Borland Delphi
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Borland Delphi is software development package created by Borland. The 10th version of Delphi, Delphi 2006 supports the Delphi programming language and [[C++]] for the 32 bit Microsoft Windows platform, and Delphi and C# for the Microsoft .NET platform.
Delphi's most popular use is the development of desktop and enterprise database applications, but as a general-purpose development tool it is capable of, and is used for most types of development projects.
The Delphi product is distributed as various suites: Personal, Professional, Enterprise (formerly Client/Server) and Architect.
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History
Delphi was one of the first of what came to be known as RAD tools, for Rapid Application Development, when released in 1995 for the 16-bit Windows 3.1. Delphi 2, released a year later, supported 32-bit Windows environments, and a [[C++]] variant, [[C++ Builder]], followed a few years after.
The chief architect behind Delphi, and its predecessor Turbo Pascal, was Anders Hejlsberg until he was headhunted by Microsoft in 1996, where he worked on [[Visual J++]] then subsequently became the chief designer of C# and a key participant in the creation of the Microsoft .NET Framework.
In 2001 a Linux version known as Kylix became available. However 3 versions later, due to the lack of interest from the Linux community, Kylix was stalled at version 3.
Support for Linux and Windows cross platform development (through Kylix and the CLX component library) was added and in 2002 with the release of Delphi 6.
Delphi 8, released December 2003, was the first to support and only supported developing in the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1. It allowed developers to compile Delphi Object Pascal code into .NET MSIL. It was also significant in that it changed its IDE for the first time since its conception from the multiple floating window on desktop style IDE to a look and feel similar to Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET.
Although Borland fulfilled one of the biggest requests from developers (.NET support), it was criticised for making it available too late, when a lot of former Delphi developers have already moved away to C#. There were also concerns about the future of Delphi Win32 development. Because Delphi 8 did not support Win32, Delphi 7.1 was included in the Delphi 8 package.
The subsequent version, Delphi 2005 (Delphi 9), included the Win32 and .NET development into a single IDE, reiterating Borland's commitment to Win32 developers. Delphi 2005 includes design-time manipulation of live data from a database. It also includes an improved IDE. However, was criticised by some for its bugs. Delphi 8 and Delphi 2005 had stability problems when shipped which were only partially resolved in service packs.
In late 2005, Delphi 2006 was released and federated development of C# and Delphi.NET, Delphi win32 and C++ into one single IDE. It was much more stable when shipped and improved even more after the first service pack.
On February 8th, 2006, Borland announced that it was looking for a buyer for its IDE and Database line of products, which included Delphi, to concentrate on its Application Lifecycle Management line.
Products developed with Delphi
There are many products developed with Delphi. The most famous ones are:
- Skype
- Galaxy Engine
- Macromedia HomeSite
- [[Dev-C++]]
- TurboCASH
- Miranda IM
- Total Commander
- Borland Delphi
- Borland [[C++Builder]]
- Borland JBuilder versions 1 & 2
- XanaNews
The name
Delphi was originally a confidential research project at Borland which evolved into a product that was to be called AppBuilder.
The codename Delphi was chosen in reference to the Oracle at Delphi by developer, Danny Thorpe. One of the original goals of Delphi was to provide database connectivity to programmers as a key feature and a popular database package at the time was Oracle; hence, "If you want to talk to [the] Oracle, go to Delphi". As development continued, the name grew on them and there was growing support within Borland for the name Delphi.
Shortly before the first release, Novell AppBuilder was released, leaving Borland in need of a new name. After much struggle, the name Delphi prevailed.