The end of Delphi?

I was a happy Borland customer for many years – starting with Turbo Pascal 2.0 for CP/M and all the way through to Delphi 2005. I would still be a Delphi specialist, if the realities of the job market were different.

When Borland spun off its developer division into the CodeGear subsidiary a few years back, I had hope that the toolset – Borland’s crown jewels – would receive the care and attention they deserved. And, for these few years, the product range has been stellar, with products like Delphi for PHP breaking significant new ground.

So, it’s with considerable concern that I spotted a message on the CodeGear website today, that Embarcadero have purchased CodeGear.

In my experience, Embarcadero as a company is bureaucratic and arrogant, with poorly designed buggy products and a customer service division that would have won awards during the Spanish inquisition.

I hope that senior management at Embarcadero is smart enough to keep CodeGear at arms length, to keep their fingers out of the pie and to let the smart guys already working at CodeGear get on with their jobs.

I fear though, that we’ll look back in five years see this acquisition as the fatal blow that left CodeGear the walking dead.