The other posts here are good. Here's a couple of my own thoughts, not too dissimilar. .NET is a major advantage for VB and C++ programmers. Truely object-oriented, better type checking, automatic memory cleanup, good library, etc. But for Delphi, there's not much of an advantage--we've had most of these benefits for years! And with CodeGear making some improvements in the language, it's getting even better. So the reason to move for us isn't so much technical as it is market-driven. We *have* to listen to Microsoft because they, being so prevelent, can and will change the world. It is a good idea to keep up to date on where the technology is headed so that when (not if) the time comes to change, we'll be ready. Many DOS programs are still supported, but to take advantage of new features, you have to move to Windows. The same will be true with Windows applications over the next few years (and even is now to some extent with the Compact Framework in .NET 2.0 and the new graphics standard in .NET 3.0). Downloading a huge framework used to be a show-stopper, but everyone (almost) has high speed internet now, and that's just a one-time download. In a couple of years when a large segment of the industry has finally switched to Vista (you *know* it's going to happen), we'll all have .NET 3.0 pre-installed, so even that won't be an issue. Having said all this, I recently backed out a Delphi for .NET project and restarted it in Delphi for Win32. Why? Because I needed to get it done quickly and needed some controls that I was familiar with in Win32. I'm still learning .NET but can't justify new projects in it yet because I'm a sole developer and it takes time to learn the CLR and surround myself with the tools and libraries I find comfortable to be as productive and to produce the level of sophistication and quality I've been producing in Win32 applications. However, a team of programmers dedicated to the task, could get up to speed fairly rapidly--in that situation, I'd probably go with .NET. David Cornelius Cornelius Concepts, Inc. http://corneliusconcepts.com <http://corneliusconcepts.com/> Software Development, Databases, Websites
_____ From: Francois Steyn [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 1:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [delphi-en] .NET or not .NET Hello, We have to develop a new app from scratch. The question is, what will we gain from going .NET or staying with Win32. We write Accounting/POS/Payroll Systems. Software Updates are distributed/downloaded via the web. We want to run it as an offline system with batch updateing at the end of they day (semi online if you specify your batch updates to be 0 seconds). It must be fast(GUI & DB) and modular, application size must also be as small as possible. eg having a (10mb application) vs (10kb application +80mb .NET) Right now we're not really worried about Mobile devices, but would like to have a web module where you can do ordering. Ive found alot of online sites with comparisons, but to me it looks like a personal preference and I cannot get distinguished features/reasons why we SHOULD go the .NET route. Everyone at the company is very proficient with Delphi 7 Win32. Our possibilities is Delphi 2007 Win32, Delphi 2006 .NET or C#.NET. C#.NET is almost a nogo since theres a big learning curve. We do not want to develop the new application for the next 2 years. Hope I made it clear enough! Thanks!! Francois Steyn [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
