will require a rewrite of virtually
every one of our reports. Their newsgroups apparently are dead.

Firemonkey appears aimed at iOS and I'm likely to aim at Android first. All
of our products are now server-based and ISAPIs.

I guess I'll pickup the RadPHP product as the "freebie", as none of the
others seem useful to me. I was unaware of Tim's EWB product so would be
interested in hearing about it. Elevate's been the one positive constant in
all of this turmoil.

Appreciate the feedback.

Jerry

<Raul> wrote in message
news:D50039C6-5F81-49AD-AAD1-8C1512D96822@news.elevatesoft.com...
> <<For example, could someone tell me
> the difference between Rad Studio XE2 and Delphi XE2?>
>
> Rad Studio includes Delphi, C++Builder, Prism and RadPHP. Basically if you
> need two or more of the products then buying Rad Studio is likely better
> than getting the products separately.
>
> You should check out product feature matrix to determine which edition you
> need - Pro, Enterprise or Architect.
>
> <<database product and have no clue about TurboRuby or Rails or
> FireMonkey, >>
>
> Firemonkey is part of delphi and is framework that is not tied to platform
> like Windows. technically you can use it create windows apps and
> iPhone/iPad apps but it needs to mature a bit - my own experience with it
> is minimal but based on emb NGs there are quite a few issues and
> limitations with it still. Either way if you get delphi you get it as
> well.
>
> 3rd rail and Turboruby are separate products but i never used either of
> them.
>
>
> <<Though not a PHP programmer (how tough can it be), the only product that
> does seem to tweak my interest is RadPHP if it would give me the ability
> to
> create mobile versions of our apps and decouple from IntraWeb. >>
>
> It can help with that - it generates php but you'd need to evaluate and
> see how good it is. Maybe somebody else can answer it - i found php easy
> enough to use without a special ide.
>
> << big question is does DBISAM work with any or all of these products. >>
>
> It works with delphi and C++Builder. In Firemonkey it should be possible
> to use it  (since its non-visual component) though i don't know if anybody
> has tried.
>
> None of the other products support it though i assume using the DBISAM
> ODBC driver should work but i'm guessing you're lookign at more native
> support.
>
> << What's been the experience of you Delphi programmers that
> went a different route than IW?>>
>
> Most of my web development is php + javascript so the new EWB product from
> Tim is of great interest.
>
> Raul
>