I started using Object Pascal (Delphi) because it was VB like without the ugly syntax of VB, and it had the power of C++. Namely that you could create as well as consume COM objects and it was natively compiled with at the time a very fast compiler when compared to C++. The VCL was a stable UI framework that was simple to use and flexible enough that unusual use cases were still possible.

Sadly, now I use Delphi less and less and for maintenance work only, or personal and open source projects. The community has dwindled from what it was once, local jobs are harder to find, and many luminaries have been lost to the evil empire (M$) and it’s technology.

I must admit that I am now working predominantly on C# .NET Core projects. I would gladly come back from the dark side if someone wanted to entice me with a interesting Delphi project. I find C# syntax more terse and unreadable than Object Pascal, but there is no mistaking the power of LINQ, the PPL, and the abundance of open source projects and technical resources. .NET native also makes adoption of C# even more tempting. If they can write Kestrel in C# you should be able to write anything that requires good performance in C#. I would love to see some Delphi web server benchmarks and how they compare to Kestrel. Favorable results might generate more interest in Delphi as would compiler benchmarks.

I love Delphi. I wish it a bright future. Without new developers it will most certainly fade away over time. New developers shy away from languages that won’t get them jobs. An investment in learning a language, an IDE, and run-time libraries simply has to pay off. Without a growing market share, expensive tools have to provide developers with a competitive edge. For this reason, I applaud EMBT’s release of the Community Edition. I hope it will bring new blood into the development community and spark more open source projects. There are some amazing open source projects out there that could use Community Edition to further their efforts.

There are also many exciting things happening in the land of Pascal that I hope will expand the community. REMObjects has released their Oxygene compiler that can also target WASM as well as native code. Smart Mobile Studio has released version 3 of their Pascal language targeting Javascript, and TMS has introduced a similar product called WebCore based on the FPC Javascript transpiler. EMBT has hired Jon Aasenden and purchased Sencha so who knows what they have planned. With UniGUI and other frameworks Object Pascal (or rather different dialects) have many more options to target the web than only a couple years ago. I long for the day when I could use the same Object Pascal language for web, desktop, mobile and server development without compromising the results. Is it time for a language standard?