Delphi For Only 149/199 ($ or €) - Delphi XE Starter Edition!

The Ctrl+Alt+C class completion trick doesn’t work in Starter edition. This is a very annoying problem. Hoping some external ToolApi extension will propose it soon!

This is the one restriction preventing me for getting this version…

Great. I love this. Please invite Embarcadero to 1€ ≠ 1$ group.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/1e1us

Is it safe to assume that XE Starter is equivalent (in terms of features & restrictions) to the previously available free version of Delphi (2006)?

It is very good that Embarcadero is reducing the barriors to entry. I would like them to also have an easy-to-learn reduced version of Delphi that is free.

For me personally, money is no object, and I don’t mind paying for great tools. The reason I want to see low cost and free versions of Delphi, is because I want to see it thrive and attract more developers to it – especially students.

From what we can read in article above this is a very good and long-awaited business decision, bravo Embarcadero!

Basically, this is almost as powerful as a Delphi 7 Professional level product, for $149. But it’s also natively unicode, aware of Vista/Windows 7 glass and theming, fully touch aware for multi-touch and single-touch displays, and much more.

I would miss some of the code-completion features, and the debugger thread-context features, and the full database feature, and the source to the VCL/RTL libraries, but this is a really full-power product that you can write full-on high quality native windows apps with. What a great move.

You can install components into this one, making it much different than the Turbo (2006) version. Also the 2006-era IDE was buggy and crashed a lot, and the XE era IDE is rock-solid, stable, and super high quality.

Warren

Bold move in the right direction, but alas too late. Visual C#/VB express and SQL Server Express is free for Micro$oft and the internet is full of resources for these products. In some places 190$ still is a lot of money for students and hobbyists. Only a free product will be competitive

The Starter got all the major function removed.
Code Completion, and Database Connection which are not included, are the major features needed. The price is great…
On the other hand, the professional version cost too much, and i cannot afford it.

@Allen Nugent
You coudn’t install components in the old Turbo versions. That makes a huge difference.

My primary concern is that it is missing a lot of database/internet stuff like dbexpress, clientdataset, soap and xml data binding. If cloud computing is part of your business plan, you are going to have a problem getting up and running with this version.

At one point there was a free version of Delphi 5
that came with a book and a CD.
But I agree this is too late.

When we can get Netbeans completely free, SharpDevelop completely free, Visual Studio Express completely free then this Delphi Starter Edition is too expensive for a hobbyist. Borland could give the Turbo Family completely free a few years ago, Embarcadero should make a similar step, every hobbyists and students waits for this step.

More flavors more choice is always a good thing. I depend heavily on Devart en Devexpress components. So i might consider buying starter instead of professional.

So annual turnover = $1000 means you have to buy a “proper” version. Translating to UK currency turnover reaches £620 (at current rates) and you have to spend £770 for the Pro version (musn’t forget VAT). Adding in the original cost of XE Starter £170 (again don’t forget VAT).

Hmmm – really good deal.

I worked a lot with Delphi and I liked it very much.
Speaking with experts in the field of programming it became clear that no professional programmer seems to work with Delphi, only students and hobbyists (according to these collegues (with own enterprises)).
Last time when I asked I wanted to continue working on source code created in an enterprise where I worked before but I couldn’t because it is to expensive to get support for ADO AND third party components.
Embarcadero doesn’t seem to have interest in offering equivalent products to other free IDE’s (JAVA, Visual Studio (express Versions), etc. )

With turbo Delphi only basic programs could be created: no db applications or third party components….
Even if the target is not commercial this should be possible for a hobbyist….especially ADO: Is this possible in Delphi XE ???

I admit that for small start ups the Delphi XE Version for 150 € is a good thing but…
If you don’t want to earn money with your software the IDE should be free as this is the case for all others !!

I changed to JAVA it is not so difficult as I thought and I suggest other developers to do the same…

With JAVA you have the complete source code … in Delphi you have nothing !!!!

Sorry for Delphi…

Thomas

oh, This is a very good news for delphi developers!!! (*_*)

@Thomas Willms
Free things come with a price too.
You can get lazarus for free, a good multiplatform programming-environment.
But I still think that Delphi is the best programming-environment around. Even when you have to pay for it. I’m far more productive with Delphi than any other tool i have used.

How is this version an upgrade from Lazarus or Eclipse ?

Lazarus supports a lot of the code tools the Professional version has with full source code even for the compiler itself, cross-platform compilation and no limitations, there are less 3′rd party components for Lazarus but assuming you don’t have the money i don’t see a problem and you can use Pilot Logic’s CodeTyphon installer to get more 3′rd party components in Lazarus easily and free, soon Lazarus will be stable enough to be a real competitor to other Delphi editions too.
Eclipse is a real professional tool used by many large companies including IBM and Google if i understand correctly, how can this limited edition compete with a Free, OpenSource IDE powered by cash from the BIG Boys ?

We still use Delphi 6 at work because our company owns the licenses for it and we make powerful applications for the major fast food companies. VisualStudio and Java look very tempting not only because they are good enough and widely used but also because you can easily find a Java or C# programmer “under every rock”.
The main advantage our company sees in Delphi is it’s speed on low end machines and the powerful IDE, VCL, syntax and high quality 3′rd party stuff like PascalScript.
Lately we have investigated the possibility of using Linux and Lazarus and if that is OK we might start developing for Linux a lot because Windows licenses are expensive when you sell a lot of embedded devices. Kylix would have been the favorite tool for embedded systems today but Borland decided to kill it many years ago and today Embarcadero doesn’t find value in reviving Kylix or using the FreePascal compiler to build CrossPlatform applications using the current VCL and in the future maybe the whole IDE just like Lazarus, in the Java world there is no shame in using an OpenSource compiler or some other library and make a serious tool based on that.

Thanks for the comments guys. I am using Delphi7 Professional as a hobbyist (which is what I am nowadays). By the sound of it I will be better off sticking to it rather than ‘moving up’ to XE Starter Edition unless anyone knows different and can persuade me otherwise.

Who is going to buy the Delphi starter Edition in Europe as a ’starter’ anyway ?

Here is why :

(1) It costs a non trivial amount of money. For instance even the upgrade starter edition costs about 2 weeks unemployment benefit in UK when the VAT is added (£170). This is as usual not helped by a markup in pricing compared with US pushing cost even higher ( Alot worse in case of cost in Euro Area as they have $1 = 1E conversation ratio ! )

So DavidI’s blog post about starting a career in Development and starter edition been implied as a response to messages and comments he has received such as :

“I was recently laid off. I have a lot of time but little money. I’d really like to try and get into the software development field. Does Embarcadero have products that can help me start a new career?”

Look very unrealistic and out of touch of the current realities in my opinion for Delphi starter Edition.

(2) Delphi doesnt exactly top the popularity stakes on job adverts in most Western European Countries from what I have seen.

(3) For a small startup that doesnt need to worry about (2) the license restrictions are in my opinion a big disincentive to use compared with alternatives which I do not think I need to name.

Time for a reality check In my opinion for those managing Delphi at Embarcadero. You are not working at the Borland of old when it was arguably the best development tools company on the planet, the tools were popular and a price premium could be justified as the tool quality was considered superior by many.

@whitehairedgeezer

I would stop with Delphi 7 Professional you got unless you need Unicode baked in, especially as a hobbyist.

Another thing to consider is in arround 7 months another Delphi release will be due and any in band fixes will stop as XE2 is out if the usual pattern is followed. What will be the upgrade path for XE starter users at that point ? Ive seen nothing about that published anywhere. Remember what happened to Turbo Delphi

Sorry correction I meant to say

Delphi Starter Full edition is £170.40
Delphi Upgrade Edition is £127.20

Both including VAT

Without code completion, its pointless.

Thats one of the biggest time savers there is, especially if you have a large project with lots of classes.

- So a student and a hobbyist have to learn Delphi without the CodeCompletion tool… sounds not very interesting…

- If you earn $1001 (743 €) then you must pay for a Delphi Professional license (899 €). So, you’ll lose money.