Background

Many of my colleagues are surprised that I choose to use Delphi, especially for new projects.

Each year the end of Delphi is predicted. I'm reminded of this rather amusing comment:

"My colleague told me to abandon Delphi, it's obsolete, Silverlight is the future"

- Bruce McGee

History proves them wrong. Delphi is more important than ever.

WinFX and Managed Code

Around 2003, during the Windows Longhorn era, Microsoft announced that the traditional C/C++ based Win32 API was entering "maintenance mode," fueling speculation that it would be deprecated. The company planned to replace it with WinFX, an object-oriented, managed-code API built on top of the .NET Framework, with the goal of having developers completely abandon Win32 for new software.

When Microsoft announced that the future of Windows was managed code (WinFX) and that Win32 was dying, even Borland executives panicked. They believed that if they did not move Delphi to .NET immediately, the tool would become completely obsolete.

In August 2004, Microsoft formally scrapped the Longhorn project and reset development completely.

Later, Delphi followed suit, aggressively returning to its roots.

Architectural Re-engineering

Win32 has since received massive, ongoing development and deep infrastructural modernization.

Microsoft was forced to treat Win32 as the permanent bedrock of the operating system, moving the entire Win32 API ecosystem firmly into a high-performance 64-bit native computing environment.

Win32 apps gained access to modern Direct3D infrastructure, hardware-accelerated desktop composition (DWM), and advanced multi-monitor high-DPI scaling. Win32 was further augmented with security enhancements. This included mandatory features like Data Execution Prevention (DEP), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), and virtualization isolated security layers.

The Great Defeat of UWP and the Pivot Back to Win32

During the Windows 8 and Windows 10 eras, Microsoft made another massive attempt to sideline Win32 with the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and the WinRT API. The strategy failed completely because major developers refused to abandon their massive, powerful Win32 codebases.

Microsoft capitulated, killed off UWP, reopened the Store to standard native desktop apps, and pivoted its engineering effort back toward enhancing Win32.

Wine and Proton

Thanks to the monumental engineering efforts behind Wine and Valve's Steam Play (Proton), Win32 has unexpectedly evolved into one of the most viable, high-performance cross-platform compatibility layers in computing history, allowing complex Windows software and games to run seamlessly across Linux, macOS, and handheld gaming devices.

Delphi's Unique Position

Delphi occupies a unique position in software development. Very few tools can match its capabilities for general application development. The platform is deeply integrated with the Win32 API and COM. It has continuously modernized as desktop operating systems have evolved. For native desktop development especially, few tools can match its development speed and simplicity.

It remains a strong choice for many types of applications, but the Windows desktop is where it truly shines. As long as the desktop matters, Delphi matters.

Here are a few reasons why I choose Delphi, accompanied by some incredible applications.

Comprehensive

Delphi enables the same team to build all layers of a solution.

A great example of that is KisKis:

  • Platform Power: Single codebase across Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS
  • Performance: Smooth 60 frames per second animations
  • Real-time Video: Integrated complex multi-user real-time features efficiently
  • Rapid Deployment: Minimized required development size and time

"This app works at 60 FPS with 1 or 1 000 000 objects in feed."

— Stéphane Vander Clock

Native

Delphi is compiled to native code, so the performance is good. The compiler is extremely quick, resulting in a fast build-debug loop, and improved developer productivity.

Deployment couldn't be simpler as the compiler produces a single executable.

"For native development, Delphi is my first choice."

— Jean-Marie Cannie, CTO and Founder

Balanced

The Delphi environment is as close to a managed environment as you can get whilst still remaining native. Its managed types — array, interface, record, and string — combined with its component ownership model lead to memory-safe and maintainable code. It is a balance between C# and C++.

"To me Pascal seems like a good compromise between higher level language features and performance."

— Lewin, KaM

The guys over at KaM Remake made the same observation, their post is well worth the read. As much as I like C++Builder, I find I'm more productive in Delphi.

"Delphi Object Pascal is a marvelous language, more than 21 million lines of code are compiled in only 4 minutes...the executables are really very performant and the size of the exe files is extremely small...adding Python support to Delphi with Python4Delphi has been a blessing."

— Silverio Diquigiovanni

Portable

Delphi can target all versions of Windows using the VCL, including Windows ARM.

Using FMX you can target Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and Windows ARM.

"If you develop a multi-platform app, Delphi is simply the fastest way to go."

— Hans Lavdal Jakobsen

Modern

Delphi includes a fully 4K High-DPI IDE, per-monitor V2 Scaling, 96 DPI Form Saving, Windows 11 UI controls & styling, customisable title bars, native MSIX provisioning, modern WinRT and Windows API Headers, Fluent Design system support, embedded chromium TEdgeBrowser, and a 64-bit IDE.

Object Pascal has Generics, anonymous functions, type helpers, inline variables, multiline string literals, managed records, attributes, a tenary operator, powerful reflection and late binding via IDispatch.

FMX furthers this evolution, taking a familiar development approach cross-platform with an advanced vector-based graphics framework, Skia graphics integration, and a new styling tool in the works.

Modern practices are supported via projects like DUnitX, TestInsight, MiniSpec and FinalBuilder.

Recent initiatives include IDE tooling work to integrate AI with RAD via the Kai Add-on.

There is an evolution of technology, not constant revolution.

"Delphi gives us the ability to target all the major desktop and mobile platforms along with the performance of native code. We are able to easily blend assembly code in areas where we want maximum performance on Windows or macOS, iOS and Android."

— Allen Drennan

Powerful

Delphi empowers you to build anything from business applications to games:

"Even with today's optimizations, we estimate that Delphi is still four times faster than other language compilers."

— Tobias Tenbusch, CTO/Co-Founder

"I work 99% in Delphi...I am working on my own 3d engine. This means, I also create physic and all the other stuff on my own."

— Nick Pützer

Component Based

Component based UI frameworks make RAD possible, and RAD is the fastest way to develop software.

Delphi has incredible component libraries such as Delphi HTML Components, DevExpress, and TMS.

Delphi is a powerhouse for development — RAD backed by a blindingly fast compiler.

"Delphi is the most popular development tool at our office…With Delphi as the primary development tool, we can cover all the diverse requirements at Wonderland."

— Daniel Wolf

Web and Services

Thanks to component providers like TMS and frameworks like DelphiMVC, Dext, Horse, WebStencils, Appercept AWS SDK, and many others, Delphi is a solid choice for web and service development.

And Quartex Pascal offers Delphi developers an alternative for modern fullstack development.

"My main interest has always been Delphi."

— Jon L. Aasenden

Awesome Software Created in Delphi

Every day new projects are being started in Delphi:

"We didn't use any game engine, this is a pure FMX 2D sprite based game."

— Enes Geven

For more examples, please see the official showcase.

Delphi Rocks!

Finally, I really enjoy programming in Delphi.

Delphi is an architecture of simplicity and pragmatism.

It is fundamentally elegant, and a pleasure to code in.