So Borland (or CodeGear) finally realized the web was a place where old Delphi developers may hang around on, and decided to release Delphi for PHP (!). I haven’t looked at the product myself, other than screenshots, but it sounds like someone at Borland or CodeGear got their flashbulb working a bit too late. Had this product been out a few years ago, it might have been an interesting package. As an IDE and framework platform, it may still have some merit, in particular for “quick and dirty” needs. And, I suppose, for someone who has spent a lot of time working with Delphi/Kylix and want to publish “generic PHP apps” without having to learn too many new things in order to do so, Delphi for PHP may be a good solution.
Having worked with Turbo Pascal since version 2.x (yes, I’m that old), and then Borland Pascal, Object Pascal, Delphi, Turbo C/C++, Borland C/C++, I would probably have been interested in Delphi for PHP, five years ago. But I’d say it takes a lot more than a revamped Delphi interface sporting PHP code, to get people with tools like ZDE and all the available PHP frameworks, to switch their development environment.
TASM anyone? Or perhaps Microsoft will now release MASM for PHP. Another hotseller might be Sidekick for the Web! 🙂
I wish CodeGear the best of luck, and I hope this will bring forth even more competent PHP developers.
Other related links:
Delphi Wiki: http://delphi.wikia.com
Slashdot: Delphi for PHP released
CodeGear: Delphi for PHP
First impressions: Tim Anderson’s ITWriting
Other impressions: The Joel on Software Discussion Group
InfoWorld: CodeGear extends Delphi for PHP, Vista, AJAX
Professional PHP: Delphi for PHP