
Embarcadero RAD Studio 10.3 (Delphi, C++) Product Feature Matrix [pdf] - peter_d_sherman
https://www.embarcadero.com/docs/rad-studio-feature-matrix.pdf
======
rudedogg
I'd like to try out the community edition, but the license seems restrictive.
It sounds like if you make more than $5,000 (from anywhere - not just through
use of the software) you have to buy a license? I don't really get the point
of a community edition if (almost) no one can use it without paying.

From [https://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio/rad-
studio-e...](https://www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio/rad-studio-eula)

> _For example, a developer who receives payment of $5,000.00 for a single
> project (or more than $5,000.00 for multiple projects) even if such
> engagements do not anticipate the use of the Community Edition, is not
> allowed to use the Community Edition. In addition, a developer building
> solely an app store application would not be allowed to use the Community
> Edition once the app store revenue reaches a revenue of $5,000.00 or more in
> a year. If Licensee is a company that has a cumulative annual revenue which
> exceeds the Threshold, then Licensee is not allowed to use the Community
> Edition, regardless of whether the Community Edition is used solely to write
> applications for the business ' internal use or is seen by third parties
> outside the company or has a direct revenue associated with it._

------
pjmlp
Sadly Borland really did a big mistake dropping Kylix and going into that
Inprise endeavour.

Probably Java would have never had taken off if they kept their compilers
accessible to the hobby developers.

~~~
noonespecial
IMO Kylix was always pretty half-assed. The Lazarus project is what it should
have been.

[https://www.lazarus-ide.org/](https://www.lazarus-ide.org/)

But your point stands. Their ridiculous licensing ended any chance they had of
mainstream adoption.

~~~
pjmlp
Yeah using a mix of Qt and WINE, instead of properly porting VCL wasn't a good
idea as well.

------
badsectoracula
Probably not exactly what you'd expect as a comment to this link, but a few
years ago i bought second hand copies of Delphi 2 and C++ Builder 1 (and
Borland C++ 5 and JBuilder 2 and VB4Pro, and VB5 and a bunch of other stuff, i
like collecting and using old dev tools - sadly most of them do not come in a
full box with original manuals which i'd _love_ to have). I normally use
Lazarus[0], but sometimes i also like using Delphi 2 and C++ Builder, the
former being what i used for years as a teenager (i used to have another
second hand CD i got from a local programmer - again without manuals and i
guess i got ripped off, but it was the first tool i ever bought by selling
some game i wrote... and i promptly lost after my parents moved, but by that
time i had lost interest in Delphi and was dabbling in C++ with Borland's free
C/C++ Compiler - although i did use the "personal edition" of Delphi 7, which
came in a magazine cover disk, to create an "IDE" \- really a text editor that
could keep a list of files and call BCC32.EXE - and used it for a couple of
years and was where i wrote my first 3D rasterizer[1][2] and learned
OpenGL[3], although at some point i also wrote a platform game in Delphi[4]
which i later ported to Free Pascal and a few years later recreated with new
graphics in C++/SDL, originally as shareware but later opensourced[5]) and the
latter something that i was curious about.

I used C++ Builder the last few years to create some unofficial game patches
(most can be found at [6]) because it creates small executables (i used
OpenWatcom before that, but i found creating the dialogs annoying and of
course i didn't want to use Lazarus that makes 1MB+ executables just for a
single dialog). Also i _really_ like how fast the compiler is - i do not care
it doesn't even support C++98 as i wouldn't use C++ normally anyway :-P. Like
with Lazarus, i have a few classes[7] in it for utility stuff.

Recently i also made a mesh editor[8][9] with it. If you check my channel, i
have a few "Making a game in XYZ" videos and i wanted to make a video where i
"retrocode" a simple game using Direct3D on a Voodoo 2 under Windows 95, but i
couldn't find any free mesh editing program that runs on Windows 95 (i tried
some old versions of Blender and Wings3D but either nothing worked or was too
slow - Voodoo 2 only supports 3D acceleration in fullscreen so the windowed
mode programs have to be usable with OpenGL 1.1 using Microsoft's GDI-based
software rendering OpenGL implementation). So i decided to write my own :-P.
It mostly works, as shown in the video, but i haven't added a way to edit
texture coordinates yet. I also tried to write a Quake-like editor[10], but
lost interest. I did port (rewrote) the 3D widget stuff for my Lazarus tools
though[11].

Ironically even though i spent basically my childhood with Delphi 2, i am not
really using it much these days. I use Lazarus for most of my stuff (and TBH i
wouldn't really rely on either C++ Builder or Delphi 2 to keep working in the
future, although it works just fine under Wine[12] which i feel will be more
likely to stay backwards compatible in the future than Windows itself). I did
write an OpenGL viewport[13] and OpenGL 4.6 bindings unit for Delphi 2 though
(which may work with later versions of Delphi), although the former is really
almost a line-by-line conversion of my OpenGL viewport for C++ Builder[14] and
the latter is just a unit generated with my Lazarus OpenGL unit binding
generator[15] hand-converted to work with Delphi 2's Pascal dialect. I
recently thought about writing a Nendo-like[16] modeller by porting my winged
edge classes from Lazarus[17], but the day job doesn't leave me with much free
time sadly :-P (and i have some games to play too :-P).

Funny enough, just before visiting Hacker News today i went to Embarcadero's
site and thought about downloading the latest Delphi - but meh'd out when i
was asked to register (i have an account, but i don't remember the details and
i'm too lazy to go through the password recovery dance). Although TBH this is
largely because every time i tried it the last few years i was really
underwhelmed. I don't know, i never liked the post-Delphi 7 interface and i
remember even at Delphi 7's time i thought the IDE was too bloated (granted, i
was trying to run it on a Pentium MMX with 32MB of RAM...).

I wish there would be a version that had an affordable price (like the
original Delphi 2 and C++ Builder, the base versions of both costing only
$99.95 which lasted until Delphi 5 and C++ Builder 5 respectively and after
that prices started hiking _fast_ ), was available in a box with nice manuals
and CD/DVDs (or whatever, for that money i want to have something to touch
:-P) and was free of any sort of DRM (i installed C++ Builder once when i got
the CD off ebay years ago and since then i simply carry the installation
folder around - which is kinda necessary since i've modified a few headers and
lib files - if they had any sort of DRM i wouldn't be able to do that).

Basically i'd like a new Delphi 2 :-P. Although TBH this is more of a
sentimental thought and in practice Lazarus does the job just fine, even if a
bit clunky at times. Still, i'd buy a (proper, non-crippled, especially
license-wise) $99.95 DRM-free Delphi (hell, even a digital-only version, as
long as i got a nice .exe installer i could safekeep in my external hard
drive) without much thought.

[0] [http://www.lazarus-ide.org/](http://www.lazarus-ide.org/)

[1] [https://i.imgur.com/uYBX6nN.png](https://i.imgur.com/uYBX6nN.png)

[2] [https://i.imgur.com/opVUsvG.png](https://i.imgur.com/opVUsvG.png)

[3] [https://i.imgur.com/eS802L7.png](https://i.imgur.com/eS802L7.png)

[4] [https://i.imgur.com/CO4lnhz.png](https://i.imgur.com/CO4lnhz.png)

[5]
[http://runtimeterror.com/games/nikwideluxe/](http://runtimeterror.com/games/nikwideluxe/)

[6]
[https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Special:Contributions/Bad_Sect...](https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Special:Contributions/Bad_Sector)

[7]
[http://runtimeterror.com/rep/bcbcmn/index](http://runtimeterror.com/rep/bcbcmn/index)

[8]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr1Sr9hTkzg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr1Sr9hTkzg)

[9]
[http://runtimeterror.com/rep/olmeshy/index](http://runtimeterror.com/rep/olmeshy/index)

[10] [https://i.imgur.com/zRguUf8.png](https://i.imgur.com/zRguUf8.png)

[11] [https://i.imgur.com/6uIFrMC.gif](https://i.imgur.com/6uIFrMC.gif)

[12] [https://i.imgur.com/rInEdBY.png](https://i.imgur.com/rInEdBY.png)

[13]
[http://runtimeterror.com/rep/dglvp/index](http://runtimeterror.com/rep/dglvp/index)

[14]
[http://runtimeterror.com/tech/bcbgl/](http://runtimeterror.com/tech/bcbgl/)

[15]
[http://runtimeterror.com/rep/gl2unit/index](http://runtimeterror.com/rep/gl2unit/index)

[16]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC7EDkZfw3M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC7EDkZfw3M)

[17] [https://i.imgur.com/4Zk9Td7.png](https://i.imgur.com/4Zk9Td7.png)

~~~
codewritinfool
I'd buy that too.

------
pcunite
Nice to see a C++ Builder reference here on HN. If you're looking to build a
native Windows GUI, give it a try.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I think I'd rather not have a dependency on Embarcadero.

