Section :: Rants and Raves

So What Is Delphi Anyway?

by Huw Collingbourne

What’s In A Name? Not much, apparently…

Saturday 24 February 2007.

Since the announcement of CodeGear’s new ‘Delphi For PHP’, a number of longtime Delphi users have started wondering what the heck Delphi is supposed to be these days?

Delphi started life as the name of the visual IDE for Borland’s Object Pascal programming language. In the old days, Borland used to try to make a distinction between ‘Delphi the product’ and ‘Object Pascal the language’. However, most people used the name ‘Delphi’ indiscriminately to describe both the product and the language. On the whole, when people talked about ‘programming in Delphi’, they meant coding Object Pascal within the Delphi IDE.

It wasn’t too long before Borland itself began to use ‘Delphi’ to describe both the environment and the language. I quote from the Delphi 7 Help system:

“Delphi is a high-level, compiled, strongly typed language that supports structured and object-oriented design. Based on Object Pascal, its benefits include easy-to-read code, quick compilation, and the use of multiple unit files for modular programming.”

So clearly, Delphi is the name of a type of Object Pascal. Which explains why, when the Delphi environment and class library were subsequently adapted for use with C++, Borland decided to find a new name for that product. They called it C++Builder, not Delphi For C++ which would have been nonsensical – I mean, how can you have Object Pascal For C++?

The launch of Delphi For PHP represents a dramatic break with tradition. If Delphi is Object Pascal, how can it simultaneously be ‘for’ PHP?

The answer is that it isn’t. It would seem that Delphi is no longer a language or an IDE. It is now just a name. Delphi For PHP has no real connection with Delphi For… well, Delphi. Its IDE is different, its class library is different, its programming language is different.

In spite of the fact that I have been programming in Delphi (the real Delphi, I mean) for more than a decade – slightly before the first public release of the product, as a matter of fact, I hadn’t initially realised just how important its name was. But having read some of the comments on Delphi forums and newsgroups, I note a good deal of bitterness from Delphi programmers (or should I say ‘Object Pascal’ programmers) who feel that the name of their programming language has been hijacked, distorted and devalued.

I’m not sure that I feel that strongly myself. However, given the fact that Delphi (define that as you will) is CodeGear’s greatest asset, the company may need to think long and hard about the wisdom of reducing it to a mere brand name...

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So What Is Delphi Anyway?
20 March 2007, by Brian Layman

You could also quote the Delphi 5 manual: "What is Delphi? Delphi is an object-oriented, visual programming environment for rapid application development (RAD). "

The closing session of CodeRage 2007, cleared up this debate fairly well.

Delphi is now a family of product with a very strict set of features that MUST be present in order to carry the Delphi label. Delphi purists really should take this as a sign that CodeGear is returning to their roots. The Delphi name indicates RAD development, a clear component event model, an IDE that helps you do your job, and integrated database access. If you KNOW Delphi, you can quickly respond to calls to produce work in Object Pascal, PHP, and soon perhaps Ruby and other languages. The fact of the matter is that to be a Delphi programmer now means MORE, not less.

http://www.TheCodeCave.com
- So What Is Delphi Anyway?
  21 March 2007, by Huw Collingbourne
  
  I’m afraid I don’t swallow that. I wrote the "Delphi Programming" column in PC Plus magazine for over 10 years. It had nothing to do with PHP. It had nothing to do with Object Pascal in general (a broad term that covers several flavours of Pascal). Borland/CodeGear has a newsgroup called borland.public.delphi.language(etc.). The idea that ’Delphi’ has ever in its decade+ history described some sort of generic RAD just doesn’t bear scrutiny. C++Builder has a far greater claim to the Delphi name (same IDE, same class library) than ’Delphi For PHP’. I hope, as you say, that CodeGear is returning to its roots. But the bizarre decision to use Delphi as a brand name for an unrelated IDE and and unrelated language does not seem to be symptomatic of that. However CodeGear may attempt to redefine Delphi, it seems to me that the development community at large has a clear and unambiguous understanding of what Delphi is: it is a visual programming system which uses an object oriented version of the Pascal language. CodeGear is already facing an uphill struggle to convince people who used to call themselves "Delphi developers" that that is not the case. I think it will be a much tougher struggle to redefine Delphi for those people who have not been closely following the twists and turns of recent Borland/CodeGear history and are not aware that Delphi no longer means what it used to.