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The LA Fox Developer Newsletter
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April 1995
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Software Review....
by Michael Cummings
First, Delphi is, in my opinion, a cool tool. Its fun to use and very powerful.
Delphi is an unqualified success. The Delphi forum on CompuServe is so busy that messages scroll off in a day or two. Delphi books are also a hot item in book stores across the country. What is all the excitement about?
Delphi is a general-purpose Windows tool with database features. It is in exactly the same market niche as Visual Basic, and it has many of the advantages of C++.
Delphi’s language is Object Pascal. Delphi uses the same Object.Method and Object.Property syntax that Visual Basic, Access, Visual FoxPro use. For example:
IconViewForm.
Close;
MyButton.Caption
:=
'Hello World’;
Its a clean syntax, and I would be happy to see it in all the tools I use.
The development environment is a delight. It is as intuitive and easy as Visual Basic. The toolbars and property sheets
are
easy to figure out and efficient to use. Just like VB, you can create a wide variety of Windows programs. Just like VB, you can go from design to run in a few seconds.
Delphi uses an object/component architecture that allows you to plug in various components, just like VB. Delphi ships
with
a Grid, a Tab control, and lots of other useful VCLs. Unlike Visual Basic Custom Controls, where components must be written in C++, Delphi Visual Component Library (VCL) components are written in Delphi, so you can either write them yourself or purchase them.
Unlike VB, Delphi is compiled, not interpreted. In certain operations, compiled code can give a 10 t 20 fold speed advantage. The compiled code advantage is strongest in heavy looping and very custom Windows interface tricks. For bread and
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butter database apps, the database engine is more critical to speed.
One of Delphi’s biggest strengths is the 350,000 line per minute Pascal Compiler. It produces true machine compiled code, like C++, and it does it fast.
Delphi has done a great job of encasing a high performance compiled language in a rapid, intuitive and easy to learn development environment.
Delphi really delivers the ease of use and manageable learning curve of VB, without the slow speed and limited project size of VB. Delphi delivers most of the power of C++ without the pain of slow compiles and mistake-prone syntax. I would use Delphi over VB or C++ for just about anything.
Ok, but how does Delphi compare to Visual FoxPro?
Comparing Delphi to Visual FoxPro is like comparing a Speedboat to a Porsche. They have entirely different strengths. Delphi is a general-purpose tool that can be used to create any kind of Windows program, including spreadsheets, Word Processors, etc. Visual FoxPro is totally comitted to database applications
It appears that Delphi’s VCL component structure does not encourage subclassing to the extent that the Visual FoxPro environment does. Delphi will not, for instance, allow you to subclass an entire form and all the controls on it. In other words, for regular database type work, Visual FoxPro is going to be faster to develop in.
Besides its own native VCL components, Delphi also supports many VBX’s. Support for Ole Custom Controls (OCX), such as those used by Visual FoxPro, is supposed to be in the works. There is such a strong interest in Delphi that it looks like there will be more VCL components in the near future than OCX components.
The Report Smith report writer included with Delphi is a separate, stand alone application, that uses its own version of Basic, and its own (slower) database engine.
Delphi includes 2 database engines. Borland Database Engine (BDE) is the same file-server
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