VB vs. Delphi - Who wins and why

[BasSchouten]

The company i was working for has been merged with another. We both developed software for the adminstrative business market. We developed with Visual Basic 6 using ADO-components and Access and SQL server. The other company uses Delphi 4, with Interbase or an ADS database.

Of course now the question arrises with which environment we should continue ...

I'm not expecting any pro-VB comments in this forum , but can anyone here give me sound arguments why they prefer Delphi above VB.

I'm posting this same question in a VB forum and i hope to gather enough arguments to make a descision...

thanks a lot

Bas Schouten
System development & Webdesign

 

[BobbaFet]

Hi Bas,

I can use both (simple because there are more jobs with VB),
but I prefer Delphi because of three things:

1. Delphi has THE FASTEST compiler in the world.
2. Delphi looks allot like C/C++ and is easily exchangable
with it. (You can use a Delphi component in an C/C++
inviroment for example).
3. The helpfiles with Delphi are excellent. Basically
everything is there (especially Delphi 5 Enterprise).

Cas Wegkamp

Everyone has a right to my opinion.
E-mail me at cwcon@programmer.net

http://cwcon.50megs.com/

 

[TealWren]

In addition to Cas's comments, one of Delphi's strongest points is the exception handling. I haven't used VB since several versions back but at that time there was no exception handling. The things that I thought make Delphi stand out are:

The ability to have exception handling (as opposed to your program killing completely every time something goes wrong!)

The ability to extend system components

TealWren

 

[Nordlund]

The main thing that differs VB and Delphi is the Object oriented language.

VB has of course objects, but the Delphi way to create and use objects feels more natural and the code is similar with C++ and java code.

Another difference between Delphi and VB is that don't have to use ActiveX components.
(One file, one application).

VB has a runtime .dll file which has to be delivered along with the appliation. (But now the .dll file is delivered with the OS).

I think VB works better with with Excel and Words etc.

(My opinion)...

Andreas Nordlund
Software developer

 

[BasSchouten]

These are all very usefull arguments! Thanks for sharing them with me.

Andreas, the "one application - one file" argument is a strong one. But is it still possible to use ActiveX components with Delphi? We're using some third-party products that are only available as ActiveX components.

Anybody else have arguments pro or contra Delphi / VB? I'm still interested in hearing them
Bas Schouten
System Development & Webdesign
CBIS BV Holland

 

[BobbaFet]

Yes, you can use ActiveX in Delphi.

You can also create your own ActiveX objects of course.
What Andreas meant was that you don't have to use all the
.dll, .ocx, but if you want to you still can use them,
but for example : I'm now working on a small application
(under 1 MB). So it's now convinient that I can keep
everything in one file. But for larger projects that I have
seen being developed my collegues used DLL's and ActiveX's
all the time.

Cas Wegkamp
Everyone has a right to my opinion.
E-mail me at cwcon@programmer.net

http://cwcon.50megs.com/

 

[DaveShaw]

All Though I prefer the Varible handleing, the API and greater ease in programming VB gives me. Delphi is a true Object Orientated Programming Langeuge(OOP). Delphi Allow inheritence and polymorphism of delphi objects - ie tColorButton is and Object I created from tButton.

So its up to depending on your need for Objects.

I Am argueing for VB normally but I thought you should see both sides of the arguement - My Side and My Computing Teachers Side

Thanx Dave Shaw

 

[ivoestg]

delphi isn't object oriented java is,so the hendling of object in c and java is more powerfullthan delphi.
i prefer VB but i do alot of program's in delphi, and i work alot on canvas and i find a lot of bug's.
i think that VB and delphi are equal's depends how good the programer are... thanks...

 

[TealWren]

Just out of curiousity, in what ways are you thinking that Delphi is not object oriented, and C and Java are?

The only way I can think of off hand is that Delphi does not support multiple inheritance. In Delphi you can implement multiple interfaces but only inherit from one base class. Not a /huge/ limitation... but a limitation nonetheless. I'm wondering if there are others?

TealWren

 

[aldevinas]

There many free VCL libraries with source code for Delphi. So you can easily find a free component if you need some special work: Communications, various grids etc. In case with VB you just get ActiveX object, not the source. If you are using many ActiveX in your app, you may end up with incompatibilities, e.g. After intallation of the Norton Utilities, accounting software stoped to work, after uninstallation the same happened, because of ActiveX. You can also extend ActiveX component by deriving from it and adding new functionality. There are a huge free Delphi resources on the Internet: Delphi3000.com,

http://www.torry.ru,

rxlib.com...

 

[sggaunt]

Hi
Sorry if this dosent seeem that relevent but consider this.
I may have to learn VB shortly as it seems that new starters want to use VB.
This has come up as I may have a chance of lecturing in programming at the local Tech.
I was brought up with C64 basic and Qbasic, but now I think Delphi is wonderful for the reasons given previously and especialy as I have to write a lot of embedded code in 'C' Ugg.
In this case the choice is limited not by the merits of the languages but rather the cost of the package I just upgraded my copy of D3 to D4 for £40. Can I get a new version of VB (effectivly only for teaching myself) for Free. (I doubt it). Why should I pay if I dont want to distribute applications?.
I think that I may have real problems getting a copy of VB.
and this is down to the marketing policys of Microsoft.

Steve.

 

[kridy]

With Borland's new Kylix you even could port your software to a Linux system one day - maybe this will not be an easy step, but not an impossible one as it is in VB.
Kind regards,
Kridy
_____________
kridy@web.de

 

[rjbalicki]

I have used both and I think VB is still the better of the two overall. Plus, most of the things mentioned above will be fixed in the .NET version. Exception handling, object creation, and more will be fixed in .NET.

As far as speed goes Delphi wins hands down.
The single distributable file item is also a big plus for Delphi, however, with cd writers available to companies this really isn't an issue anymore. When it was all floppy, sure that was great.
Help files/system - VB wins big time although their examples are starting to lack useful substance.
As far as being able to hire people that know either - VB has more of a following.

I also find the VB environment more user friendly.

Just my opinions. I will continue to use both at work happily.

 

[Oppenhiemer]

Hi -

I know this thread is quite old now - but I could not resist adding my 2 cents ;-). Having had experience in developing with both platforms - I must say that I prefer Delphi over VB/Access anytime. In fact I am currently in the process of re-writing my database applications for Delphi as the Access implementatin is far too buggy for me to continue.

Notwithstanding the OO vs Procedural argument (Delpi is OO btw) VB relies too much (IMHO) on support files - or ActiveX . In fact Microsofts slavish relience on this broken technology is the reason that there are so many bugs in MS software.

As many are probably be aware - versioning problems are the plague of Microsoft software. Just one example - I remember after purchasing the developers Toolkit for Access97 and distributing my app - encountering many problems with the program.

Customers described add error messages being generated such as "There is no control for this object". I subsequently found out that the latest version of IE installed a later version on comcat.dll. This caused many of the activeX components that shipped with access to stop working.

There is also the problem of control with VB/Access applications in that you dont have much. Im talking of resource management here. One famous instance from the Access97 period was when applications would complain about not having enough free memory - or low GDI resources. This is due to the 64k GDI limit imposed by Windows and that Access did not fee up resources when it had finished (leading to a slow but sure degredation of the system.)

Anyway, Ive had my rant now - I must get back to porting my apps

Cheers..

Opp.