>Right now I'm only using Delphi for small non-database apps. It is very fast and builds very small EXE apps. I can build a complete stand alone app in 350K. An MDI app supporting RichText windows and Image Windows in 480K. Pretty impressive. However, on the database side it doesn't support VFP tables, only FoxPro 2.6 tables. No Currency or DateTime fields in xBase support.

Ah, but that's just the EXE file. If you're doing DB access you also have to
install BDE which adds another 2+ megs... I hate it when people compare and
forget to mention this little detail that's always included with VFP. If you
add an external report writer you're getting very close to the 4 or so megs
a VFP app requires as a base install.


>It compiles to native code now run time DLL files. If you need database support then you have to ship and configure the Borland Database Engine (BDE). There are other VCL tools out there to support reading and writing DBF tables but they don't have Currency or DateTime as well. But with them the database engine is compiled into the app. It is fairly easy to write apps. However, I miss all of the inherent xBase language. I would say it would takes a lot more time at this point to build a database app using DBF files. It does support Paradox tables quite well but they have their own problems for real apps. I haven't touched any SQL work with it yet so I don't know about that.

Yeah, there are several tools that do this and they're actually quite good
at what they do and also very fast. However, none fo them support using
SQL syntax - just plain xBase navigation which is a drag for serious data
access.

I use C++ Builder a lot and have wanted some serious data access for my
apps - most of the tools don't work with BCB even though it also uses the
same VCL Delphi uses although a couple do... From what I tried these engines
were impressively fast!


I think comparing Delphi and VFP is a bit unfair. Delphi compares more in
between VB on the one hand and C++ on the other. I really like Borlands
VCL implementation too, especially when compared to MS's MFC frameworks.

The biggest problem with all Borland products: They don't work well with
the latest Microsoft technologies, especially COM. All the COM builders
and supports in the language are weak and very buggy and there's virtually
no documentation on any of it. And only a few books, that also don't
cover these topics well. It's really too bad, because both Delphi and
BCB would make excellent tools for rapidly building true binary COM
components with machine code...