by Don Macrae
Venue: Sofitel
Item: Borland’s ‘Roadshow’ presentation of Delphi, IntraBuilder, C++ Builder and J Builder.
Attendance looked to be about 120 (my guess). Mixture of ADUG members, AJUG members and others who responded to the ad in the green guide. About 20 hands seemed to rise in response to the question ‘who is here because of the ad?’
Other responses: most were Delphi users; a few used C++ Builder, some used no Borland products and 1 person was using DCOM.
Q: What’s an ActiveX?
An ActiveX is a dll which puts info into the registry, and which exports particular methods, as follows:
Q: How big a machine do you need for JBuilder development (from David S)
P200 with 64mb OK. P100 or 486 would be sluggish.
Q: When should you use JBuilder, and when Intrabuilder?
IntraBuilder apps will run on any browser. Java only runs on browsers which support it (tautology?). The conservative approach is IntraBuilder, the power and flexibility is with Jbuilder.
Q: How do the JBuilder and Delphi VCL’s compare?
Delphi’s is much bigger at this time, although the basic set is the same. Jbuilder panels work differently, this takes time to adjust to.
Jbuilder components are Java beans.
Q: Can I use Java beans in Delphi?
A: No. Close co-operation between Delphi and C++Builder, but Java is too different.
Q: How big is the VM (virtual machine)?
A: Tiny. The demo one was 5k. But you have to consider the accompanying classes which are necessary: typically could be ½ a meg to make everything go. However, over time users will accumulate the classes on their machines, so the chance that they will already have what you need them to have will increase.
Q: What’s JBuilder written in?
A: Mostly in Java. C++ Builder is written in Delphi.
Q: What’s happening with OWL?
A: One more release is due, but that will be a ‘finalization’.
Q: Might a new version of Java be a problem for JBuilder?
A: No, because (1) upward compatibility will be maintained and (2) Borland and Sun have a close working relationship, eg Borland contributed significantly to the specification of Java beans.
Q: In which versions of Delphi is TDecisionQuery available?
A: CS only.
Q: Don’t know what the question was, and don’t understand the answer!
A: There are a alternate approaches available to develop internet apps: DCOM or OleEnterprise, or from v3.01 you have the option of sockets, which avoids the configuration complexity of DCOM and OleEnterprise.