Release an up to date Turbo Delphi
Carefully and intelligently produce a Level entry product for Students and Hobbyists. Market it HARD.
David Champion
shared this idea
Starter Edition has been released.
10 comments
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Steve
commented
Starter is not free!!
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Alex
commented
Is Delphi XE Starter counts as "Turbo Delphi"? :)
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Gad D Lord
commented
Delphi is a dying breed if no refreshments come in the next 5 years. It has already been excluded from Eastern Europe university carriculums.
Pascal was exchanged with C for Algorithms and Structures of Data courses.
Object Pascal was exchanged with C# and/or Java.
Delphi was exchanged with WinForms/Silverlight and/or SwingWe all have been "begin...end" guys and now we end up with "{ ... }". You know what I mean.
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jeem007
commented
we really need this one... Embarcadero does not give attention to this very ESSENTIAL request.
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r.weijnen
commented
Essential for the survival of Delphi in the long term.
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Jolyon Smith
commented
@apenwarr: as is often pointed out, Microsoft are in a slightly different position with their tools and can afford to given them away (but bear in mind that the Express editions are *very* basic compared to their bigger brothers).
I think Embarcadero cannot afford NOT to give their tools away, but there is a greater need in their case to incentivise people to switch from the free tools to the paid for tools. The splash screen was just one idea and needn't be too much of a burden - it could be customisable for example, but would always "brand" the executable as having been produced with the Community Edition.
I think this is a better proposition than some of the alternatives that have been suggested, i.e.:
- Applications should only run in the IDE
- Applications should automatically shut down after N minutes
These result in applications that absolutely no-one is going to want to use so no-one will want to distribute them either. The Community Edition should NOT be seen as a perpetual TRIAL edition, but as a usable product with characteristics that suit a community developer but which would incentivise a more professional/commercial user to upgrade to paid-for versions.
With the right marketting, that splash screen might even be welcomed by community developers ... people tend to LIKE adding splash screens to their apps, and people seem to LIKE using the "Powered By Delphi" etc logos... a lot of us are very proud of our tool and like to show off the fact that we use it anyway. This would simply make that mandatory, in exchange for using the tools for free.
But if it's getting in the way of a professional image too much, that's where the much cheaper Standard Edition comes in, allowing that professional image without forcing you to pay for "Hard-Core" Professional features (refactoring, two way modelling etc etc).
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Jolyon Smith
commented
See my thought's on this at: http://www.deltics.co.nz/blog/?p=533
In a nutshell:
Delphi: Community Edition (CE) - Free or extremely low cost ($99 or less) version with enforced CE branding (splash screen injected by compiler for EXE's when not running under the IDE. Binary packages only installable if compiled with non-CE editions or if compiled with that specific instance of the CE compiler itself). Components and code can then be easily shared but only as source and EXE's self-identify and advertise as "Community Edition".
Hence Community Edition, rather than "Personal" - it promotes sharing and awareness.
In terms of limiting the product itself, remove any components that can be obtained for free or purchased elsewhere: Indy, IntraWeb, DUnit, Rave Reports etc.
Remove advanced/professional features such as refactoring, visual modelling support etc etc. You could even introduce a deliberate sleep cycle in the compiler to artificially reduce it's speed somewhat (for a commercial/professional user, time is money, but not for a Community developer).
And get rid of BlackFish SQL.
Other than that, a fully functional product with no restrictions on use (non-commercial use etc).
Then introduce above that Delphi: Standard Edition (SE).
Price it at approx half the cost of Professional ($499). SE would remove all of the CE branding and limitations and reintroduce *some* of the advanced features and possibly *some* components.
But it should still be a distinct product from Professional, so only trintroduce *some* refactorings, do NOT restore modelling (or make it one-way - so you can view your code as a model but can't make changes via the model).
Upgrades for SE (from 2010 SE to 2011) would be $199.
An upgrade from SE to Professional would be the difference in cost between an SE license and a Pro license. i.e. (currently) $399.
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Antonio Bakula
commented
And please don't cripple IDE like current turbo's are, for example code completion shortcuts don't work
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ibandyop
commented
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jamiei
commented
I have covered a lot of my thoughts on an updated Turbo or Personal Delphi Version on my own blog but I can't emphasise enough how important I think this is for creating future Delphi programmers!
