Embarcadero RAD Studio 10.3 (Delphi, C++) Product Feature Matrix [pdf]
Probably not exactly what you&#x27;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&#x27;d <i>love</i> 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&#x27;s free C&#x2F;C++ Compiler - although i did use the &quot;personal edition&quot; of Delphi 7, which came in a magazine cover disk, to create an &quot;IDE&quot; - 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++&#x2F;SDL, originally as shareware but later opensourced[5]) and the latter something that i was curious about.<p>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&#x27;t want to use Lazarus that makes 1MB+ executables just for a single dialog). Also i <i>really</i> like how fast the compiler is - i do not care it doesn&#x27;t even support C++98 as i wouldn&#x27;t use C++ normally anyway :-P. Like with Lazarus, i have a few classes[7] in it for utility stuff.<p>Recently i also made a mesh editor[8][9] with it. If you check my channel, i have a few &quot;Making a game in XYZ&quot; videos and i wanted to make a video where i &quot;retrocode&quot; a simple game using Direct3D on a Voodoo 2 under Windows 95, but i couldn&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;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].<p>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&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;t leave me with much free time sadly :-P (and i have some games to play too :-P).<p>Funny enough, just before visiting Hacker News today i went to Embarcadero&#x27;s site and thought about downloading the latest Delphi - but meh&#x27;d out when i was asked to register (i have an account, but i don&#x27;t remember the details and i&#x27;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&#x27;t know, i never liked the post-Delphi 7 interface and i remember even at Delphi 7&#x27;s time i thought the IDE was too bloated (granted, i was trying to run it on a Pentium MMX with 32MB of RAM...).<p>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 <i>fast</i>), was available in a box with nice manuals and CD&#x2F;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&#x27;ve modified a few headers and lib files - if they had any sort of DRM i wouldn&#x27;t be able to do that).<p>Basically i&#x27;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&#x27;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.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lazarus-ide.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lazarus-ide.org&#x2F;</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;uYBX6nN.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;uYBX6nN.png</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;opVUsvG.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;opVUsvG.png</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;eS802L7.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;eS802L7.png</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;CO4lnhz.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;CO4lnhz.png</a><p>[5] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;games&#x2F;nikwideluxe&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;games&#x2F;nikwideluxe&#x2F;</a><p>[6] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pcgamingwiki.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Special:Contributions&#x2F;Bad_Sector" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pcgamingwiki.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Special:Contributions&#x2F;Bad_Sect...</a><p>[7] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;bcbcmn&#x2F;index" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;bcbcmn&#x2F;index</a><p>[8] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=rr1Sr9hTkzg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=rr1Sr9hTkzg</a><p>[9] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;olmeshy&#x2F;index" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;olmeshy&#x2F;index</a><p>[10] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;zRguUf8.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;zRguUf8.png</a><p>[11] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;6uIFrMC.gif" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;6uIFrMC.gif</a><p>[12] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;rInEdBY.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;rInEdBY.png</a><p>[13] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;dglvp&#x2F;index" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;dglvp&#x2F;index</a><p>[14] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;tech&#x2F;bcbgl&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;tech&#x2F;bcbgl&#x2F;</a><p>[15] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;gl2unit&#x2F;index" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;runtimeterror.com&#x2F;rep&#x2F;gl2unit&#x2F;index</a><p>[16] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=sC7EDkZfw3M" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=sC7EDkZfw3M</a><p>[17] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;4Zk9Td7.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;4Zk9Td7.png</a>