Flutterby™! : Finally PHP for Old Programmers

I hvae never been that excited about coding from a command line. Starting with edline in DOS (well after Processor Technology cassete tape systems it did seem better!) to writing C code using an editor (!) it was a continous cycle of edit, compile, run ... Even with a great editor like Brief it was very time consuming.

Dan mentioned Delphi around 1991 but of course it wasn't Microsoft so I rejected it. Bad decision, and I finally discovered Delphi and spent many years building code visually, dropping components onto forms, connecting databases using properties all RAD Visually. A big difference. I used to demonstrate Delphi by building a complete simple application for Windows using only one hand on a mouse. Big difference from the old days.

But Borland was managed poorly, and they spent years sucking the profits from Delphi for various stupid ideas. Their best people all left and went to MS and built C# and so forth.

Over the years it pained me to see such a great product being destroyed. My heart was with Delphi and the guys who believed in it and worked on it. It was a great product (except for more recent versions). I went to two Borland confrences and listened to the management lie to us.

I discovered Php was just about the C language hidden inside some html, but its still a learning curve for us non-genius programmer types. I know about this as I have had several genius types work with me and its awesome to watch.

After Borland had run all the profits and future out of Delphi they tried to sell it but did not get what they wanted, and in my opinion, facing a potential wholesale exit from Borland of all their talent they aquiesced and created a subsidiary called CodeGear to develope and market their IDE's and such including Delphi.

The new company has begun to 'right the ship' as they say, and fixing things that should have been fixed long ago, adding new features and getting the product current. It could be seen as a fool's errand but piece by piece, step by step they are doing the right thing and staying in communication with their world wide customer base, which was not always the case.

But the best thihng for me is that they are about to come out with 'Delphi for Php'. From the advertising and the buzz this is going to be hot. There are Php Ide's but none like this. A Visual RAD Php product. Just like Delphi! create a new app, drop some components on a form, click run and bam - an application! Drag a database to a form, connect some fields to visual components, and bam - databse app.

I for the first time in many years will buy a product from Borland, er ... CodeGear and expect it make me a lot of money.

The purists will resist but I have found my nirvana I hope.

EWeek

Delphi For Php

Just right for us old programmers not quite ready for the old programmers home.

Ziffle