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This is essentially what Borland did with Interbase. Check the Firebird web site, especially the project history and you'll see how Borland changed their mind but only after the cat was out of the bag.

You mean Kylix, their free, open-source linux-targetting Delphi from 2001?

Not that Linus would ever agree but they have a pretty good collection of SCM tools including integrating high level requirements, detailed requirements bug tracking and SCM, UML modeling... essentially a rational light that is more flexible.

Making that whole system available would be a really big gift to open source and education. They could do it with something like the old QT license free for non profit and non commercial... They would get a huge following for their toolset overnight.

Not that Linus would ever agree but they have a pretty good collection of SCM tools including integrating high level requirements, detailed requirements bug tracking and SCM, UML modeling... essentially a rational light that is more flexible.

Making that whole system available would be a really big gift to open source and education. They could do it with something like the old QT license free for non profit and non commercial... They would get a huge following for their toolset overnight.

There already is a Together plug-in for Eclipse: it's called the TogetherJ Eclipse Edition.

Theregister is inccorect.

Posted by Borland Developer Relation at borland.public.delphi.non-technical newsgroup
or
http://newsgroups.borland.com/cgi-bin/dnewsweb?cmd =article&group=borland.public.delphi.non-technical &item=490600&utag=.

Taking that information and stating that "JBuilder is now open source" is extremely irresponsible, in addition to being plain wrong.

Any ideas on that RTL bug that makes Delphi7 compiled apps sometimes crash

Have you checked out QualityCentral?

Perhaps if you could tell us why you thought Eclipse and Netbeans suck it would be easier to come with a suggestion?

Anyway, some of the most popular would probably be JBuilder, JDeveloper, IntelliJ IDEA, KDevelop...

If you prefer more light-weight IDEs, you can always use ANT together with something like Emacs or JEdit.

JDeveloper is by Oracle, JBuilder is by Borland. JDeveloper is great but I prefer JBuilder. It's amazing how far it has come.

Umm.... Java, or if you don't like Java try any Borland Tool, kylix is free for personal use, so is jbuilder. Other tools such as CBuilder and Delphi (object pascal) are free do download as a trial.

Borland has an IDE that can be used with gcc, called C++BuilderXI have found it a really good IDE, although the personal version is missing some of the features that i liked in C++Builder.

Yes, that attitude is still prevalent in the newsgroups they run. Make a suggestion: get shot down in flames until someone inside Borland suggests it, and then the attitudes change such that you'd think the person inside Borland came down from the mountain with the idea engraved in stone.

It's really sad.

And speaking of Kaster, give QualityCentral a look some time. Here's a place where, supposedly, you can make suggestions and get your peers to vote on them and have them taken seriously. And yet when your report gets a very respectable number of votes, you're still told by the newsgroup goons that your idea is without merit, is awful, or in some other way never going to happen.

Why even ask for suggestions guys if you're just going to shoot people down?

Do you think Frank Borland is celebrating somewhere in the mountains? :)

I haven't done any delphi work in a couple years, and have never heard anyone talking about kylix. Anyone have any experience with it?

I'm presuming this is some sort of weird troll, moderated "informative" for some odd reason (seriously moderator, "informative"? What derf?)

Seriously, if you think the Microsoft development tools are far superior to anything else in the world, then I can only presume you've never used anything else in the world :).

Such a development environment exists...it's called Delphi. Was outstanding in versions 2-4, but now it's becoming more and more M$-ish.

(I think it's referenced on the UML website, but I'm not sure - I haven't visited it in a while).

"What Linux REALLY needs to overthrow Windows, is a multiplatform RAD environment for C++"

Interesting thought. Sounds like you are describing Borland C++ Builder, which has been around for years :)

It is a multiplatform development environment (Windows, Linux or Solaris) for C++

C++ Builder uses the Borland IDE that many consider much better than the other crappy C++ IDEs (like Visual Studio) and from what I gather their compiler is pretty darn good as well.

Here is the main page

The scaled down version is free on their download page

but the fully loaded enterprise version is a bit pricey

"What Linux REALLY needs to overthrow Windows, is a multiplatform RAD environment for C++"

Interesting thought. Sounds like you are describing Borland C++ Builder, which has been around for years :)

It is a multiplatform development environment (Windows, Linux or Solaris) for C++

C++ Builder uses the Borland IDE that many consider much better than the other crappy C++ IDEs (like Visual Studio) and from what I gather their compiler is pretty darn good as well.

Here is the main page

The scaled down version is free on their download page

but the fully loaded enterprise version is a bit pricey

Here is the link to the free-as-in-beer, non-commercial only version of Borland's product (C++BuilderX Personal). Soul-stealing registration required.

wget ftp://ftpd.borland.com/download/delphi/Delphi_2005 _Trial/Delphi2005ArchitectTrial.exe

But with SWT Java has the Windows-native GUI look also. Also check out Eclipse. In fact, Borland is using Eclipse for TogetherJ perhaps they will use it for Delphi too...

And it's worth noting that Borland is stagnating in the compiler side of their world: they've so far refused to embrace AMD64 and are concentrating all their development efforts on .NET.

The Win32 compiler has only received marginal development, and barely anything in the way of improved optimizations to try to bring it up to Intel's codegen standards.

I've made the move to VC++, and unless Borland suddenly reverses course and announces an AMD64 compiler I don't see any reason to look back.

(As a sign of how little they listen to their customers, take a look at this report in their public bug/feature tracking system:

http://qc.borland.com/wc/wc.exe/details?reportid=7 324 (sign-up required, it's free)

That's the highest rated report in their system, and they refuse to act on it.)

You need to do a bit of reseach.

Here allow me to help : http://www.borland.com/delphi

The Delphi 2005 IDE is one IDE with the capability to create Delphi applications (win 32 and .NET), C#.NET, ASP.NET, VB.NET, Console Apps, CPL apps, etc, etc, etc. No need to launch more than one development IDE, even if you want multiple projects in multiple languages all open at once.

All that and more (already mentioned was the code-refactoring and sync-edit)

Not to mention the ease in deploying a .NET application (Frontpage Extensions, FTP or XCopy) Visual Studio only allows FP Extentions.

My 2 cents.

Non-optimizing compilers can be very fast. Basically you just have to parse it and output pre-defined asm for each bit. According to this page, Turbo C 2.01 (a 1989 product) compiles over 16,000 lines per minute. Given that this number is also on the advertisement shown in that picture, which is actually from that time, it's 16,000 lines on the hardware of that time (i.e. 386). Now IIRC the 386 had at most 33MHz, so from the clock speed difference alone, on an 2.4GHz computer it should compile about 1.16 million lines per second; assuming a factor 4 in efficiency (i.e. modern processors can do 4 times as much per clock cycle as an 386), it should be possible to compile the same amount in 15 seconds. Now according to this page the Linux kernel has 1,526,722 lines of code, so if either my efficiency factor of 4 was too low, or TCC can compile about 1.5 times as fast as Turbo C 2.0 could (or maybe a combination of both), it's clearly not that far-fetched that a linux kernel could be compiled in 15 seconds.

For developing VB.NET on Windows without paying a cent, you could use SharpDevelop or use the personal edition of Borland's C#Builder. I haven't used them myself for VB.NET(in love w/ C#), but they do support it. :)

Gambas has become the first Visual Basic-style environment for Linux to enter release candidate status.

I guess Kylix doesn't count since it far exceeds Visual Basic.

How can it be the first when Kylix predates it by quite a bit?

Why can't i attempt to have Turbo C++ 3.01 Professional?
Why can't i buy the unexistent Turbo C++ 3.01 Professional from Borland?

open4free ©

Still use it every day here as well. I've always found it the best compromise between speed of development, type safety, power, and ease of finding easy-to-grab components for everything from GIS to on-screen gauges to internet suites. Thumbing around Torry's or efg's Computer Lab provides a nifty, but very small, sampling of what's out there.

I'm actually pretty glad to see it's catching on again. We just attended the Delphi Diamondback/2005 roadshow, and I was impressed at the number of folks there compared to what I've seen in past years. Things are starting to pick up at the user group as well. I'll be demoing AQTime from Automated QA, a freakishly fantastic product for the price (from a corporate view, anyhow ;)

I've been actually not been terribly compelled to upgrade from Delphi 5 as a development platform. Not that later versions haven't been good, but the upgrades have been mostly in areas I'm not doing anything in, like the n-tier and web pieces.

We always upgrade one copy, though, and I attend conventions as I can. When Delphi for .NET came out, I was pretty seriously impressed. They put a lot of care and attention into making sure that ports from Win32 would be as painless as possible, but to let you go off and start off with native .NET and the FCL. Took less than a week to port my framework, and most of that was learning .NET idioms (like Finalize, strings being copy-on-modify, creating weak references).

You're often at the mercy of your component vendors, though, so if you were one of those that thought that the quality of the component code didn't matter as long as it worked... the pointer-trick and copy-and-paste coder segment will fall on tough times :)

Quite frankly, porting code, the trouble spots are basically:

• Third party components
• String tricks (given that .NET's strings are almost over-protected, and that they are WideStrings by default
• API calls

Delphi 9, or Delphi 2005, as they're calling it, is the first compelling upgrade I've seen for folks like me, who spend a lot of time in the class interface design, source code and unit testing arena.

Delphi 2005 hosts three environments, Delphi/Win32, Delphi for .NET and C#. A lot of Delphi 8's language enhancements have made it into the Delphi/Win32 side, such as enumerator syntax (for MyString in MyStringList do...). The editor, at last, does a number of the refactorings that the JBuilder crew has had access to, such as Extract Method and a smart Declare Variable (e.g. X := MyControl.Parent will suggest TWinControl). The folding editor has a number of tricks up its sleeve, and a number of file backups are maintained which you can diff inside the environment, helpful if you run into troubles more granular than your version control system's checked-in versions. Nice to see some of the integrated tools and projects as well. New->Unit Test will give you DUnit (for Win32) or NUnit (for .NET) shells, and there are a ton more bits 'n' pieces I haven't had the opportunity to play with (the ASP.NET projects are pretty smooth).

Kylix was a bit before its time, really. Linux is such a freakishly fast-changing environment (as I sit here in my Fedora Core partition in utter awe of what yum says I must also update to update some of the major package around - gah!), and there isn't enough corporate-level interest in easy GUI programming for Linux to fund keeping up with it.

I got Kylix 2, and personally found it pretty good for porting, and a fairly decent environment (it used WINE, although apps made with it did not), although seamless it

Still use it every day here as well. I've always found it the best compromise between speed of development, type safety, power, and ease of finding easy-to-grab components for everything from GIS to on-screen gauges to internet suites. Thumbing around Torry's or efg's Computer Lab provides a nifty, but very small, sampling of what's out there.

I'm actually pretty glad to see it's catching on again. We just attended the Delphi Diamondback/2005 roadshow, and I was impressed at the number of folks there compared to what I've seen in past years. Things are starting to pick up at the user group as well. I'll be demoing AQTime from Automated QA, a freakishly fantastic product for the price (from a corporate view, anyhow ;)

I've been actually not been terribly compelled to upgrade from Delphi 5 as a development platform. Not that later versions haven't been good, but the upgrades have been mostly in areas I'm not doing anything in, like the n-tier and web pieces.

We always upgrade one copy, though, and I attend conventions as I can. When Delphi for .NET came out, I was pretty seriously impressed. They put a lot of care and attention into making sure that ports from Win32 would be as painless as possible, but to let you go off and start off with native .NET and the FCL. Took less than a week to port my framework, and most of that was learning .NET idioms (like Finalize, strings being copy-on-modify, creating weak references).

You're often at the mercy of your component vendors, though, so if you were one of those that thought that the quality of the component code didn't matter as long as it worked... the pointer-trick and copy-and-paste coder segment will fall on tough times :)

Quite frankly, porting code, the trouble spots are basically:

• Third party components
• String tricks (given that .NET's strings are almost over-protected, and that they are WideStrings by default
• API calls

Delphi 9, or Delphi 2005, as they're calling it, is the first compelling upgrade I've seen for folks like me, who spend a lot of time in the class interface design, source code and unit testing arena.

Delphi 2005 hosts three environments, Delphi/Win32, Delphi for .NET and C#. A lot of Delphi 8's language enhancements have made it into the Delphi/Win32 side, such as enumerator syntax (for MyString in MyStringList do...). The editor, at last, does a number of the refactorings that the JBuilder crew has had access to, such as Extract Method and a smart Declare Variable (e.g. X := MyControl.Parent will suggest TWinControl). The folding editor has a number of tricks up its sleeve, and a number of file backups are maintained which you can diff inside the environment, helpful if you run into troubles more granular than your version control system's checked-in versions. Nice to see some of the integrated tools and projects as well. New->Unit Test will give you DUnit (for Win32) or NUnit (for .NET) shells, and there are a ton more bits 'n' pieces I haven't had the opportunity to play with (the ASP.NET projects are pretty smooth).

Kylix was a bit before its time, really. Linux is such a freakishly fast-changing environment (as I sit here in my Fedora Core partition in utter awe of what yum says I must also update to update some of the major package around - gah!), and there isn't enough corporate-level interest in easy GUI programming for Linux to fund keeping up with it.

I got Kylix 2, and personally found it pretty good for porting, and a fairly decent environment (it used WINE, although apps made with it did not), although seamless it

And in certain circles, Pascal is still the language of choice. Lots of people who hack out basic native-code Windows software prefer Borland's Delphi IDE to any alternative. One reason is the programming language, which is actually an object-oriented extension of Pascal.

I spent 3 years at Borland, documenting their component libraries, which are mostly written in Delphi. I came to appreciate its simplicity and power. My job required me to go back and forth between Delphi and C++ (the same libraries are used in Borland's C++ products) and it was an object lesson (forgive the pun) in how painfully baroque C++ has become.

It's a pity that Pascal/Delphi has so thoroughly lost the language wars. But it has. Even if C++ hadn't thoroughly taken over native-code programming, Borland's bizarre and insular corporate culture would keep from spreading beyond a few fierce loyalists.

Kylix (http://www.borland.com/kylix/) is Borland's IDE for Object Pascal and C++ development for Linux. They even have an Open Edition, which is free but requires the code developed with it to be GPL'd. They have enterprise-level offerings too.

Some of us have never given up on Pascal. I still use Delphi and Kylix to this day. Meets my needs and Pascal makes a nice OO programming language, something that dates back to Turbo Pascal 7.

There is a ton of third party support for it and you can do just about everything a little easier then just about everything else. All my DSOs for Apache are done in Kylix...

Some of us have never given up on Pascal. I still use Delphi and Kylix to this day. Meets my needs and Pascal makes a nice OO programming language, something that dates back to Turbo Pascal 7.

There is a ton of third party support for it and you can do just about everything a little easier then just about everything else. All my DSOs for Apache are done in Kylix...

What was the funniest experience you've ever had related to programming?

I almost beat Bill Gates in a programming contest. Back in 1985, several high-tech editors and writers were invited up to Redmond by Microsoft's PR firm to participate in a "Storm the Gates" contest. Each of us could choose our own programming language, and Bill would use BASICA. Someone had written up several programming challenges on little quarter-sheets of paper and folded them up in a fishbowl. One of the PR women pulled a sheet from the bowl, copied it out for each of us on a copier, and we were off and running to implement the little programming problem the sheet described. It was an idiotic spec, including stuff like drawing concentric circles.

When she said "Go!" we all got to work. It was a total snap in Turbo Pascal 3.0-except that we had to read a character from the keyboard buffer "on the fly" rather than wait for it, and although I knew Turbo Pascal could do that, I also knew that it took an INT call, and I couldn't recall the details. Pascal, for the most part, doesn't work that way. So although I finished everything else first, I couldn't crack that one.

The punch line, of course, is that there's a standard function in BASICA that could do just that-in fact, there were standard functions in BASICA for every part of the challenge spec. So Gates merrily cranked along, stringing together standard functions in BASICA, and finished the spec before everybody else, though Charles Petzold got real close...in text mode! (Charles faked the concentric circles by displaying various characters at the same screen position, including a degree symbol, lower-case O, and upper case O.)

It was funny in part because the specs were cooked to match the capabilities of BASICA-and doubly funny because none of us saw it coming. It was triply funny because Bill Gates obviously didn't especially enjoy the effort-clearly his PR staff had cooked up the stunt and twisted his arm to participate. He didn't stop to hang out with us much, and looked miserable throughout, even though he'd won. Now, recall that that was before Microsoft went public, and Gates was far from the world's richest man. But it was great fun to finally understand that somebody had made him do something he didn't really want to do. I wonder sometimes if that was the last time it ever happened.

Who said there are only 2 compilers? He only tested 2, that's all. Here's a bit of a list - and notice that some of these are targeted specifically to scientific computing:

1. GCC
2. Intel compiler (Intel only)
3. Comeau
4. PathScale (Opteron only)
5. Portland Group (PGI)
6. Borland

Not exactly a check -- just free software. Check out the press release.

C# is a good alternative to Java, in that it is basically Java with the ability to put things like pointers in an "unsafe" block. That's where the "speed gain" comes from. But given the massive improvements in the JIT compilers for Java, the speed difference is negligible or even negative.

Just to make the point that Microsoft's strategy is basically to create a Java clone wrapped in Microsoft marketing, here's an excerpt from a MS presentation at the upcoming Borland Conference:

Converging Roads: .NET, Longhorn, and C++

In this session, the lead Microsoft architect of C++/CLI talks about the importance and viability of environments based on virtual machines and garbage collection, even for performance-driven applications, and demonstrates how C++ operates seamlessly in that environment with a tour of the C++/CLI language design and major features.

http://info.borland.com/conf2004/tracks/speaker/su tterherbmicrosoft.html

Sounds suspiciously like Java to me.

It's not free, but check out Borland's Java object database
JDataStore

At least in the US a company has to protect its trademark, or they loose it. But an alternative that most companies never use is to license their trademark. Then another company can use their trademark and be officially licensed. We see officially licensed merchandise all the time.

Most likely what happened is Odeon got a new lawyer, or they had an audit. It was pointed out that they cannot have someone else using their trademark so they sent a letter. Even if the president of Odeon uses the site and thinks it is cool the fact is that ignoring infringement of a trademark can cause the trademark to be invalidated. It is unfortunate that their lawyers didn't think to offer him an official license.

Steve Jackson Games is really progressive in this regard. Realizing that their fans would like to create software to add value to their product line they created the GM Aid License Program. They have a page that explains their program and provides a license application form. (It is worth noting that their system way predates the d20 Official Gaming License system by WotC.)

Borland Software takes it a step further providing benefits like free copies of their products you support.

Systems like these are a win for everyone.

• The enthusiast gets to make their officially licensed product.
• The other consumers get the benefit of the added value.
• And the company gets the benefit of a strong user community making their products move valuable.

I don't know why more companies don't have similar systems in place.

A open source RAD evironment sounds like it could have a huge impact on the number of apps that could be rolled out.

What about Borland Kylix?

One possibility is Netbeans, which I kind of like. It's free and super-easy to mount against existing code bases for debugging (Mount filesystem, point at source, done! Then you can attach to a VM for remote debugging).

Another possibility is IntilliJ, which a lot of people seem to like a lot - especially if they do not like Eclipse. It does cost money.

Then there is also the Big Mac Daddy of IDE's, JBuilder. That can cost a lot if you want the advanced features, but I don't think it's much if you want the basics.

You may notice a common theme here - all sorts of Java IDE's, and unlike other apps they all actually run under Linux. That's because unlike common perception Java desktop apps can work very well, and as all these are written in Java you get the benefit of being able to use them in Linux.

I do also run Eclipse under Linux and it works fine - I'm using Redhat (company standard).

However, even with all the IDE's you can still get far just with a good text editor and Ant, a very power build tool for Java.

I'm assuming the Visual Studio Express suite comprises IDEs for .NET, since that's the direction Microsoft is going, big time.

There are actually two free .NET IDEs out there at moment (with caveats, of course): SharpDevelop (GPL, with GUI builder) and Borland's C# Builder Personal Editioin NON-Commercial (you can only make non-commercial apps with this).

• Some kind of development management. I've done some consulting development for a graphic design firm which had a web-based system for tracking what projects were currently under development, where they were in that development, and who was doing what. Their employees AND their clients could see it, and everyone was completely clear on what was going on, and when it could be expected. They weren't a software shop, but they still had development tracking/CRM tools in place.
• Bug tracking. My current employer (a hospitality company) has a web-based system in place for tracking variations between "what the client expected" and what was delivered, and they actively use it to make sure the clients are well informed, and what they deliver is consistent with those expectations.
• Some kind of revision control. My current employer has a Wiki in place for tracking projects, specs and their changes. It allows you to see what changed from one revision to the next. Additionally, I'm using Subversion for revision control on the actual development. The huge employer had a good revision control system in place, as well; their use of the sytem "converted" me to the idea. If they develop software, and they don't have any revision control system in place (even if it's making a .zip snapshot of the development every so often, and archiving it), they probably won't last long. The ability to "roll-back" to a previous revision, and compare "then" vs. "now" is a wonderful troubleshooting tool.

The development tools under windows blow everything else out of the water.

Man, I miss Borland.

You can at least download and use TP 5.5 for free from Borland now.

Boarland's C++BuilderX has this feature.

Basically it simply parses out the source files, and has a pane with all of the lines commented out beginning with TODO. From there you can assign priorities, etc.

I was surprised to see all of my TODOs automatically imported when I first began to use CBX. It's quite ingenius that all of the data is simply stored in human-readable form within the .cpp file itself.

Now, I know a lot of people, myself included despise some of Borland's C++ stuff, especially on Windows. However, CBX was a wonderful departure from the typical crappy windows IDE. It's really just a Java-based (ironic, huh?) editor with some extra built-in tools. Not to mention that it's free for personal use and runs on Win32, Linux, and Solaris.

I'll probably eventually move to MS VC++ or switch to open source tools. But, for a beginning developer, it's small features like this which make CBX the tool I use.

Borland Delphi had this feature in version 5, which was released 1999, and was definitely in use by October of that year.