Thinking Out Loud

I guess the main reason I haven't done anything is that there was a report that said the install of the beta broke code in D2007.  Since I am in the middle of coding two applications in D2007, I don't have the time to go back and forth between the the beta and the last working copy for D2007.  If there was an update to the beta that fixed the problem with D2007 then I was unaware of the fix.

perhaps all the Delphi coders are that much smarter than all of us .net'rs and don't need to ask questions..  ;)

Hi Ray,

I wish it was as easy as plugging in your components and testing. Our application has lots of third party components, so we are still porting those to D2009 and purchasing upgrades from other vendors to get their D2009 support. I would assume quite a few of your beta testers are doing the same. Will post feedback as soon as we can, though.  :)

J.D.

If I understand correctly, you expected feedback and comments about an announcement of a beta that isn't yet actually IN beta?

I can't help but wonder if you would have seen more interest if the announcement had been a link to a download of an actual beta.

I wonder if you may have noticed any discernible increase in interest in your VCL components recently, that might reflect on the perceptions that Delphi 2009 has (that we have noticed) restored/created, even if you did not directly receive interest in the beta announcement itself?

But, since you asked for feedback ....

We aren't currently a DevExpress customer, but we are looking at your VCL components.

Our code is currently in Delphi 5 - Delphi 2009 has prompted us to actively pursue migrating to Delphi 7 as a stepping stone to Delphi 2007 and ultimately Delphi 2009, as the Unicode support is of great interest, and the next release (64-bit) even more so.

Up to now, the prevailing view was that we would have to migrate (actually, start over) with C# and .NET, but even the limited experience we have had with the 2009 trial has been positive enough for us to reconsider that view.

DevExpress components would feature in that process because the one thing that has disappointed us with the Delphi 2009 release has been the VCL ribbon control included, which frankly is simply not release quality.

Hi,

Waiting for some other 3party components we use to be ready for 2009 and also some more basic testing before we start the port to 2009.

Will also need to buy upgrades from you for all developers on the team.

So please be patient with us :-) Its not lack of interrest that is slowing us down....

Have installed IT, done preliminary tests, so far 90% of code ported ok. Still missing PivotGrid..keep up working, thanks

I am waiting for DevExpress components to be released for Delphi 2009 before I purchase Delphi 2009. So I cannot test.

We are interested in D2009.  We are currently using D7, D2006.net and D2007.  We discontinued use of DevExpress components when they broke our grid code with QG and version >3 IIRC.. might be >4. Sorry, but breaking code stinks.

Apologies Ray - an Outside Context Problem.

It was posted in the CG newsgroups that you were soliciting D2009 feedback.

It wasn't clear from the post that the audience you were addressing comprised existing customers (and this post, to which is linked, naturally and quite reasonably assumed that the reader already knew that), and those customers presumably had been notified of the beta availability by means other than a blog post.  

In which case, I agree, you reasonably might have expected feedback by now.

All is clear now, sorry, and I hope my non-DevExpress component beta D2009 "feedback" was never-the-less useful.

:)

(and just to be 100% crystal, the ribbon control I'm referring to in those comments is the CodeGear implementation, NOT the DevExpress one, which looks far superior, hence - in large part - our interest in *becoming* a customer)

If it helps, I'll debug the 39 version with Delphi 2007 to check any regression. I don't have D2009 still to make experiments.

Maybe you get more feedback, if you release a trial beta install of your components.  At least me I would download and test it (within Delphi2009 Trial).

... and please don't restrict it do 14 days! Who on earth is able to make tests, during his/her regular work, within these days?!

I am very interested in D2009 support, but find myself in the same position as Jeremy Mullin with key components from other vendors currently upgrading their products to support D2009.

It's to early for us, ongoing projects (worked on in D2007) must be finished before we can start using Delphi 2009. But we will for sure, and when that happen, components must be upgraded. I guess you will see more interest when people really start to use Delphi 2009. It's a wonderful release!

Ray, I asked on the newsgroup whether the D2007 components are still good - given this whole codebase seems to be a Beta (it has been said it is the same code for all compilers) I need to get more confidence about the D2007 before I can put it on my live system. If you can give feedback on your confidence level for older compilers and introducing issues, it would give me confidence to try it!

I havent had the time to do anything with D2009 yet. I've installed it, and thats about it.

Its just sitting there...

I only have a couple of projects I need to port to D2009, one doesnt use anything more advanced than the TImage, so thats gonna port right out of the box, the other uses some 3rd party components that I for various reasons want to replace with other 3rd parties.

In essence, this other project will be re-written (to also include some nice features enabled by devexpress components).. So I'll get there in due time...

Actually.. by reading all the other posts to your question.. I think we all have plenty to do, which is real good for the Delphi community.

Well, thanks for getting your Delphi 2009 work to us but there are others I have to wait for before I can port my main projects, and I am looking forward to it, but be assured I'll let you know how it goes, but at the moment, all I've been able to do is one or two small things that only use the components already updated for D2009.

Build 39 seems to be working without any issues for us in Delphi 2007 though ;-)

Along with the other comments, it's a little early for us with ongoing projects also, but we will be upgrading to D2009 soon with DevExpress's excellent set of components.  

Coming from D6, we still have/use TdxDBGrid (v. 3.22) heavily (think hundreds, if not thousands of units) and it's simply not feasible to upgrade/convert to the cxGrid at this time.  If we purchase the VCL Subscription, will/can we get a version of the TdxDBGrid that will install in D2009?  We aren't expecting any new features or specific bug fixes, just something that will allow our older applications to continue working (and keep our end-users happy).

Hope to see you guys at this year's PDC.

I'm also waiting for other third party component vendors...

I've converted one simple project (using cxGrid) and so far, so good.

Meanwhile.. Could you please publish the Align property on the VCL editor controls. I have to edit the cxdbedit unit every time I update your product. It is a pain! There is a bugreport already in your database!

I'm afraid I don't have time to do beta testing on anything with D2009.  When all my third party controls have been updated I'll begin the process.  Until then, I only just installed it and played around for a few minutes.  

As for revenue, we specifically renewed our VCL subscription for the D2009 updates when they came, so you have made some money as a result.  

Still waiting on other vendors to release D2009 compatible products. Until then can't move current projects to D2009. Seeing the DevExpress components support D2009, even if only in Beta alleviated a lot of anxiety I had.

I have installed it too. But it's not quite easy to me to port an existing application to D2009 because many other 3rd party components aren't ready right now! So it will take some time.

i'm going to be a "later adopter" since i want to finish some stuff before moving to d2009.

Yes Kylix. Brr. - I never upgraded from v3 but consider doing it later. Maybe even the subscription (don't need ASP.net at all and only some components) because I was impressed about your courage to participate in the Kylix/Linux thing and was unhappy to see it fail (not because of you!). You must have lost a fortune.

Well, we found that the component we used most (Express SpreadSheet) is completely broken. So we reported it, and you have duly opened and started working on it. So it sounds good to me.

We're not doing "day to day" work in Delphi 2009 yet (how could we, if core components we use are still in 'beta'). So we do what we can, report what we can, and then move forward. Once all the components work 100% for us, we'll try them with our real application codebase.

W

I have not seen any issues at all yet between the Expressbars D2007 version and the D2008 version yet although my apps are fairly simple mostly without ribbons... but my ribbon toolbars seem to be ok as well.

It yould be great to add DxRibbonStatusbar features to DxStatusbar (like progressbar item) and also include a DXButton that has the same style as the Expressbars Toolbar buttons for use on panels.

Good job on the beta.

I'm in the same boat as many others, waiting on the rest of the 3p vendors to get their conversion completed so I can begin testing our software with them all.  The basic demo tests I did worked fine, but until I get our application building I won't be able to do a full suite of tests.

I've started porting of Python4Delphi myself. After that, I still have a few components which are no longer maintained to port. But I do have Delphi 2009+DevExpressVCL v39 installed, I just cannot compile my projects yet due to the other missing components.

Recently purchased Delphi 2009 Ent. and want to buy at least 3-4 Devexpress products as soon as they support Delphi 2009.

IMHO, the killer combo would be ExpressTreeList + ExpressGrid + ExpressBar + ExpressPrint and I wish these 4 would be bundled together at a discount.

I'd hit the BUY button as soon as it was released for Delphi 2009.  Need it ASAP for new projects.

I am waiting for DevExpressVCL  for delphi 2009  with unicode support.

My first tests don't show any problems in the devexpress components.

In the first step i'm only looking for the old functionality. So the unicode stuff will follow up.

But as normal: solid and good quality!!!

I think I would go with D2009, but for the time being I am still stuck with D6 as all the reports are made with Crystal Reports, and there doesn't seem te be any way to use them in D2009...

Very interested.  But, as others have posted, I am having a time getting our own internal components converted as well as some other third party components.  Until that happens, I cannot get to the DevEx tests.  At least for our existing apps.

Waiting for other component vendors to support D2009 so that we can start to port projects.

Using v39 without problems in D2007.

Anyway, thanks for the quick D2009 support.

We are spending all of our time refactoring our code to use only Delphi 2009 components.   We really appreciated the work of Devexpress - well done guys.

I have been waiting for my report components to be upgraded to D2009. They have made a release which means I will be checking out the DevExpress work. Don't worry. I assure you I will contact you if I find a problem. :-)

Thank you for the update!

I am in the process of migrating my Delphi 2007 code to Delphi 2009.  I haven't reach the GUI part yet.  I will update to you once I get my application up and running on Delphi 2009.

How we can get this beta version?

We use D2009 intensively, so feedback is guaranteed.

I started the port of my projects to Delphi 2009 this week.  So far I have not encountered any issues with the DevExpress VCL but I'm also refactoring some of my code as part of the port.  This means it will still be a few more days before I'm ready to dig deep and test the DevExpress VCL.

Well, i experienced issues only with Ribbon and memory leaks ... (with the beta)

The grid works ok so far ...

great an article, I'm very thank you, I think really usefull, I'm following  comments, thanks

Ray,  I suspect that others are in a similar position to us.  D2007 was a drop in replacement.  We could just start using it and upgrade components.  With D2009, there is the whole porting to UniCode thing holding us back from moving all at once to D2009.

I have D2009 installed on my local workstation, but haven't installed it on my main development machine yet because I'm not ready to risk the conflict with D2007.

Brad.

great an article, I'm very thank you, I think really usefull, I'm following  comments, thanks