Starting with Delphi ...

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Original post by cpp_boy Ok, what do you think about Delphi in general and its possibilities in game development ?

It's not something I would recommend for "game development", Delphi is not a language I am very versed in though. I have seen some examples of it and it sort of looks quite different. Particularly the := thing but I know what that means however its odd syntax in my opinion.

Just incase you didn't know, Delphi and Pascal go pretty much hand in hand. I have used Pascal before, and it's pretty low level, but not like C. It's almost on the same level as C++, but it's probably higher. There are many functions you can use standard that are like the string class and STL in C++. There are many attributes of C that I found in the language, and Delphi is OO. The syntax is like Basic, and it's almost like English to read. I don't know that there would be a difference in development time.

[Edited by - dbzprogrammer on November 30, 2005 2:23:14 PM]

Game development, not so good, due to the fact that there is no official API support (You're using unofficial header files). Speed wise, you won't get a difference from C++ - unlike Java or Visual Basic or many other languages, there is no big difference in how it works under the hood, just in the syntax (which allows the compiler to catch more errors and compile code faster). The whole #define in C exists partially so that programmers could do stuff like #define { begin #define } end.

Application wise Delphi is very good and one of the big secrets in the world of RAD development. You get speed for developing windowed application like Visual Basic, but without the weak syntax (in VB the easy stuff is made very easy, but the hard stuff is a nightmare of hacks and ugly, hard to debug code). Delphi tends to level things out by making everything moderately quickly and easy to do.

As for dependencies, Delphi is good there. Unlike Visual Basic, C# or even Visual C++ [MFC mostly], Delphi is 100% self contained. You get fairly beefy exe files because of this (a hello world window using VCL is about 400KB, though as you add code it doesn't go up very fast since most of that is the basic libraries being included), but it does make it very easy to deploy (unless you use the Borland database engine or something - using ADO is just as easy).

If you are using Delphi 2005/06 (haven't used or even read about 06) you'll get the choice between using a .NET version of Delphi (Delphi compiling to .NET code and using both .NET components and a .NET port of the VCL) and the regular Win32 version that makes the big executables.

However at this point I, and a lot of other Delphi programmers, are switching to C#. While it does add the requirement of .NET being installed, C# has a lot of advantages (even though we Delphi programmers have to learn that the string type/stringlist class is no longer a utility knife super variable that can do anything). C# was designed by the same guy who designed Delphi, and much as Delphi got so good because it was able to dump legacy syntax and coding conventions to become a premier Windows RAD environment, C# does the same, only for an environment that has changed a lot in the last decade. C# will also be a lot easier to learn if you already know C++ (though coming from Delphi it's not that hard either, C# is like a fusion of Delphi and C++ into one language)

The company I work for doing real time aplications, thats why they cannot work with .NET stuff. On the other hand, C/C++ is not so bug-free . So they desided to go with Delphi. Its code is fast and not as buggy as C/C++. What can I say, they pay me money thus I must agree with them :-)

Delphi is a very good and powerful language, for me it combines the power of C++ with a high level syntax (which is not weird at all, you just have to practice a bit with it) and a fast development process.

I'm making a real time, direct X app with it. No problems so far. For a pointer about commercial games developped in Delphi, check triumph studios, they made age of wonders I and II, the second one being rather pretty. From what I learned from them, they never regretted going with Delphi.

I think, Delphio is an Excellent tool for Game development.
It is Widely used in corporate environment!

I am currently using Laxarus (a great Open Source Delphi Clone), and delphi 6 personal (somewhat more 'stylish', but not faster imo).

I can not find any great differences..

But those programs kick ass, I am so happy to have chosen Pascal for a language. Any code can be translatoed from C++ (..) to the very stylish, clean, efficient, super beautiful Object Pascal (very clear and bug free language).

Go for it, if you dare, is my peronal advice.Pascal lives, and is growing by the day.
Maybe, C, pascal, and java are growing together into 1 language, in a.. few years? i think so. Delphi is the future imo.