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Commenter Alexander complained that my blog had become “really, but REALLY boring” recently. I was surprised because I thought I had been posting a lot of interesting, technical material lately and I wondered why Alexander seemed to think I was spending most – if not all – of my time on opinion pieces. So I went back and looked at my recent posting history.

In the last month (30 days, more or less). I have published a total of 22 articles of which:

Given that this is a personal blog, reflecting my personal interests and concerns, I hardly think that 18% of output being opinion pieces is an excessively dominant proportion.

And I might add that the 18% figure is reached using a very crude count simply of the number of articles. If you measure the output by the number of words or the time spent producing it, the percentage would plummet well into the very low single figures.

Even that figure of 22 articles also does not include the 2 pages for ADB WINLOG (info/download and user guide) for example. Not to mention the development of the application itself. Or the coding that lies behind the posts on Smoketest.

I could go on.

The point being that heartwarming as they are, concerns that I am unduly and obsessively focussed on some sort of vendetta against Embarcadero are ridiculously misplaced.

But whatever the proportion involved, the fact that the opinions I am moved to share revolve around Delphi and Embarcadero’s handling of it reflects only that I actually give a damn.

There is plenty else I could write about concerning my other interests such as my photography and musical interests (I recently joined a newly formed rock covers band – as lead vocalist – following a 2 year break after leaving a previous band). Musically I also dabble on bass, keyboards and recording.

Contrary to popular opinion I do have a life. 😉

This blog is just one part of that and is very specifically a Pascal blog. And Delphi is still my primary Pascal environment (though Oxygene is rapidly overtaking it).

But I can start posting my photos and other things if it will reassure people that I am not feverishly scouring the internet desperately hunting out every little thing about which to criticise Embarcadero. 🙂

24 thoughts on “Setting The Record Straight”

  1. Joylyn,
    In my opinion even when you make sarcastic comments most of them actually hold. In addition, it shows that you actually care about Delphi. Sometimes criticism could be a constructive tool to reinvigorate a lost “cause”. While I am writing this comment I am removing Delphi XE5 from my machine. It is very slow, hangs a lot. Many times I have to shut down via Task Manager. I am very disappointed with quality of the newest release. I am going to use XE3 and see if the next version will bring some improvements to a regular windows environment.
    Android and IOS do show extra effort but unfortunately the IDE became too bloated.
    IOS/ANDROID studio should have been released as a separate product.

    1. I would rather go with XE4, XE3 compiler was extremely unstable for me, while I don’t have such issues with XE4.

    2. @Chris: I don’t know what you are doing with XE5 and I don’t know what other 3rd party tools you have installed in it, but I work with XE5 ALL DAY LONG (meaning more that 40 hours per week with XE5 right in front of me) and I’ve never experienced a single IDE hang. Maybe one IDE package or plugin is behaving in such a way that crashes your IDE.

      1. @Alexandre I have TMS components and OMNI threads libraries. It might be my PC problem. I am planning to do a clean OS re-install in December. However, what bother me the most it was intelli-sense look up. It caused a lot of long spinning circles generating unnecessary interruptions, sometimes 10 – 15 seconds.

  2. Thanks Chris. As I have (only briefly) mentioned myself, XE5 is shocking unstable in my experience.

    I too am still hopeful that we might see some progress in the area of Delphi’s core strength. i.e. Windows development. Time will tell. 🙂

    1. We use XE5 mainly to develop for Windows using the VCL. And there the stability is better than in previous versions.

      1. Interesting. I have found the XE5 IDE incredibly unstable simply switching from one project (close and open, rather than within a project group). I don’t recall if that was when I was doing some FireMonkey/Android experiments though – maybe that was a factor.

  3. I wouldn’t take comments about your criticizing obsession too seriously. Yes, you may go a bit too far sometimes, but there is nothing wrong with that. There is strange notion going around, that people who criticize Delphi don’t care about it and don’t use it. If I don’t care why would I hang around?

    If people have problems reading your blog, they can just stop reading it.

  4. Just wanted to say that your blog is really interesting to me (as a single-handed Delphi dev), as it gives a wider perspective onto other pascal products that I just don’t have the time to dive into. So thanks for that.

    It seems pretty mean that someone complained to you though. It’s not like this is paid-for content? If it’s not interesting, just don’t read it.

    1. Thanks Stuart, it didn’t really bother me too much and yes I fully intend to get back to posting on Oxygene soon. But I have committed to getting my Delphi code published so that’s driving my agenda right now. But with things like ADB WINLOG (a tool to help me with my Oxygene development, but itself written in Delphi) there is some common ground. 🙂

  5. I can not confirm XE5 beeing especially more unstable than XE3..XE4. But that the Firemonkey Framework is not cleanly written, overly slow (though it needn’t), badly designed and full of bugs.
    And when trying to work with it and implementing workarounds, the next bugs occur. Reminds me of Apple’s headquarters address all the time 🙁

    Another proof for scrum beeing not properly understood or used for the wrong types of projects.

  6. Oh! I didn’t know that a simple comment on your *personal* blog would give you all the work to count and categorize all your previous posts. I’m sorry about that. Ok, point taken, you have a life, sure. IMHO, you should just remove your blog from Delphi Feeds if you want to write about your photographic and musical talents 😉

  7. Please continue to post Oxygene examples! I’ve long since stopped the upgrade train at XE and was no longer willing to purchase new bugs to fix old bugs.
    Oxygene is at the right place at the right time.

    BTW, I do enjoy all your posts. Haters gonna hate. LOL

  8. I probably agree with 99.9% of what you say. I’m a windows developer first and foremost. I do not think I’d ever contemplate using Delphi for Android work if the need arose for Android applications. I think though that the perception is that your blog is 90% anti Embarcadero. Your statistics perhaps prove that this is not correct, but perceptions can be stronger than numbers. I agree with you that something is wrong in the way EMB are handing the whole Delphi marketing thing. they definitely have put all their eggs into the mobile basket and you know what they say about keeping all your eggs in one basket. I’m not sure your way of perhaps making them see the light is the correct way, only time will tell, but I guess it’s better than my way. (i.e. wait and see)

    1. Thanks Steve, though the stats weren’t intended to “prove” anything as such, just to put some claims into context.

      As for the way of going about things, I am under no illusions that my posts carry any weight and that really isn’t why I post them. They just reflect what I think, which is what I thought blogs were for (among other things). It’s really no different than having a water cooler conversation or chewing the fat down the pub over a good pint. Scenarios in which for some reason I am sure the exact same views could be exchanged with far less emotional fall-out. 🙂

      As for how things will pan out… as you say, time will tell. I for one have my fingers crossed (which might explain the odd typo). 🙂

  9. For us old delphi users there’s nothing wrong with your blogs hitting emba about what they’ve done to delphi. They however create an impression that will perhaps deter young and potential delphi users to come and try delphi. But if that is the objective of some of your writeup that is your right.

    1. perhaps deter young and potential delphi users to come and try delphi

      It is perhaps a risk but certainly is not my objective. Far from it. But the way I see it a new user is only likely to remain a user if the basis on which they are sold a product is solid. Seductive marketing messages might generate sales in the short term but in the longer term if those messages are not substantiated all you actually end up doing is creating a new cohort of disappointed users not only dissatisfied with your product but also with the way that you do business and unlikely to ever give you – or the product – another chance.

  10. In your blog, in your life, you have the right to do anything you want. You are totally entitled to say anything bad or good about any subject you want including music, photography, programming, whatever.
    You are also entitled to remove all my comments and banish my IP as well (although I don’t intend to spend much more time around). What you CAN’T expect is to have everybody in complete agreement with you. I said in the other post and I’ll say it again: If you made your thoughts public is because you want people to read it, and if you let us post comments, that’s because you want to know *our* opinion about *your* thoughts, no? My opinion differs from yours and if you don’t like it, delete it or live with it!
    IMHO, your attitude towards Delphi and Embarcadero is bad, not good. I *do* believe that you believe you are doing the right thing, but I – Alexandre – don’t agree. Again, if you want to just delete opinions contrary to yours, do it.
    The titles of your blog posts attacking Delphi are just ridiculous. You try to bring all the attention to a small thing, just like those sensationalist newspapers do. Not even that psychotic Delphi hater guy does that… Seems like you need attention from the Delphi community.
    I have immense respect for your technical knowledge but don’t expect me to read and agree with your POV about Embarcadero and Delphi. Personally, I don’t agree with LOTS of things Embarcadero did to Delphi but, again, in *my* opinion you are not doing any good to the product and even less to the Delphi community. Answer me honestly: How many Delphi users left Delphi because of all these criticisms – yours included – sometimes not founded at all (like this “XE5 is unstable” thing)? I DO know lots of programmers that just say “oh I read other day that XE5 is buggy” and bang!! Another “unsatisfied XE5 customer” (although he never touched XE5 himself!), promoting the “defects” of Delphi which he never experienced.
    Reading the comments in your recent Delphi-attack posts, I’m sure I’m not alone. Should you care? Of course not. Should Embarcadero care about what you think about their product? I’m afraid they won’t. Companies usually don’t like customers with this whiny attitude.

  11. Today everybody is MVP (why?) and all congratulate and Delphi is perfect. So I thank you for more Reality. Also I thank you for Oxygene Informations.

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