| Programmers have been waiting since 1991 for Borland
International (Scotts Valley, CA, (800) 891-2223) to offer
an alternative to Microsoft's Visual Basic, the leading
tool for rapid applications development on Windows. The
wait is nearly over. Delphi, scheduled for release early
this year, unites a VB-like visual-design environment with
the industrial strength of Borland's Pascal compiler and
database-connectivity engines. Judging from an early beta
version, Delphi is a well-integrated tool that will bring
new versatility and performance to Windows development. It's not that Windows developers are starved for tools. On the contrary, they're well served by such products as VB, Visual C++, PowerBuilder, SQL Windows, Clarion for Windows, Smalltalk, Borland's own C++ and Pascal compilers, Computer Associates' CA-Realizer, and many others. What's different is that Delphi bridges two important gaps. One is the conceptual gap between visual tools primarily intended for client/server solutions versus full-blown programming languages more suitable for general-purpose applications development. The other is the performance gap between interpretive or p-code languages versus true native compilers. For desktop developers, Delphi has native connections for dBase and Paradox, as well as support for ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). Borland will bundle Delphi with Database Desktop, a tool for manipulating dBase and Paradox tables, and ReportSmith, a report generator. Borland says this version of Delphi will be priced competitively with the professional edition of VB, which sells for about $330 retail. A high-end client/server version of Delphi will add ReportSmith SQL; Local InterBase Server, which is a utility for developing networked InterBase applications on single-user systems; SQL-Links, native drivers that let you connect to Sybase, InterBase, Informix, and Oracle; support for ODBC; and Visual Query Builder, from Coromandel Industries (Forest Hills, NY). Borland says this version of Delphi will be priced "very competitively" with PowerSoft's PowerBuilder Enterprise, which sells for about $3295. But Delphi is much more than a client/server tool. It's also a full-featured OOP (object-oriented programming) language capable of tackling almost any task, from casual freeware to commercial software. The underlying language is Object Pascal, a descendant of Turbo Pascal, which revolutionized DOS development in the 1980s and launched Borland. The compiler generates fast-running stand-alone executable files, as well as DLLs that are callable from C++, VB, dBase, Paradox, and other tools. Delphi's front end is a visual interface that closely resembles VB. You create a user interface by drawing buttons, listboxes, text windows, menus, and other controls on a form. An object inspector lets you set the controls' properties and define the events they'll respond to. When you define an event, Delphi automatically creates a hollow procedure in a separate code window, ready for you to plug in your code. Unlike the interface builders tacked onto some compilers, Delphi lets you move seamlessly back and forth between the design environment and code windows. As you make changes to your forms, Delphi automatically generates, modifies, or removes the appropriate code, and it does so without disturbing the code you've written manually. While Delphi imposes an object-oriented structure on your program, it doesn't prevent you from reusing procedural legacy code. For example, I pasted large chunks of a DOS program that was written in Turbo Pascal into Delphi's code window. Within a remarkably short time, I had a spanking new Windows version of my program up and running. You can also use VBXes (Visual Basic custom controls) and create your own reusable components. The components, however, are Delphi-specific. You can create VBXes with Delphi, but not until Microsoft releases Windows 95 will a subsequent version of Delphi allow you to build OCXes (OLE custom controls). A 32-bit version of Delphi will ship shortly after the release of Windows 95. Is Delphi the long-rumored "VB killer"? Probably not. However, it is a powerful tool that no longer requires you to sacrifice performance or versatility in return for rapid development. Delphi's visual design environment Copyright 1994-1998 BYTE |