I use both products extensively and think they are both great. Each has their pluses and each their drawbacks and yet they have many similarities (they are both primarily made up of objects with respective properties and methods). MS has advised use as developers that a single programming language will not cut it anymore and developers should purchase MS’s Visual Studio. Well instead of using VB and / or C++, I use Delphi and write active-X Controls and DLL’s in Delphi and call them from VFP. Delphi facilitates most of what C++ can do and there is a plethora of inexpensive and free third party objects available. In Delphi, is easy to write very small system level service applications and system tray programs, but it is hard to beat VFP for day-to-day database application development (highly productive RAD). VFP has a multitude of frameworks that are both inexpensive and good and it’s object development is much more straightforward than it is in Delphi (although you can got a ton of objects free for Delphi and modify them). I love Rick Strahl’s West-Wind Connection for web development – pure bang for the buck. I am going to try to Delphi on the front end and West-Wind Connection on the server as Delphi has its own DLL’s (called BPL’s) that can reside on client machines with tiny exe’s downloaded from the server at run time to minimize update deployment issues. These BPL’s can work, not unlike a runtime engine, or be compiled in the exe. I believe that cross-pollinization can be very beneficial to help keep ones mind open and become better at ones craft.

There are a lot of very bright people in the Delphi community (not that VFP doesn’t have it’s share), but a lot of very bright ex-Clipper people, C++ people, and obviously Pascal people use the product. Like any small community, Delphi users seem to be very tight and in my experience they generally do not think a lot of MS. Borland’s Interbase 6, a very good SQL database, has just gone open source (“free”) and it is native to Delphi. Delphi will soon run under Linux and Interbase already does. I vote with the group that thinks that worldwide Linux will be a major player on desktops as well as on servers (free always gets people interested & check what the bright college kids are cutting their teeth on). In any case there are very good Internet objects that are built into Delphi and many clever third party Internet solutions. (In other words there are the Rick Strahl’s of the Delphi world)

I have been developing software solutions for over 30 years and I think this is the most exciting time ever by far. Don’t we have an incredible maze of alternatives to instruct a bunch of machines via a list of if-else’s to move around a ton of zero’s and one’s without working up a sweat.

I worked as system engineer for IBM during its heyday in the late 60’s and I have seen software development solutions come and go - and they will continue to do so – it is just a plain fact of life. What’s important is to not confuse programming languages with religion. It is creativity, integrity, perseverance and productivity that gets rewarded. Everyday someone shows us a better way to do things. You think this is going to stop?

Go move those zero’s and one’s around!

Cheers to the pioneers

Robert Baker CDP

>I just want to 'hear' general comments comparing theses tools.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Juan Carlos Jaramillo