Roy,

<< However, I'd maintain that the cost of transitioning from D2006 is high regardless of wether you get paid or not. If you get paid then you can spread the cost over your customers or take a drop in profits. Then, I'm pretty sure, there will be the time to carry out any mods to the software and test everything. >>

I don't think it's that high, considering that something like Office Pro goes for ~$500.

I wrote EWB using Delphi XE, followed by EWB 2 using Delphi XE6, and both worked great.  We're a tech partner, so we get time-limited copies for integration usage, but I would gladly pay full boat for what Delphi has made us in terms of revenue.  I wouldn't even think twice about it.

IMO, they really have turned the ship back in the right direction, and are making progress.  There's a lot of good stuff in there now, and it's all as backward-compatible as one could expect.  DBISAM and EDB target D5 (!) through XE8 right now, and there is very little required to make it all work.

I would never use anything less than XE for development now.  The older versions are just less functional - things like Find Declaration don't work right all of the time, whereas it works perfectly in XE and higher.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim


>I wrote EWB using Delphi XE, followed by EWB 2 using Delphi XE6, and both worked great. We're a tech partner, so we get time-limited copies for integration usage, but I would gladly pay full boat for what Delphi has made us in terms of revenue. I wouldn't even think twice about it.

In your shoes I would agree with you.

Roy

Roy,

<< In your shoes I would agree with you. >>

1) I can guarantee you that we don't make nearly as much as you might think we do.  I commonly refer to Elevate Software as my "lifestyle business".

2) You might have a little "grass is greener" syndrome.  If you look around at Windows development tools, there's Visual Studio and RAD Studio.  That's it.  Everything else will have you pulling your hair out in a week.

Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim

>1) I can guarantee you that we don't make nearly as much as you might think we do. I commonly refer to Elevate Software as my "lifestyle business".

Ahhhh - it must be nice to be independently wealthy and not have to work <vbg>

>2) You might have a little "grass is greener" syndrome. If you look around at Windows development tools, there's Visual Studio and RAD Studio. That's it. Everything else will have you pulling your hair out in a week.

Not really - every so often when I'm feeling bored I have a look at alternatives. Unfortunately, I do have to disagree with your tinescales - with some nothing much would have happened within a week. ZZZzzzzzz

Roy

There's been good and bad with the IDE upgrades.  The old saying of 99 bugs of code in the project, fix 1 now, 105 bugs on code in the project.

XE7 was pretty solid for development.  XE8 added Castilia, which I promptly removed.  I kept trying Calstilia for years and it just added more headache.  

From XE6-XE8, I've hit issues with memory issues compiling, which Seattle fixes once and for all finally.  So this helps immensely.  I've been on subscription model and it's not bad for what you get in the big picture of things.  Twice a year upgrades is great.  I know some complain about that, but then you have a similar complaint when you only put out one and then have to wait a year for new features.

VCL still continues to be worked on, which is my main focus.  

Tim Wrote:

>>IMO, they really have turned the ship back in the right direction, and are making progress.  
>>There's a lot of good stuff in there now, and it's all as backward-compatible as one could expect.

... overall I am with Tim. I am on XE8 and happy with it. A lot has improved, and the dark days of Inprise feel as though they are behind us. I gripe about the cost of upgrades as I don't have a big business, but Delphi (and the third party components I use) are core to my business, so EMB have me over a barrel to some extent.

If Delphi folded altogether and stopped development I don't know what I would do ... Visual Studio I guess. That would cost me a year of my life, which I'm not sure I could face.

Adam

>.. overall I am with Tim. I am on XE8 and happy with it. A lot has improved, and the dark days of Inprise feel as though they are behind us. I gripe about the cost of upgrades as I don't have a big business, but Delphi (and the third party components I use) are core to my business, so EMB have me over a barrel to some extent.
>
>If Delphi folded altogether and stopped development I don't know what I would do ... Visual Studio I guess. That would cost me a year of my life, which I'm not sure I could face.

With the exception of XE8 (since I don't use it)  those are sentiments I can agree with. I had great hopes for FreeSparta (Lazarus clone / enhamcements)  but it didn't come to anything and Lararus itself is just not nice if you're used to even as primitive a delphi as 2006.

Roy