Avalon & Indigo

[Kambiz]

According to Delphi / C++Builder roadmap Delphi 2007 should have VCL for Avalon and Indigo. Is there such VCL?

[kokkoras]

What is Avalon and Indigo ?

What is the latest Delphi version?

[Kambiz]

Now, Avalon is called Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and Indigo is called Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).

I didn't work with WCF, but I can tell that WPF is impressive. The learning process of WPF is going to be a little hard, but after that all development will be much easier, productive, flexible and beautiful. User interface of WPF applications is defined by an XML markup language named XAML. Using XAML, you can design a very cute UI which get benefits of DirectX and GPU.

I guess the latest version of Delphi is Delphi 2007. Actually it is a while that I gave up Delphi and use C# and WPF.

[kokkoras]

> Actually it is a while that I gave up Delphi and use C# and WPF.

I see... so, give us your opinion about C# and the Microsoft way.

[P_G]

Delphi 2007 supports the Vista Aero effects (Glassing, shadows, etc.) that are part of the desktop window manager (DWM). As far as I know WPF is the .NET wrapper of DWM (correct me if I'm wrong). So yes - Delphi 2007 can do GUIs in Vista-style but it does not use XAML.

P_G

[kokkoras]

I saw a video introduction to C# yesterday. The IDE was so much Delphi like! I am not sure about the learning curve though. Is there a C# VCL version? Learning all those libs again is time consuming. Does the C# personality of Delphi 2007 includes VCL?

[P_G]

I referred to Delphi 2007 for Win32 in my last post. The C# personality has indeed a VCL for .NET although many users advice not to use this VCL due to the fact that it uses Win32 calls and is not 'pure' .NET.

P_G

[Kambiz]

C# and .NET libraries sound familiar to Delphi and Java developers, and I am sure you already know why.

The good thing of .NET is that you do not need to invent wheel every time that you want to develop an application, and because of that the .NET library is huge. And obviously for someone that wants to get benefits of .NET, C# is the best choice so that it is designed natively for .NET.

Although managed code is slower than native one, I believe it is not a big issue on today computers. Anyway, in cases that speed is a matter, we can use native code and even call it from the managed code.

you can consider XAML of WPF as DFM files of Delphi. However it is more powerful because beside using GPU for rendering UI, it gives UI designers more flexibility. In XAML, like a web page you can define style for every single control; use data templates to specify how data appears on the controls, bind any kind of data (or property) to properties of controls, define triggers to animate or change style of a control based on value changes of a property (or data) or raising an event, and much more that I didn't learn yet. I do suggest to download XAMLPad (is an MS Tool) and paste some XAML code inside it to see what I mean.

Do you know what, I was really sick and tired of writing wrappers for C/C++ libraries to use them inside Delphi. In C# everything is already there and ready to use. Life is so easier now.

[P_G]

Kambiz,
I hope you won't rename 'DelphiArea' to 'CSharpArea'

P_G

[Kambiz]

Well, the domain registration is already paid until 2013, so it can't be vanished.

[kokkoras]

OK, so clould you please name the dev tools you now use? Is it MS Visual studio or the C# personality of Delphi?

[Kambiz]

I use Visual Studio 2008.

[YogiYang]

I use Visual Studio 2008.

Can you tell me : Why are good Delphi developer def acting to .NET and VS?

[Kambiz]

Before Delphi I was a C/C++ developer, but I chosen Delphi because it was making my life easier.
Now I can see C# and that fancy WPF stuff makes my life much easier than Delphi.

Logically, by a better development tool/language you can develop better software and have more and happier customers. That means more money, and consequently a better life.

[YogiYang]

Before Delphi I was a C/C++ developer, but I chosen Delphi because it was making my life easier.
Now I can see C# and that fancy WPF stuff makes my life much easier than Delphi.

Logically, by a better development tool/language you can develop better software and have more and happier customers. That means more money, and consequently a better life.

As you have already admitted Delphi made your life easier.

Wouldn't it have been better if you had used Delphi.NET and as for C/C++ used C++ Builder instead of switching as you were already productive with Delphi?

Lastly how long do you plant to support you Delphi components and are you planning to release/convert these components to C#?

Regards,

Yogi Yang