I'm currently using D2006. I can never see myself needing unicode but I'm wondering if I should buy XE just to keep in the upgrade loop in case there ever is a feature I don't think I can live without, and I'm prepared to take the pain of unicode to get it (maybe 64bit). The onnly reason I'm thinking about it is the cost of upgrading from older versions looks as though its going to become prohibitive. If I don't keep in the loop now I'll soon find that the pricing (I'm a hobbyist really) will prevent me ever upgrading.

From the Embarcaderoo forums (and here) I know there are a lot of people on even older versions than me but as I say I'm wondering.

Roy Lambert

Roy,

If you're planning to keep current then also get the maintenance (or S&M as it's called It does add to cost but since you're already willing to pay for upgrade i think the maintenance is somewhat reasonable.

I attended the XE World Tour and lot of people had similar questions and what i came away with was (note that these are my opinions and not anything official from Embarcadero):

- Embarcadero is planning on continuing to release a new version every year. Hence not having maintenance means you won't have access to the latest and greatest as early as another 12 months.

- With XE you also get access to old versions so you could move to D2007 at least.

- They are thinking about a free/cheap edition but don't hold your breadth. If history is any indication it will likely be so crippled that it's useless for somebody like you

-That being said we won't know how the 64bit will be SKUd - might be simply included or might be different product or add-on or only in Enterprise. However having current Delphi s&m should at the very least make you eligible for discount if it will be paid for addition.


The other major issue i have is the lack of Datasnap or more specifically ability to easily create web services with Pro edition and it does not look like there is anything being done about that (meaning for now you need Enterprise or Architect).  So unless one has Enterprise already my suggestion remains to get a Visual Studio Express as well (it's free) or get MSDN (that i have) and get everything + OS, etc.I do realize that's goignto the dark side but EDB works there so keeping ones options open is not a bad idea.

Raul

Raul


>If you're planning to keep current then also get the maintenance (or S&M as it's called It does add to cost but since you're already willing to pay for upgrade i think the maintenance is somewhat reasonable.

Ah but I'm not planning to keep current necessarily. I certainly wouldn't be using XE if I bought it since I can't see anything in there I MUST have, or would make me massively more productive. The idea is more I can upgrade now for <£300. That (probably) means I'll be eligable for upgrade costs for another 3 versions at which point I have to make another decision. If I don't upgrade now even as shelfware then the next upgrade will probably cost me c£1000.

>- Embarcadero is planning on continuing to release a new version every year. Hence not having maintenance means you won't have access to the latest and greatest as early as another 12 months.

I seriously do not need a new IDE every year.

>- With XE you also get access to old versions so you could move to D2007 at least.

D2007 isn't enough better than D2006

>-That being said we won't know how the 64bit will be SKUd - might be simply included or might be different product or add-on or only in Enterprise. However having current Delphi s&m should at the very least make you eligible for discount if it will be paid for addition.

Hmm. That's one of my guesses

>The other major issue i have is the lack of Datasnap or more specifically ability to easily create web services with Pro edition and it does not look like there is anything being done about that (meaning for now you need Enterprise or Architect). So unless one has Enterprise already my suggestion remains to get a Visual Studio Express as well (it's free) or get MSDN (that i have) and get everything + OS, etc.I do realize that's goignto the dark side but EDB works there so keeping ones options open is not a bad idea.

Something like VS or FreePascal are options I've considered and it may even be that becomes my upgrade path. I'll have such fun trying to find replacement components, rewriting my own homebrew stuff.

Roy Lambert

Roy,

You may want to seriously consider upgrading before the end of this
calendar year.  No longer can you get the upgrade price from ANY
previous version of Delphi, but only a few versions back.  Notice this
excerpt from a FAQ on Delphi XE:

"For a limited time through December 31, 2010, registered owners of 2006
versions of Delphi, C++Builder, Borland Developer Studio products
(Professional, Enterprise or Architect editions) and Turbo Professional
products also qualify for upgrade pricing."  Starting next year, you'd
have to pay the "new user" to upgrade.

Reference:
http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/frequently-asked-questions#6d

But besides that, even though there weren't many changes from Delphi
2006 to 2007, if you're not on Windows 7 already, eventually you
probably will and it's a pain to install Delphi 2006 on Vista or newer.
 Delphi 2007 has Vista support built in and installs easily in Windows 7.


--
David Cornelius
Cornelius Concepts

David

>"For a limited time through December 31, 2010, registered owners of 2006
>versions of Delphi, C++Builder, Borland Developer Studio products
>(Professional, Enterprise or Architect editions) and Turbo Professional
>products also qualify for upgrade pricing." Starting next year, you'd
>have to pay the "new user" to upgrade.

I did, that's why I'm pondering the question. But I still don't know wether of not to just stay put with D2006 - it might just see me to my dotage. About the only significant change I can see is 64bit and I doubt that I'll ever develop anything that will NEED that much power. One of the key factors is that this is a hobby not my way of making a living. I've sold a few copies of one of my apps but that's it. If I were a professional developer its a no brainer. As a hobbyist the question is "do I keep on shelling out £300 every couple of years for software I'm not going to use just in case there's ever something vital which makes the change to unicode worthwhile?".

>But besides that, even though there weren't many changes from Delphi
>2006 to 2007, if you're not on Windows 7 already, eventually you
>probably will and

Painful thought ain't it

>it's a pain to install Delphi 2006 on Vista or newer.
> Delphi 2007 has Vista support built in and installs easily in Windows 7.

Really. No one told me that. Must be why I didn't have any problems installing D2006 or D6 on Vista


Roy Lambert

Yeah, as a hobbyist, you have to make the cost justification a stronger
case.

As far as Delphi on Vista, D7 is no problem, but without Dr. Bob's page
(http://www.drbob42.com/examines/examin84.htm), I would've had quite a
struggle getting D2006 going.  Glad it went well for you.

--
David Cornelius
Cornelius Concepts

On 9/21/2010 11:17 PM, Roy Lambert wrote:
> David
>
>> "For a limited time through December 31, 2010, registered owners of 2006
>> versions of Delphi, C++Builder, Borland Developer Studio products
>> (Professional, Enterprise or Architect editions) and Turbo Professional
>> products also qualify for upgrade pricing." Starting next year, you'd
>> have to pay the "new user" to upgrade.
>
> I did, that's why I'm pondering the question. But I still don't know wether of not to just stay put with D2006 - it might just see me to my dotage. About the only significant change I can see is 64bit and I doubt that I'll ever develop anything that will NEED that much power. One of the key factors is that this is a hobby not my way of making a living. I've sold a few copies of one of my apps but that's it. If I were a professional developer its a no brainer. As a hobbyist the question is "do I keep on shelling out £300 every couple of years for software I'm not going to use just in case there's ever something vital which makes the change to unicode worthwhile?".
>
>> But besides that, even though there weren't many changes from Delphi
>> 2006 to 2007, if you're not on Windows 7 already, eventually you
>> probably will and
>
> Painful thought ain't it
>
>> it's a pain to install Delphi 2006 on Vista or newer.
>> Delphi 2007 has Vista support built in and installs easily in Windows 7.
>
> Really. No one told me that. Must be why I didn't have any problems installing D2006 or D6 on Vista
>
>
> Roy Lambert

David


>Yeah, as a hobbyist, you have to make the cost justification a stronger
>case.

And the case for messing about unicoding stuff when I not moving from English!

>As far as Delphi on Vista, D7 is no problem, but without Dr. Bob's page
>(http://www.drbob42.com/examines/examin84.htm), I would've had quite a
>struggle getting D2006 going. Glad it went well for you.

Wow. That looks painful.

Roy Lambert [Team Elevate]

Roy Lambert wrote:

> And the case for messing about unicoding stuff when I not moving
> from English!
>
Roy,

Do you have reason to think that 'unicoding' would actually be a
challenge for you if you did decide to buy or try D2009+ ?

I needed to switch to unicode as I have users in some strange places.
But almost all my unicoding 'challenges' were related to the need to
*also* generate Ascii, Ansi and UTF8 output in order to use serial
hardware devices and drive web applications.

If not using 3rd party harware and/or firmware, or loads of APIs the
conversion may turn out to be easier than you imagine.

Malcolm
--

Malcolm

>Do you have reason to think that 'unicoding' would actually be a
>challenge for you if you did decide to buy or try D2009+ ?

No I don't think it will be particularly hard (my head is much bigger than that) but I do have a wadge of 3rd party stuff. Either the components are converted and I have them or they're freebies and I'd have to convert the source. I'd also have to convert all my homebrew stuff.

In many cases this would be a simple recompile, but I'd need to test.

I haven't yet seen any feature in the newer Delphi versions that would make me want to put that effort in to get a feature I don't want.

I read posts on the CG ngs fairly frequently (like today) with people talking of upgrading from D5 to D7.

I suppose the alternative question is wether or not anything will come along that will stop me using D2006.

Roy Lambert

Roy,

<< And the case for messing about unicoding stuff when I not moving from
English! >>

AFAIK, Windows uses UTF-16 in the OS itself, so the API calls are more
efficient when using Unicode in the application.  At least there's that.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com