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Delphi 2009 (And C++ Builder 2009) Released

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mouser:
Some cool news for users of Borland/Codegear/Emarcadero Delphi and C++ Builder.  Seems like Delphi 2009 (and presumably C++ Builder 2009) has been released(!) and is available for pre-order now.

A list of what's new can be found here, along with some video demos.  Robust Unicode support is one of the big things, but there are also IDE improvements and some nice component upgrades.

I'm a fan of C++ Builder myself, and many of my larger programs are built using it.


http://www.codegear.com/products/delphi/win32

Ehtyar:
At the risk of hijacking here, it's interesting when you watch presentations about developer tools, because you pick up pronunciation of words. For example, delphi has elongated 'i' sound, and enum has an elongated 'u'. I'm not sure whether this is universal, just a side note. Also, David I at the beginning of the videos looks like he should be working for GNU, are most of the guys at the top the same kind of person, or is this just a coincidence (sorry for stereotype)?

Ehtyar.

f0dder:
Robust Unicode support is one of the big things
-mouser (August 25, 2008, 09:59 AM)
--- End quote ---
It's amazing it's taken them until 2009 to do this, though? :-s

Ehtyar:
Robust Unicode support is one of the big things
-mouser (August 25, 2008, 09:59 AM)
--- End quote ---
It's amazing it's taken them until 2009 to do this, though? :-s
-f0dder (August 25, 2008, 07:22 PM)
--- End quote ---
If it weren't a proprietary language it wouldn't have.

Ehtyar.

tranglos:
Robust Unicode support is one of the big things
-mouser (August 25, 2008, 09:59 AM)
--- End quote ---
It's amazing it's taken them until 2009 to do this, though? :-s
-f0dder (August 25, 2008, 07:22 PM)
--- End quote ---
If it weren't a proprietary language it wouldn't have.
-Ehtyar (August 25, 2008, 07:26 PM)
--- End quote ---

Being proprietary may not have been the issue. After all, they now have moved to Unicode practically overnight. The problem is that this change will potentially break any Delphi code that declares anything as String (rather than Ansistring). Which is probably something like 98% of existing code. And since string handling has always been one of Delphi's strong points, and string has always been pretty much equivalent to array of char, where sizeof(char) has always been 1, you have lots and lots and lots of code that relies on that and will have to be thrown away.

If I upgrade, I can throw away all my personal libraries and all the 3rd party components I've bought over the years, or wait until they are upgraded, then buy those upgrades. It may be a necessary change, but it's also a major pain.

I also wonder what Unicodeization of Delphi is going to do to performance. There's a number of incredibly fast string handling libraries for Delphi, but not for widestrings. Oh, and since Codegear must have had to overhaul all their RTL and VCL, wonder what new bugs will start cropping up there.

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