What would get you to buy a newer Delphi version?

This is a practical poll question, what would get you to buy a newer Delphi version?
What would you like to see most and foremost, and would most have a use for?
To force you to choose, you can only pick two items!

I would buy a newer version of Delphi with...

  • Improved IDE (performance, fixes, features, help) (24%, 374 Votes)
  • Improved Win32/Win64 support (performance & features) (18%, 276 Votes)
  • Improved OS X support (performance & features) (1%, 18 Votes)
  • Improved iOS support (performance & features) (2%, 39 Votes)
  • New Android support (16%, 253 Votes)
  • New WinRT support (3%, 51 Votes)
  • New Java support (0%, 5 Votes)
  • New HTML5/JavaScript support (2%, 36 Votes)
  • New/Revived .Net support (1%, 11 Votes)
  • Revived Linux support (6%, 87 Votes)
  • Improved Language support (7%, 103 Votes)
  • A lower price tag (20%, 312 Votes)

Total Voters: 836

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28 thoughts on “What would get you to buy a newer Delphi version?

  1. Two things missing for me :

    – graphical UI component designer (can’t understand why it does not exist) ..
    – LINQ like syntax

  2. @oschwab I would say first falls under improved IDE, and second under improved language. Future polls might address individual aspects in the broader options!

  3. @Eric
    Yes, I voted that 2 items. My post was just what I would like to see most in these 2 categories. I’m rather surprise that language features are not a real motivation for people …

  4. Windows Phone support would be great, too.
    (But not shure if next WP version will be binary compatible with win desktop)

  5. I’ve voted for:
    – Improved IDE: way too many bugs that will soon be(if not already is) a technical debt that Delphi will have to pay in the near future, the IDE is the only thing that keeps us from moving to fpc+lazarus
    – Lower price tag: fpc + lazarus will soon be on the same level like delphi in terms of development cost, if they don’t take action soon, they might a few customers…

  6. A message that EC sold Delphi to another company and anyone responsible for the QA, release planning and pricing within the last 10 years was fired 🙂

  7. I voted Improved IDE and Improved Win32/Win64. I’m basically in the fix the “you must fix the bugs” first camp.

    After 10 years of loyalty they have actually already lost our small ISV as a long term customer due to their increasing untrustworthiness in terms of quality. I have no reason to believe that the new iOS compiler will be any different. Even if it proves to be good quality, what does that mean for the Win32/Win64 support in the medium term ? They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t in my eyes. If the iOS / FireMonkey combination proves itself, then they are still a LONG way from replacing the existing Win32/Win64 VCL solution with the LLVM compiler for windows, during which time the existing solution will be left untended. If iOS / FireMonkey fails, well that won’t be good news either of course.

    So Oxygene is the way forward for us, gradually migrating with the use of Hydra to a .NET platform and cross platform with their other Oxygene compilers.

  8. I’ve no idea what improved language support means. Otherwise I’m a pure Win32 guy. Don’t want or need anything else. That said, I’d rather Delphi succeeded so I’m right behind developing for other platforms.

    I think it’s superb value for money for professional developers. I would pay a lot more.

    Would be nice if the RTL quality was better. Why wasn’t that on your list. Would have been my number 1 choice.

  9. By the way “Improved iOS support” is somehow misleading: XE4 Pro standalone *does not have* iOS support – it’s optional. You have to buy iOS support as an add-on: http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/downloads

    So “A lower price tag” is useless:
    – there was a price increase this year;
    – with iOS support XE4 Pro becomes very expensive;

  10. I already get all of those ‘wishes’ (except for HTML5) now that I switched to Oxygene.

    Sorry.

  11. I too have already moved from EmBarkingMadDero to RemObjects Oxygene. There were just too many bugs and being forced to always buy new to fix anything was just too much. I’m a Windows programmer and the whole push for that monkey thing was not where I was heading.
    I did check WinRT and .NET as the two options, but to get me to buy again I would have had to check 7 or 8 of them…

  12. Ah, choices. Too many, too little considered. Give us 100 points to distribute between all the catagories, count the ones that get 0 most often , then reverse the list order. Then, if equally ranked, consider which gets the highest mean point scores.

    2 choices is not enough to describe my, or indeed, anyone’s motivations.

  13. Russian Delphi users can’t afford current price. About 1000-2000$. Too high. Lower price needed for Russia, 200-300.

  14. Too late, f* you for the bad Pascal stewardship.

    Non-core-technical things would have needed:

    – involve community in issues, bugfixes and development (you’ve become to weak). No censoring in forum (except for throwing out idiots)
    – be open, honest and screw your secrecy. Stop bragging around and be modest. My trust in you has completely gone
    – use git, github, modern issue trackers, unbloat everything!
    – throw out old bastards and websites, follow what Ximian and RemObjects does, try to involve FreePascal and (also) listen to capable people with opinions (e.g. S. Kissel)
    – somehow ’embrace’ open-source, of course it’s ‘terrible’ for a tool company but (almost) every other language/environment is open-source, no way around it

    I’d have needed Win32/64, Mac32/64 and Linux32/64 (iOS/Android optional, imho you lost already). A working FireMonkey and the LLVM compiler would have been great but I consider it borderline unlikely that you get there with an acceptable quality. Unlikely that I’ll ever reinstate my SA (canceled this spring).

  15. It is really sad to see a grand product like Delphi slowly but surely die out. This due to that EM people have not figurered out that the fundation of Delphi with its IDE, VCL and Windows development environment has to be nurtured for people to stay with the product.

    Now it seems they feel that development of new shiny toys like Firemonkey and iOS is more fun. That will not make old delphi VCL developers feel they have to stay with the product.

    Please update the Delphi functionality: Delphi form designer with undo, code reformatter that really works, Webservice client/server side that use modern/updated standard, XML wizardry that works with more complex layout… AND please fix all long bug reports!

    For those that has not figured it out yet (Embarcarder, TMS Software, RemObject, and many more)… A great product can not survive without documentation. Shame on you all that have not figured it out yet (EM DataSnap is a great example of this lavk of documentation).

  16. By the way regarding “The necessary equipment” (http://www.felix-colibri.com/blog/delphi_xe4_ios_.html) to do iOS dev: you have to have:
    – Delphi Pro + iOS pack
    – Windows OS License
    – MAC OS License
    – Hardware for these OSs
    – iPhone/iPad
    – Third party libs

    This makes iOS programming using Delphi the most expensive toy ever!

    Nice!

    * Please add “I don’t/won’t buy” in the poll 😉

  17. I also voted “Improved IDE” and “Improved Win32/Win64 support”. We are still using D2007. The dbExpress bugs in D2007 are still not fixed in XE3 and now with purchase of anydac they probably never will. Just go to the QC and look how many open reports they have! It would be interesting to see the statistics of opened and closed reports, maybe I’m wrong but it seems to me that with every new release more reports are opened than closed. Even if it isn’t so, it’s clear that some very old bugs are still not fixed.

  18. I would appreciate if the upgrade path would be extended to lower versions of Delphi again. I own D2009 and upgraded because of Unicode support.
    Each subsequent version did not convince me to upgrade again so far. May be one day I would like to upgrade again without buying a new license.

    Spending less money on upgrading is a much fast descision then spending more bucks on a full license again. I’m using Delphi not in any business but mainly for private projects. The starter edition is worthless in any way, even for private usage only.

    Michael

  19. …and by the way – I don’t need this iOS things in Delphi – completely nonsens because of Apples restrictive behaviour.

    Android support would be better, however, Embarcadero continues ignoring it in XE4.

    MIchael

  20. @mart

    On the issue of dbExpress, I would not get my hopes up too high. Embarcadero Inc. seems not to see the use of keeping the platform of their income (read Delphi) solid and well taken care of.

    Feels like they work more like Homer Simpson… Oh look, shiny!

    If you are using dbExpress which can be really good, I would go for DevArt Inc. modules (on the web: http://www.devart.com).

    But get me wrong. I really WANT Emabarcadero to get it all together, and surprise me in a big way. Maybe they don’t see the light any more. Delphi is a really fantastic thing. And it can be for many more years to come.

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