Delphi and

Hey, Delphi ended up really well in the #code2014 survey.  Sure, it’s self-selected and thus statistically dubious, but it definitely is nice to see Delphi in ninth position with a prominent circle.  (If you add Delphi and Pascal together, we’d be in sixth place.  Yes, I can see the comments already…)

If I were part of EMBT’s marketing team, I’d be shouting this one from the mountain tops.  I know that technically it’s not statistically significant, but the whole chart “feels” right.  The languages at the very top seem like the right ones.  And Delphi at the ninth position seems right too.  Why?  Because I think there are a lot more Delphi developers out there than people know.  Is it more popular than C/C++?  Maybe not, but then again, maybe it is.  No way to know. 

The part that bums me out is the community members that are so quick to point out that the survey “doesn’t mean anything”.  I most strongly disagree.  I think it means a lot.  I think it shows that the Delphi community is real, it’s bigger than folks think, and it’s willing to speak up and be heard.  All I know is the Delphi community sure came out of the woodwork and made Delphi rise into a prominent position in a poll that many developers will see. That can’t be bad.  It is good.

If you are a Delphi developer, you should be happy about this, and you should be doing what you can to show people the results.  I took a screen capture of the results in case the URL goes away (www.code2013.com is for sale for a mere $3095).  If you are a Delphi developer and are poo-pooing the results, I say “Lighten up, Francis”. 

This is good.  Enjoy it.  Use it.  Delphi is still here and going strong, almost twenty years after it launched.  We’ve had our ups and downs, but the bottom line is that you have nothing to be ashamed of when you say “I am a Delphi developer”.