Embarcadero Delphi XE2 / FireMonkey Review Findings : Not Ready, Incomplete

Delphi XE2 : Reviewers / Users Not Pleased

UPDATE: Delphi XE3 release date is here, and I have posted a blog entry about Delphi XE3 New Features; some of the concerns with XE2 / FireMonkey may be resolved with FireMonkey2 / XE3 improvements. 

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I am a long-term user of the Embarcadero Delphi (formerly Borland, Inprise, and Codegear branded Delphi) RAD (Rapid Application Development) IDE, programming language (which is object-pascal) and VCL (Visual Component Library).  Recently I wrote a blog about the Exciting New Features in Embarcadero Delphi XE2 and how much I was looking forward to putting the new FireMonkey components to use in particular.  Also, while reading this, keep in mind the fact that (for me) FireMonkey was the one thing that was going to keep me interested in this product for my Windows development platform of choice.

Well, here is the simple fact of the matter: Delphi XE2 / FireMonkey is not ready for prime-time.  I have discovered that I am not alone in this opinion, and it appears that Embarcadero has done itself no favor by releasing what many consider an unfinished product.  Perhaps I am premature in predicting the final demise of this platform and product, but that is essentially what I am doing: it is over... at least for me.  I have used Delphi since version 2.0, going all the way back to 1995, and have been a loyal and avid fan of the development language, IDE, and components.  But, I am 99% sure that I am finally calling it quits. Here's why...

Poor and Missing Documentation

I have totally had it with the total CRAP documentation that has come with Delphi since ever since Delphi 7.  I have heard promises of improvements for years, and with every small improvement comes a host of missing documentation, bad or missing hyperlinks within the documentation, a poor (and god-awful slow and inefficient) documentation-browsing interface, etc.  I long for the old days where I could quickly find all the help I needed and quickly navigate links to related information; those days are long gone.

I just can not take it anymore.  It is absolutely inexcusable how pathetic the documentation efforts have been, regardless of which company has owned the rights to Delphi (Borland, Codegear, Embarcadero).  Clearly documentation is barely as step above an afterthought for these companies lately as they probably consider it nothing but an "expense"; never mind that this expense is what leads to a product I actually may want to purchase!  With all sorts of new features simply nowhere to be found in the documentation, my level of frustration is epic.  I have seen as good, or perhaps better, documentation efforts for open-source projects (you know, all those projects that are notoriously lacking documentation). 

FireMonkey Bugs, 64-bit bugs, Missing Features

I am not going to re-hash everything that people are experiencing with FireMonkey, as it just furthers my frustrations with this incomplete and buggy product.  But, here are some of the things that are worth noting, as pointed out on blogs like Delphi Haven and AnalogMachine:

• the omission of Actions and action lists
• aside from the very basics, Keyboard handling is crippled
• Property/method reference documentation (as I more than hinted at earlier)
• TMemo has serious bugs.
• Substantial differences (and missing capabilities) in FM form-designer behavior vs. VCL-forms designer behavior.
• the 64-bit Compiler has some serious bugs.
• And many more...

Delphi is now looking more and more like a total dead-end for me and certainly will not help my career in the least bit; I am no longer willing to wait for bug-fixes to back their technological improvements that ship without proper testing.  And, I do not want to continually pay for the right to deal with such poor quality.

Delphi XE2 Update-1 and Update-2

Embarcadero has released the first couple "updates" (Update 1) for Delphi XE2 and (Update 2) for Delphi XE2 that will supposedly begin the process of correcting some of the deficiencies in this product. But, I am at the point I do not care. Why? Because we all know (based on past behavior) how this will go... they will issue approximately 4 "updates" (i.e., BUG FIXES) to the product during its life-cycle and before Delphi XE3 is released, at which point you then will be forced to PAY AGAIN for what should be free and continued bug-fixes!

And, like darn near every single "release notes" published in the past 5 years by these folks, this XE2 Update 2 release-notes document also has screwed up hyperlinks to the supposed "list of fixes".  Currently, in the "General" section of this document, see where it says (I cut/pasted this from their site):

"For a complete list of the specific problems fixed in this update, see the "List of Bug Fixes in Delphi and C++Builder XE2 Update 2" at: <a href="http://edn.embarcadero.com/de/article/40984/">http://edn.embarcadero.com/de/article/40984/</a>"

Well, guess what folks... the above quoted HTML really links to some OLD Delphi XE Update 1 list of fixes and even points to the German location (/de).  THIS IS SO TYPICAL!  AGAIN, WHERE IS THE QUALITY-CONTROL!?  I really would have liked to see what is truly "fixed" in this XE2 update.  Ughghgh!  Do we now have to post a QC (Quality Central ... heh, "quality", yeah... ok) entry to report this messed up URL?  Again, this is TYPICAL and has been the case for years.  I think it is done ON PURPOSE since they really have no list of updates prepared!  But, who is dumb enough to keep doing this and keep peeving their customer base?!

This practice of shipping bug-ridden, unfinished software products is common among MANY software firms these days... they put out an unfinished/buggy product, patch it a few times for "free", then force users to purchase yet another "upgrade" to get any future fixes/improvements regardless of how strong the case is that there are still substantial bugs in the product you PAID for!  It gets old, and it gets very darn expensive! And, I have seen long-standing substantial bugs go unfixed through multiple major-product-versions/iterations (Delphi and their help-system clearly have had long-standing substantial issues).

Delphi XE2 : the end of the road for my Delphi use

For the reasons laid out already, and for the added fact that there are VERY FEW Delphi Jobs / Contracts available anywhere these days, I am leaning toward totally ditching closed-source development tools like Delphi.  There are some great free and open-source products and technologies out that I am going to be evaluating in depth and preparing to move to.

I am likely go to just HTML5 / SVG / JavaScript wherever possible, and I may totally ditch "native Windows applications" except for those situations where I absolutely require the performance and sophistication I can only achieve with compiled code.  I have prior versions of Delphi that I will continue to use to support some of the systems I have written for my own use of course, but I also plan to begin the inevitable migration to other technologies.  I am not looking forward to migrating my systems include lots of SQL-Server interaction (using VCL dbExpress or ADO components), but such is.

Although I believe Delphi has provided a super-productive development environment and language for developing Windows applications over the years, I also see the writing on the wall: Delphi is a niche tool whose niche continues to shrink as people move to web-based everything.  And, Embarcadero is not helping Delphi's cause when they release buggy unfinished software with equally pathetic documentation.  Perhaps I will again assess Delphi when the inevitable Delphi XE3 appears on the scene, but for now, I am avoiding any further investment of my time and money into this product.

UPDATE (January 2012) for anyone still interested in Delphi XE2: Embarcadero has released Delphi XE2 Update 3 and has put a new Delphi XE2 ISO Image with Update 3 online.  I have not taken time to download and install it, though I did read through the release notes of fixes in Delphi XE2 Update 3, and it appears they are slowly working through the massive pile of major errors and issues.  Surely it must be "better" than the initial premature release of XE2. But, I am still a major skeptic and will only consider a hands-on Delphi re-evaluation when Delphi XE3 is released -- and, Embarcadero had better take time to ensure a much higher quality product if they are to convince me to ever use their development tools again.