I understand your point, Keith, but even though Android uses Java, and Java IS considered “mainstream”, that does not seem to be translating into making it easy(er) to find Android mobile developers, is it?
The ones out there ARE getting top-dollar, as well as iOS developers.
C++ is also a mainstream language, and if you get RAD Studio, you get C++, Pascal (Delphi) and php/HTML5 in the same box, at least two of which ARE “mainstream”.
There’s also their newest offering, AppMethod, which has a pricing structure more similar to other RAD Mobile development tools. It’s basically RAD Studio without the Windows-specific stuff (ie., it’s mobile-centric rather than Windows-centric).
Honestly, Embarcadero is taking a big gamble by investing in their cross-platform strategy the way they are. Any company seriously looking at developing the same app for both iOS and Android is stuck hiring two development teams with two different development tacks and two different sets of skill sets.
Using RAD Studio or AppMethod, this can be narrowed down to one, eg., Delphi/Pascal or C++, for both platforms.
At some point, a not-too-dense CIO is going to ask, “Why do we need two sets of developers at $100k PER PLATFORM that uses FREE tools when we can spend $5k and only have to pay $100k for ONE developer?”
It would seem that “free tools” are costing an extra $95k to reach both platforms.
Don’t you think $5k is a lot more affordable than $95k?
(Ok, so if you’re REALLY CHEAP, it’s $50k rather than $100k, but … that’s STILL at least 10x the cost of a dual-platform development tool that ONE person can use!)
-David
On Aug 4, 2014, at 1:56 PM,
techlists@phpcoderusa.com wrote:
>
> In the 80's I began to develop using dBaseII, then dBaseIII... dBaseIII+, foxBase+, Clipper 87, Visual FoxPro..... It was a great file server database system that was probably the best tool on the market for developing small company database applications.
>
> The problem is it was a niche skill set. dBase jobs were few and far between. I would still be working with FoxPro if M$ had not bought it and everyone bailed. FoxPro is now dead thanks to M$. That was the tool of choice for me and I would still be developing with it if it was up to me.
>
> Having had that experience I am leery of tying my wagon to something like Delphi. I really enjoyed Turbo Pascal in the early to mid 80's. I'm sure I would enjoy object oriented Turbo Pascal ie Delphi. I've heard tons of good things about Dephi going back maybe 10 or 12 years, maybe longer.
>
> Unfortunately Delphi is not main stream enough for me. I do not want to tie my wagon to another FoxPro.
>
>
>
>
> On 2014-08-04 13:35, David Schwartz wrote:
>> Delphi is just as easy to use as VB, if not easier.
>> Have you looked at it lately?
>> It’s just not considered “mainstream” any longer.
>> People say, “Oh, is THAT still around?”
>> Yup. Check it out.
>> http://embarcadero.com
>> They also have a tool they now call HTML5Builder or something along
>> that line, which is an allusion to their C++ Builder app — a C++
>> version of Delphi. HTML5Builder is a PHP/HTML5 version.
>> -David "The Tool Wiz" Schwartz
>> On Aug 4, 2014, at 11:40 AM, techlists@phpcoderusa.com wrote:
>>> On 2014-08-04 10:57, David Schwartz wrote:
>>>> Now we’ve got a new language: Apple introduced Swift and is making it
>>>> available for free, like their other tools. This is going to stimulate
>>>> a whole new generation of devleopers to jump into the fray and start
>>>> building apps for iOS — apps that are going to be hard to “port” over
>>>> to Android platforms, or even web platforms.
>>>> I’ve talked with Joe about his app. To his credit, he’s focused mainly
>>>> on the app. But what he’s missed is the fact that, IMHO, he’s
>>>> over-spec’ed it to the point where you'd need so much custom code to
>>>> impement what appears to be a simple tool that he’ll never be happy
>>>> with the end result. His UI design makes assumptions based on HIS
>>>> experience with *nix shell scripting, and he clearly explains this in
>>>> the spec. There are no native widgets that work like “grep” in the
>>>> Android world! So he’ll be extremely hard-pressed to find anybody
>>>> who’ll build it for him within the budget he’s demanding.
>>>> I’ve worked with something called Delphi since Borland introduced it
>>>> in 1995. Starting with the XE2 release a few years back, they’ve been
>>>> embracing a multi-platform targeting strategy where you can develop
>>>> apps in one language that will run on any of the popular platforms:
>>>> Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android. And it actually WORKS!
>>> This is what we need - build once run everywhere. I personally think web development is way behind in they types of tools we have. I often wonder why we do not have something like VB that is drag and drop. Instead we build everything every time. The web dev model is very expensive.
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