Borland’s tools team will be in control of its own fate; Investors Lined Up

So little information then, POW, we get this: “Though Borland hasn’t officially announced the pending divestiture, a company executive confirmed the plan Tuesday. “All of the investors that are interested are private equity companies,” said David Intersimone, vice president of developer relations at Cupertino, Calif.-based Borland.”

It goes on to say: “The plan means that Borland’s tools team will be in control of its own fate, rather than face the uncertainty an acquisition by a larger hardware or software vendor would have brought.”

Means that ther will not be a Google, Microsoft or any other monopoly takeover of our favorite product. This is good news, right?

Transition from Delphi to Mobile App Languages

After so many years with traditional Delphi, I’m making a transition to iphone app development. Personally it has been a huge learning curve for me, and I still have a lot to learn.

With the rapidly growing world of Android and Objective-C programming, if you want to stay current as a developer, learning mobile is the way to go forward. Objective-C has a huge learning curve. But with the introduction of the Swift programming language, it will be much easier to someone new to jump in and learn the basics fast.

On the Android side, everything is done with Java’s Android SDK. It’s much easier to code for Android apps (at least in my short experience), but there are so many devices and screen-sizes that you need to test your apps in. But in contrast, with Apple, there are only a handful of devices that you need to deploy the apps for.

Since the learning curve is steep, the cost of app development is not cheap. Most top developers are getting paid well, and therefore the app development projects are priced accordingly. You might be able to get your app developed for a cheap cost or even for free by hiring an University student, but if you need a high quality outcome, you should definitely go for an experienced developer. After you have developed the app, consider contacting an app marketing agency to ensure you get the app to the right users.

 

 

Delphi XE7: what’s wrong with it, and why are there no Delphi Job Vacancies

Delphi XE7 is a new multi-device app development solution that works on iOS, Mac, Android, Windows, and now on wearables and gadgets. It has new features that include –

  • Windows & VCL Features
  • New Parallel Programming Library
  • New FireMonkey Enhancements
  • New Enterprise Mobility Services
  • Enhancements for Connecting to Wearables & Gadgets via Bluetooth Support

For new users the Delphi XE7 will cost $5047. Let me put this more into perspective – most any other development tool for mobile applications can be had for FREE. They are also just as advanced (in some instances more) than the Delphi XE7. That’s the reason why businesses and companies, both large and small, prefer to have their apps developed with these FREE tools. It saves them a huge upfront expense. In addition to that, there are a few more factors that help to drag Delphi XE7 down and out of the competition with other available tools on the market.

Some claims that have been made by Embarcadero Technologies (publishers of Delphi XE7) go like this –

  1. “Delphi Android along with iOS apps give you faster native CPU performance.”
  2. “Full visual designer to go with iOS user interfaces. Features multiple device types, orientation, and resolutions.”
  3. “Develop Mobile Apps visually while delivering natively compiled apps with high performance to give the best user experience.”

One major Embarcadero marketing point is how Delphi creates applications, which are ‘native’ to the mobile platform you use. I personally hear complaints from people who tried out Delphi for mobile and they are disappointed. Their complaint is about the appearance and the speed of their so-called ‘native’ applications. What’s the deal? Is Delphi really creating ‘native’ applications to go with Android and iOS? Well, to know the answer to that we have 3 ways of understanding it.

Is it Native to the Hardware?

The term ‘native to the hardware’ is defined as being “your code has been compiled down to the actual machine hardware instructions.” In this area Embarcadero really did an excellent job, and this is really the thing their marketing department sells.

What About Native to the OS?

Native to the OS means having a direct access to both the controls of the OS and the API of the OS. In the case of Delphi, the answer is ‘YES’. They have sacrificed native access to controls and API so they can give you RAD (Rapid Application Development). Their goal has been to keep the layers that exist between the OS and Delphi as thin as the possibly can, while at the same time keeping RAD, and now they’re adding cross-platform development.

What About Native Look & Feel?

The Delphi mobile apps at times feel a bit sluggish, look slightly wrong, and act in ways that seem ‘sub-standard’. Those are the consequences of taking the path that Embarcadero chose when implementing cross-platform controls such as TMemo, TListBox, etc.

Therefore, in spite of their claims of having pixel-perfect compatibility, they don’t have a Native look and feel.

Their lack of support regarding high quality native apps, along with their incredibly high pricing is the hugest deterrent for companies who may otherwise like to use the Delphi XE7 for developing their mobile applications, or for that matter even hiring Delphi developers.

Even if they advertise sri lanka vacancies to draw in Delphi developers, the would not able to fill them all, because there are plenty of free developing tools and resources available out there. People are not willing to jeopardize their entire careers on Delphi, which is simply an astoundingly expensive commercial development tool.

This lack of a FREE edition of Delphi also brings on a lack of new developers. The power developers won’t go near them because of their lack of focus on new ‘power applications’. The ‘RAD’ developers are mainly coding their front-ends using the free tools that are available. Delphi has drifted out into ‘no man’s land’ and is appealing to a very small group of new developers.