Delphi who?

It has surprised me how a number of apps I use for music are created in Delphi. ImageLine's FL Studio is one example; Rayzoon's JamStix is another.

I first saw Delphi V1 on the front of a magazine. I tried it, loved it, and have been buying it for personal use ever since.

I skipped Delphi 8 as I wasn't that struck on .NET, despite Microsoft trying to make it the future of development. I bought Delphi 2005, but was disappointed by how bad a release it was. Delphi 2006 is much better, but I can't help feeling Delphi 7 was the last best release.

C++ Builder is Borland's answer for C++ instead of Delphi's Object Pascal. It took until V5 before it became reasonable. Even now I wouldn't use it in preference to Visual Studio C++.

Borland's brief flirtation on Linux with Kylix wasn't a great success. It had potential but seemed to have too many problems. It came free with Delphi 7, but the cross platform library (CLX) has disappeared from Delphi 2006.

So I can see why people think Borland is dead. They haven't done much lately except shoot themselves in the foot. Sad really, but I'm reminded how much being technically superior is no guarantee of success.