Delphi developers?

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Turiko

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As you might be aware I code almost exclusively in assembly language. I am really sorry but I cannot get my mind wrapped around C, C++ or C# it is simply too "out-of-order" for me and I cannot get applications developed on it for embedded systems. These languages are way too obfuscated for me and I was not impressed when I happened to discover last year that the C was bloating the code we were working on even with the compiler set to max optimization. Ended up chucking the C and doing it ALL in assembler and finally the code all fitted in the allocated space with space to spare.

The only high-level language I can get my mind around is Delphi. This is what I use to write Windoze apps to talk to my assembly-language coded hardware, particularly for environments where I've installed my own device driver and I need to pull bytes from USB devices I made or PCI cards I made.

Who here works in Delphi? Would be interested to correspond/share advice with you
 
Yip - also a Delphine here - been enjoying the wonderful blue and yellow code* since 1999 or so .. #ouch .. that IS a long time#

* only blue and yellow if you prefer the more classic style editor colours :cool:
 
I have to agree with you Turiko: for embedded systems, raw assembly is the only way to go. It's just so much more sensible, and at the end of the project, you have more chance of the program actually fitting into the provided memory. And troubleshooting is a lot easier. Not to mention the nerd-value :p
 
I have to agree with you Turiko: for embedded systems, raw assembly is the only way to go. It's just so much more sensible, and at the end of the project, you have more chance of the program actually fitting into the provided memory. And troubleshooting is a lot easier. Not to mention the nerd-value
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Now why only now do people agree with me about assembler? I had to leave my previous job to stick with what I believe in... and back at the previous company they were trying to make C++ :eek: fit on small micros with like 4k of program memory
 
Hehe... Well the reality is that as technology improves, there are more resources available for embedded systems. So the feature-to-resource ratio stays about the same, which means that if you are coding for older systems where you previously would have been stuck for space, on newer chips you can now use object oriented techniques (even though they DO cause a lot of bloat).

The upside is that at least if you know assembly well, your projects can be optimised to run as fast as they can (and you know that most people who do similar projects in C won't be able to achieve the same amount of optimisation).
 
This thread is a classic example of where Engineering and Computer Science Clash.

I was thinking the other day how I want to use C++ to program PIC's (to write a operating system) because the code would be easy to maintain and I just love, modular OO code where the Engineers I know don't like C++ and prefer to use assembly because of "efficiency" (performance perhaps but they take forever to get the damned thing done).

Anyway I think for embedded C++ compilers are still immature (Microchip MPLab is horrible) but for x86 assembly is a bit too tedious, honestly even small projects can become a huge mission and proper x86 C++ compilers can optimize code very well.

The reason many people move to interpreted languages is because eventually they'll become faster than binary implementations and reliability and maintenance is much better, anyway I still think Delphi is a bit of a waste, it's a dead language really, it's really not that hard to move between programming languages, just put up with the syntax difference for a few days and you'll be converted.
 
C++ to program PIC's (to write a operating system)
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The best you can do on a PIC is co-operative multitasking. The PIC architecture is so arcane we are moving away from it.

prefer to use assembly because of "efficiency" (performance perhaps but they take forever to get the damned thing done).
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It depends on the task at hand... I wrote a decent RTOS for the Freescale micros last year complete with API and it didn't take very long, took about 4 weeks.

That said however, on an X86 architecture I can see your point I would use ANSI C for that I wouldn't even attempt TASM

Microchip MPLab is horrible)
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It is one of the worst IDE's out there. My colleague here in this office has a daily rant about it.
 
Gnome said:
anyway I still think Delphi is a bit of a waste, it's a dead language really.
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I also thought delphi was dying but i happend to stumble across this index the other day that ranks programming language popularity. http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

It reckons delphi is the 11th most popular language and is still an A rated language. It is possible that this index may be inaccurate but it appears this index is quite highly regarded and is quoted in many places on the net as the authority on programming language popularity.
 
Delphi / object pascal since 93.. but left it alone in lat 90's for c++ and still coding
 
Gambit said:
I also thought delphi was dying but i happend to stumble across this index the other day that ranks programming language popularity. http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

It reckons delphi is the 11th most popular language and is still an A rated language. It is possible that this index may be inaccurate but it appears this index is quite highly regarded and is quoted in many places on the net as the authority on programming language popularity.
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I meant dead more as in development has been stopped and the programming language sold :( (or is still for sale I'm not sure exactly which)

But yeah it's still popular choice to C++ since you can write pretty decent programs without A) Windows DLL calls for the GUI and B) You can do SO MUCH without any heap management.
 
Gnome said:
I meant dead more as in development has been stopped and the programming language sold :( (or is still for sale I'm not sure exactly which)

But yeah it's still popular choice to C++ since you can write pretty decent programs without A) Windows DLL calls for the GUI and B) You can do SO MUCH without any heap management.
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:sick:
 
Gnome said:
I meant dead more as in development has been stopped and the programming language sold :( (or is still for sale I'm not sure exactly which)

But yeah it's still popular choice to C++ since you can write pretty decent programs without A) Windows DLL calls for the GUI and B) You can do SO MUCH without any heap management.
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Borland split the IDE business off as separate company called codegear http://www.codegear.com. They still release new improved versions of the delphi rad studio every year. We recently upgraded to Rad Studio 2007 and they added many improvements (ie. vista gui stuff) from the 2006 version so i wouldn't say developement has ceased.

here is the list of changes delphi 2007 has http://dn.codegear.com/article/36608
 
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I started a job recently and there's a lot of unfinished Delphi apps here. Besides that, I still see lots of people using it.
 
Gnome said:
???

Do you enjoy allocating/deallocating memory?
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Not that I enjoy it, but I like my programs to be efficient. And I like people who take the time to make their programs efficient. Obviously not blowing my own horn: I'm not an uber coder or anything... Just a compulsion on my part
 
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