alt.hn

3/20/2026 at 11:45:20 AM

Delphi 13.1 Released, with ARM64 support

 https://blogs.embarcadero.com/announcing-the-availability-of-rad-studio-13-florence-update-1/

by nopakos

3/20/2026 at 12:34:03 PM

Delphi is still the absolute fastest way to create win32 gui applications, and anybody who disagrees has never used it.

Lazarus is a pretty sweet solution on Linux (or Codetyphoon, if you want more out of the box components).

by lpcvoid

3/20/2026 at 5:35:38 PM

I think C#'s WinForms is just as productive as Delphi's VCL. Unfortunately Microsoft abandoned it. Though I only used older versions of Delphi, so I don't know if recent improvements made it pull ahead.

However both have limitations in more complex areas, such as rich text (html), data binding and targeting mobile and desktop with a mostly shared code-base.

by CodesInChaos

3/20/2026 at 6:13:39 PM

WinForms isn't Win32, and it's still supported.

by cosmotic

3/20/2026 at 7:15:03 PM

Like MFC, it is a thin layer over Win32.

by pjmlp

3/20/2026 at 2:52:39 PM

I disagree, because C++ Builder also exists. :)

Although .NET also follows along, pity that it took so many years for Microsoft to actually care about native compilation beyond NGEN.

by pjmlp

3/20/2026 at 1:02:23 PM

Is it? What about Autohotkey, or Visual Studio?

by baal80spam

3/20/2026 at 1:14:15 PM

Two very different solutions. Autohotkey is a scripting language for specific tasks, while Delphi is unbounded in this sense. And Visual Studio has no RAD concept.

by mauriciolange

3/20/2026 at 1:39:11 PM

Visual Studio has WinForms, which is pretty RAD.

by sumnole

3/20/2026 at 2:38:10 PM

And I think preferable to the XML split of code and GUI that is web like and how Microsoft’s other frameworks work.

by NetMageSCW

3/20/2026 at 5:33:10 PM

Glad to see Delphi still alive and being developed. I never used it much but I did use C++ Builder Explorer or something that they released for free probably 10+ years ago. Also does anyone remember Kylix, Borland's short lived Delphi for Linux?

Unimportant tangent, but I think FireMonkey is a terrible name for a UI framework. I don't know why, but I hate it.

by nazgulsenpai

3/20/2026 at 1:08:14 PM

From $960 + $399/year.

I think it's quite an accomplishment to survive in the modern world of free software development tools.

by vbezhenar

3/20/2026 at 2:10:13 PM

The C# world also has quite a few paid libraries, especially for UI stuff.

Quite a few years ago I worked at a company using Delphi, and judging by their homepage they are still using it. A company making industrial machinery, with a tiny internal software department for the software for provisioning and maintaining the machines, as well as the control room software. Usability and development velocity is more important than looking hip, and easy access to hardware interfaces is paramount. And compared to developer salaries those license costs really aren't that bad

by wongarsu

3/20/2026 at 2:54:37 PM

On Microsoft, Apple, and game consoles, it is still pretty common to pay for development tools.

Also pretty common in enterprise tooling, which is the market of tools like Delphi.

The alternative is everyone getting surprised that their favourite free software development tools (only free thanks to VC money), eventually goes away.

by pjmlp

3/20/2026 at 5:36:55 PM

Mostly Microsoft (inertia, you're already paying) and game consoles (expensive SDK/dev-kit licensing with NDA crap).

I see it less on Apple platforms except for published applications and niche tools.

by ronsor

3/20/2026 at 6:44:31 PM

There are many other computers out there.

You already paid for XCode via their beloved hardware margins.

by pjmlp

3/20/2026 at 2:00:00 PM

There is still a lot of legacy software out there. I worked on something for a little bit (probably around 10 years ago).

by _fizz_buzz_

3/20/2026 at 1:10:33 PM

Yeah, I'm surprised they haven't just made a hobbyist tier. Especially when FreePascal allows you to make UIs with Lazarus for free.

by giancarlostoro

3/20/2026 at 1:12:05 PM

They have free community edition. Main restriction seems to be: "If you're an individual, you may use Delphi CE to create apps for your own use and apps that you can sell until your revenue reaches US$5,000 per year."

So should be perfectly enough for hobbyist.

by vbezhenar

3/20/2026 at 1:21:07 PM

I tried it, it would not compile some of the templates it came with for me. Their QA process must be terrible.

by giancarlostoro

3/20/2026 at 2:20:11 PM

It's cheaper to pay that than rewrite in a better language.

by 1899-12-30

3/20/2026 at 2:09:52 PM

There are companies using Delphi-based products for long years (for a good reason, this is still great technology) so they prefer to pay.

by piokoch

3/20/2026 at 12:20:24 PM

Delphi's great. You can rapidly create apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

by andsoitis

3/20/2026 at 12:23:06 PM

I tried Lazarus recently, but I found the IDE to be slow.

by davikr

3/20/2026 at 12:54:26 PM

I have not tried the IDE, but I like FreePascal. The compiler is fast and it has great multiplatform and cross-compilation support. In particular for older platforms.

It feels more stable and mature than most other languages. I do not know if there are enough developers keeping it alive, but hopefully it will mostly get bug fixes and ports to new platforms. Better if they do not mess with the language or standard libraries. Those that want a programming language that keeps breaking backwards compatibility every few months have plenty to choose from already.

by 1313ed01