Delphi, the perpetual underdog of IT....

[The Gorn]

http://www.computerweekly...virus-in-source-code.htm

Anti-virus specialist Sophos has identified a virus being distributed in software written using the Delphi programming language from Borland.  
  ...  
  The W32/Induc-A injects itself into the source code of any Delphi program it finds on an infected computer,   and then compiles itself into a finished executable, Sophos warned. The virus threatens software developers that use Delphi, but Sophos also warned   many computer users running programs written in Delphi could be affected.  
 
  In the past 24 hours SophosLabs has received more than 3,000 unique infected samples of programs infected by W32/Induc-A. This suggests the malware has been   active for some time, and a number of software houses specialising in developing applications with Delphi could have been infected.  
 
  Ironically, Sophos has also seen a number of banking Trojan horses - which are often written in Delphi - infected by Induc-A, indicating that the malware   authors could also have been affected.

Personal digression:  I once loved Delphi for its power and abilities. I was fully invested in the tool up through 2003 or so.

Then I slowly and surely started to hate it for a raft of reasons having to do with: only dysfunctional companies using Delphi, poor promotion and visibility of Delphi, and the absolute rip-off price that the Delphi IDE sells for now.

Basically, my commitment to a tool was rewarded with pure sh*t - marginalization in the marketplace. A purely excellent, lean and mean product being treated like a pile of dog feces by its vendor, by clients, and in turn, I was kicked in the teeth many times for using it and knowing it.

I really hope it dies as a product line. Not a constructive sentiment, but an authentic one. Screw Delphi.

[codger]

Virus-laden; overpriced. It should be put out of its misery. I recall, years ago, thinking that Delphi was an incredible package, and would likely change how programmers work, forever. It's sad to see how horribly it has been mismanaged to the point of irrelevancy.

I wonder how Sybase's PowerBuilder is faring in the workplace.

[DG9]

[codger]

The last time I used dBase it was still marketed by Ashton-Tate. It was packaged as dBase IV. I had the developer Ed. They kept promising a Compiler, but I don't know if they ever actually delivered one. The Ashton-Tate developer magazine was one of the best I've ever seen.

I think that the rise in popularity of Paradox, combined with dBase IV's reputation for being buggy stopped their ascent. (dbase III was well-received and pretty much bullet proof.) As I recall, it was absorbed into the growing FoxBase community.

[pxsant]

First on Powerbuilder.

I don't know of any major corporations in my area that are developing new applications in Powerbuilder.  There are still quite a few existing apps in the language.  Most of the corps have tried over the years to convert PB apps to another platform, primarily the WEB.  All PHB's know  is to be followers and that is what PHB's in other corporations are attempting to do.  They think everything should be a WEB app.

The problem is, converting a very rich desktop app to a WEB app is not trivial if you want to maintain similar functionality.  In fact the cost will be several times the cost of the original development.  The same problem applies to any rich desktop app, not just Powerbuilder.

A conversion may be justified for one primary reason, the lack of availability of competent programmers in PB, Delphi or other older language.  The PHB's just need to understand that the cost of conversion will be high.  

If converting an old app to a newer language is attempted, it makes more sense to use .NET as the target platform on the desktop.  But that is another hot topic altogether.

I still make a good chunk of change maintaining PB applications.

On dBase.

dBase still lives!  It has changed hands a few times but it still exists.  The current form of the language is significantly different than the old language.  You can create anything from a WEB app to a standard desktop app.  Lots of features.   The URL is still dBase.com.  The new dBase would not be used, or make any sense at all for a large corporation.  It might make sense for a small developer producing a product for resale.

[The Gorn]

Most proprietary language IDEs - like Delphi, also Powerbuilder, Cold Fusion, and many others that have popped up over the years - never fare that well unless they are attached to something very unique. (IE, the scripting behind Adobe Flash supports Flash graphics, so it's not going anywhere.)

Such languages have a big initial spurt of enthusiasm, but tend to taper off dramatically. And the developers usually have nowhere to go unless they abandon ship.

I was somewhat fortunate in coming to Delphi as a "better C++". My knowledge of a generic language (C++) made it much easier to write off Delphi when the time came.

[The Gorn]

dBase was overshadowed in the late 80s by Clipper (a true compiler) and by FoxBase.

Paradox was touted some in the late 80s-early 90s as Borland's better replacement of dBase.  I knew of a few places using it.

But I think what really killed off xBase and Paradox alike for the mass market was Access. Access first came out around 1991. It incorporated some of FoxBase's database technology (because MS bought the company, of course.) And ODBC capability allowed Access to talk to older DB formats. Thus Access was a "universal" solution.

It seems quaint now, but when Microsoft first got VB, Visual C++, and Access established in developer's and company's minds, it was simply by being a cheap upgrade from the then popular standards. (Well, like Windows 3.1 was a cheap upgrade, too.) I remember MS pricing most of the entry level versions of these products at $99 to $149 for a "competitive upgrade". The suspicion with developers was always that the MS counterpart was junk, but a low initial price made it painless to try out.

MS started to kill off Novell Netware and the popular peer to peer networks also by being a cheap upgrade to WFW 3.1.

[Slinky]

Then I slowly and surely   started to hate it for a raft of reasons having to do with: only dysfunctional companies using Delphi, poor promotion and visibility of Delphi, and the   absolute rip-off price that the Delphi IDE sells for now.  
 
  Basically, my commitment to a tool was rewarded with pure sh*t - marginalization in the marketplace. A purely excellent, lean and mean product being treated   like a pile of dog feces by its vendor, by clients, and in turn, I was kicked in the teeth many times for using it and knowing it.  
 
  I really hope it dies as a product line. Not a constructive sentiment, but an authentic one. Screw Delphi.

That's exactly how I feel too. I saw the writing on the wall, when I couldn't get contracts or FTE work using Delphi. The dysfunctional companies comment is dead on, bulls-eye. Moved onto C# and SQL related tech like ETL and datawarehousing.

[codger]

I had meant to include Clipper with FoxBase. Clipper was an excellent product, and had a fairly large following.

Maybe I'm naive, but I don't see Access as being in the same league as Clipper. It had the M$ tie-in and ODBC capability going for it, but it struck me as being a rather ham-handed approach to serious development. Oh well.

[The Gorn]

I'm glad someone else in the same position has the same view.

The steep dropoff in Delphi has been a key contributor to my own cynicism about IT. It starkly showed me that regardless of merit, BS always wins, and merit and ability are a poor substitute for marketing clout, which seems to be what really matters.

About the dysfunctional companies, I have to say this: the last two Delphi contracts I had were with sh*tholes and the owners abused me. I have been contacted in the last five years or so by several really small places, through a Delphi-specific resume I keep up on Delphipages.com. EVERY single place that has contacted me through that ad has been some solo guy whose story is always "I fired all of the expensive people that were trying to screw me, but I don't know Delphi, can you work for royalties but only if I really feel like paying you and I feel like you deserve to get paid?"

[The Gorn]

Access had visual form design and was developed specifically to run on Windows. Clipper was a text only system for DOS where you purchased add-ons for windowing.

At the time that Access came out, everything was reorienting to Windows applications. For a few years Access (or VB with Access drivers) was truly the only game in town if you needed a Windows database application and you weren't a heavy duty C/C++ Windows API developer who could roll your own libraries.

[codger]

GB said, "... can you work for royalties but only if I really feel like paying you and I feel like you deserve to get paid?"

Were they nuts? They were seeking someone to work with an "obsolete" toolset on a royalty basis, and then act as if they can be choosy. Insanity!

GB, I realize that you've invested a lot of your professional life in working with Delphi, but suggest that you remove all references to it from your resumes and web listings. It (Delphi) serves only as an irritant to you. You should step away from it and focus on things that you can be enthusiastic about. [I know - this sounds odd coming from me.]

[The Gorn]

That's actually very good advice! I have mostly implemented it. I think I will do what you say if I update my tech resume and remove Delphi as a current skill. Delphi will be relegated to legacy platforms, like DOS.

I just like to bitch about it. I wrote off Delphi as a means to earn a living four years ago - at the time my last large Delphi contract relationship exploded in my face.

If I intended to stay tech permanently I *would* like to be more "generic" than a particular tool. However, it's a reality that even architects in this business tend to get branded with a tool.

[The Gorn]

I find it quite telling that I can't even find a Delphi developer's message forum or newsgroup with any current traffic that is discussing this issue. Maybe all of that action is now on the Codegear site.

Bottom line - if you use Delphi, you seem to be utterly and entirely on your own.

That is another great downfall - Delphi's community was top notch in past years. That was one of its core strengths.

I did find this on Embarcadero Technology's web site, the communities: http://edn.embarcadero.com

However, it appears to only be used for publishing marcomm.

[Aussie]

That Shaker sect.

Starts off as 'revealed wisdom'.  Attracts a bunch of adherents. But due to a possible inherent defect, at least in terms of propagation (in the case of the Shakers, with the no-nookie thing, a propagation defect, indeed!), the seeds of its own marginalisation and demise are sown right at the start.  Then you get the long decline into obscurity.

That said, it can be a bit of an earner for a while.  I remember when I did the recruitment thing for a cupla years in the middling early nineties, there was a 2 or 3 sites in Sydney desperate for PICK people (remember PICK?).  And there was only a handful (literally) that had the expertise.  Was a nice little earner for them for a while.