CODEWITHSUNDEEP
delphidelphi-7delphi-xe
PA.
PA.

Reputation: 29339

should I move to the new Delphi XE Starter?

I am a Turbo pascal/Borland pascal/Delphi developer, since 1987. I currently only use Delphi for maintaining old tools that I (and some friends of mine) use privately. Unfortunately all my professional codes have already been ported, some even with my direct involvement :) to other development languages and environments, sad. OK, sorry for this digressive introduction. Let me get to my question.

I currently own Delphi 7 professional. It was an expensive move, never worth what it costed, just for my hobbyist usage.

Now, this XE Starter edition has appeared. At 149€, it looks like a good deal. It seems that it comes with almost everything I use now, and with some things I miss; unicode and generics, specially.

Do you know if there is any hiden (bad) surprise in this offer? So, should I stay or should I go?

What are in your opinion the pros and cons of such a move?

thanks.

Upvotes: 14

Views: 3965

Answers (13)

ssamayoa
ssamayoa

Reputation: 157

In my opinion XE2 is appealing because OSX support and 64 bit compiler but such support comes only in pro and upper editions.

So, unless you have $1000 to spend (pro edition), starter could frustrate you because the lack of features that you already have with Delphi 7.

Regards.

Upvotes: 0

Ronnie
Ronnie

Reputation: 11

And what about 64 Bit code. I think even the XE does not compile programs for 64 bit which means limitations exist for max 4GB for programs and etc etc. Let's hope they release a 64 bit version soon for XE.

Upvotes: 1

IceCold
IceCold

Reputation: 21154

Don't do this mistake. Wait for a stable version to be released. See this: Brand new installed Delphi XE freezes without reason (it is QC 90864 Delphi bug)

Upvotes: 0

HMcG
HMcG

Reputation: 2060

If I had not already upgraded to Delphi XE, I would certainly go for this offer, even without source code. I am also a hobbiest, and for me, the upgrade cost for professional every couple of years is worthwhile. There are a lot of more expensive hobbys, believe me.

Upvotes: 1

Rob McDonell
Rob McDonell

Reputation: 1319

The XE versions have a much nicer IDE, Unicode, and support for Vista and Win7. I'd go for it if I was still on Delphi 7.

Upvotes: 3

Birger
Birger

Reputation: 4353

If you're a hobbyist using Delphi 7 you might as well try to switch to FreePascal. Comes with full source :-)

Upvotes: 11

Thorsten Engler
Thorsten Engler

Reputation: 2361

Given the missing VCL source AND no command line compiler, Delphi Starter Edition is a NonStarter IMO.

Upvotes: 10

alex
alex

Reputation: 1156

If you mostly want to use it for hobby purposes then staying with an 8-year old development environment and a language that doesn't have a lot of new features is not a good move.

If you want to learn new technologies (as applied to Delphi) or even want to apply knowledge you acquired from other environments to make your life easier in Delphi world then XE is a good choice (as you mentioned Generics, Unicode, extended RTTI, Touch, etc goodness).

Now, is Starter a good choice? Depends on your needs. Check out the feature matrix (as suggested) and decide for your self.

But as the language/IDE goes, then definitely go for it.

Upvotes: 2

lkessler
lkessler

Reputation: 20132

As opposed to what Mason says, I'd say the real "upside" is that it will have Unicode strings.

If you want to handle Unicode in your hobbyist programming, then yes, do the upgrade. That was the real reason why I upgraded from Delphi 4 to Delphi 2009.

Generics are nice, but not essential. Theoretically, Delphi 7 will be able to program most-everything you'd want, except for Unicode.

Upvotes: 4

Stephane Wierzbicki
Stephane Wierzbicki

Reputation: 386

TClientDataset is also missing. Could be an issue for some of you.

Upvotes: 5

kludg
kludg

Reputation: 27493

The worst "cons" of Starter is absence of VCL sources (not mentioned in feature matrix, but discussed in blogs

Upvotes: 22

Rob Kennedy
Rob Kennedy

Reputation: 163277

Only you can determine which features are important to you. Please refer to the Delphi XE feature matrix (PDF). It tells you what features are in each edition of Delphi XE. You should also look at the "What's New" document, which also includes links to what was new in the previous three versions (which, even then, still doesn't get you all the way back to Delphi 7).

Upvotes: 4

Mason Wheeler
Mason Wheeler

Reputation: 84550

The only real downside is that Unicode migration can be a significant hurdle if you're using a lot of third-party components, especially if they haven't been updated since the Delphi 7 days.

Other than that, there's no good reason not to update, and plenty to be gained from it. Generics, Unicode, enumerators, extended RTTI, newer OS support, touch, etc, not to mention an upgrade path to future releases.

Upvotes: 8

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