From Delphi to C# and Back Again

I remember when I first started working with C#. A friend at Microsoft showed it to me at PDC in 2000. He just happened to be the same guy who introduced me to Delphi a few years earlier, and I remember him saying “You’re going to love this.” And I did. C# made programming fun again for me after being stuck in the VB world for a couple of years. That fun feeling I had with C# was similar to the fun feeling I had when I was programming with Delphi during the mid-90s.

I enjoyed C# for the years that followed. Of course all the work was web-based. After starting White Peak Software a customer asked me to develop a prototype version of a desktop application. The customer also asked that I use VB.NET, so I gave VB.NET a try. However I stepped away from the project after completing the prototype. Working in VB.NET was an awful experience for me and I now refuse to write any programs using VB.NET.

What was equally as awful was writing a desktop application in .NET (and I have written my fair share of them as well). Sure, it can be done but not with the speed and easy found with Delphi and the VCL. I bought and used Delphi 2005 for the next desktop application I wrote and I haven’t looked back. Delphi is back as my language of choice, and the Borland Developer Studio is my IDE of choice for both Delphi and C# development.

The VCL is the magical piece that makes writing Windows desktop application so easy. Sure I love Delphi as a language. Pascal has always been my favorite. I cut my programming teeth on Pascal back in the early 80’s. C# is a nice language too especially if you prefer C-style languages, and it’s my second programming language of choice. But VCL features such as TFrame and TAction make writing a Windows desktop application make easier compared to .NET.

Today I do more Delphi programming than C# and I couldn’t be happier. My customers are happier too.

Posted in programming. Tagged in csharp, delphi.

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