Mike Singer wrote: > > I've been playing with Delphi, the free 6.0 version, > > but not real happy with that either. Any suggestions > > from those of you that code up small simple tools?? :o) -Roman > > Gentlemen, > let me add a few words to your lively discussion. (I counted > more the 20 postings in the thread "Best small windows developer > platform??") > Roman asked for a strategic advice, as far as I understand. > The discussion goes about, in other words, what is better: > a horse or automobile as a vehicle. A horse really has some > advantages over an auto. It is lighter, it is easy to drive, it even > can climb mountains, ecological benefits and so on. > But, folks, sorry, Gentlemen, (I'm trying not to offend anybody, > imagine 20 apologies in a row.) Roman needs an instrument for > making his living for years. Personally I have some doubts about > those stoned tools of Dinosaur Age being usefull in .net times. > I'd rather recomend not to fear "over complex and web-obsessed" > tools. You Can Make it if You Try, Roman. The question should > be "How to optimize learning curve", I think. Ha ha! :o) Thanks Mike, it's really not fear holding me back but TIME. You are right in saying I need to make a living in years to come, BUT i'm not a windows programmer. I'm a hardware developer first, and embedded programmer second, and only really code PC apps as simple support tools to make my real work easier. I agree that learning to code large windows databases and web-based apps would give future income opportunities but that is not what I need. I need to be able to throw together simple apps that communicate to the screen and ports, and .net etc really doesn't cut it. Ive been busy playing with Delphi for a couple of days and ordered C++ Builder personal to check that out too. The other thing that annoys me is that you can no longer buy a copy of Borland compiler to make small simple apps. The only commercial one is $2000 AUD and my Borland rep's argument was based around how great it would be to be able to build huge web-enabled applications with minimal effort. So what? Reading the blurbs for the new Borland products shows about 80% of the "benefits" are these new web based and database features. Features I just don't want or need. Probably 80% of what i'll have to pay is for things I don't want. -Roman -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.