{"slug": "delphi", "name": "Delphi", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 5, "warners": 1, "score": 2.162, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2026-02-18", "latest": "2026-10-19", "why": "Delphi was magical. Nothing compares to Delphi's productivity.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Delphi was magical. Nothing compares to Delphi's productivity.", "icon": true, "domain": "embarcadero.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Delphi"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 802354737, "item_id": 50147171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50147171", "by": "andsoitis", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also think Delphi is awesome.", "excerpt": "Lazarus is great. I also think Delphi is awesome. Don't feel the same \"get worse with every release\" vibe that you do. But, if you do, you could also check out Oxygene: https://www.remobjects.com/elements/oxygene/", "context": "", "use_case": "Pascal development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages"}, {"id": 802349472, "item_id": 50146842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50146842", "by": "andsoitis", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Delphi (https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/features/delphi)", "excerpt": "Check out: - Delphi (https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/features/delphi) - Lazarus & Free Pascal (https://www.lazarus-ide.org) - Oxygene (https://www.remobjects.com/elements/oxygene/) And since you remarked about \"modern languages\", have a look at https://castle-engine.io/modern_pascal", "context": "", "use_case": "Pascal development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages"}, {"id": 799483281, "item_id": 49967705, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967705", "by": "microtonal", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This all culminated into Delphi, which had all that and offered drag-and-drop UI building.", "excerpt": "Imagine going back in time to late-80s/early-90s, and vividly describing all the tools we have now to folks back then -- coding agents, loops, autonomous multi-hour agentic workflows, automated testing, and PRs, and whatnot. Wonder what their reaction would be. I sometimes look at my pre-2024 workflows and feel like I'm looking at a caveman's toolchain. Absolutely bonkers as to how quickly we humans adapt to things. ", "context": "", "use_case": "programming IDE", "switched_from": "", "story": "Borland Turbo Basic"}, {"id": 753165312, "item_id": 47072832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47072832", "by": "zac23or", "date": "2026-02-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Delphi. The best days of my life as a developer were spent using Delphi.", "excerpt": "> Unigui has been around for over a decade Is it possible to take a VCL project, change some configuration, and turn it into a web server? Unigui is similar to Intraweb, isn't it? You need to recreate the project as a Unigui/Intraweb project. > No, fpc builds, optimizes, and runs exactly like Delphi It's not my experience. As an example: https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,4958 > for years, this part", "context": "longtime Delphi developer", "use_case": "desktop application development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi is 31 years old \u2013 innovation timeline"}, {"id": 753073808, "item_id": 47067113, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47067113", "by": "zac23or", "date": "2026-02-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Delphi was magical. Nothing compares to Delphi's productivity.", "excerpt": "I started using Delphi 3 and stopped at 7, migrating to web development (Rails, Django, etc.). Delphi was magical. Nothing compares to Delphi's productivity. Rails is good, but it doesn't even come close to Delphi's productivity. People love Go's speed. Go is glacially slow compared to Delphi. The WYSIWYG form editor is incredible. I can use Delphi 3 on a Windows machine with 16 MB of RAM. VCL is fantastic; the idea ", "context": "used Delphi 3 through 7, moved to web dev", "use_case": "application development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi is 31 years old \u2013 innovation timeline"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 788446592, "item_id": 49277912, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49277912", "by": "ketzu", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Whenever I looked into it, I ran into the insane conditions Embarcadero has for a license, so I never went back.", "excerpt": "Delphi was the first language I learned, and I really enjoyed it. It was so sad it got less and less accessible to me, so I moved to C++ (Which became my favorite language for a long time). Whenever I looked into it, I ran into the insane conditions Embarcadero has for a license, so I never went back. And realistically, I don't know enough Delphi/Pascal anymore to use it (or Lazarus).", "context": "former Delphi user, now C++", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available"}]}], "who": [{"by": "zac23or", "context": "longtime Delphi developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47072832", "date": "2026-02-19"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["pascal development", "programming ide", "desktop application development", "application development"], "compared": [{"slug": "lazarus", "name": "Lazarus", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 768758320, "item_id": 48047395, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48047395", "by": "vintagedave", "date": "2026-05-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used to be the PM for the Delphi IDE (RAD Studio, C++Builder) and we did a UX refresh.", "excerpt": "> It\u2019s not that hard to picture people spending 8+ hours a day going through these windows for years if not decades to come, and it\u2019s not hard to add and multiply all... This is key to being a product manager, as well as a UX designer. It is the single most important lesson to learn for anyone managing stable, longterm software. I used to be the PM for the Delphi IDE (RAD Studio, C++Builder) and we did a UX refresh. ", "context": "former product manager of the Delphi IDE", "use_case": "IDE", "switched_from": "", "story": "Photoshop's challenges with focus, pt. 2"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50144066", "title": "Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49270621", "title": "Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47003672", "title": "Delphi is 31 years old \u2013 innovation timeline", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49965894", "title": "Borland Turbo Basic", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48013750", "title": "Photoshop's challenges with focus, pt. 2", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802354737, "item_id": 50147171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50147171", "by": "andsoitis", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also think Delphi is awesome.", "excerpt": "Lazarus is great. I also think Delphi is awesome. Don't feel the same \"get worse with every release\" vibe that you do. But, if you do, you could also check out Oxygene: https://www.remobjects.com/elements/oxygene/", "context": "", "use_case": "Pascal development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages"}, {"id": 802349472, "item_id": 50146842, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50146842", "by": "andsoitis", "date": "2026-10-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Delphi (https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/features/delphi)", "excerpt": "Check out: - Delphi (https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/features/delphi) - Lazarus & Free Pascal (https://www.lazarus-ide.org) - Oxygene (https://www.remobjects.com/elements/oxygene/) And since you remarked about \"modern languages\", have a look at https://castle-engine.io/modern_pascal", "context": "", "use_case": "Pascal development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages"}, {"id": 799483281, "item_id": 49967705, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49967705", "by": "microtonal", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "This all culminated into Delphi, which had all that and offered drag-and-drop UI building.", "excerpt": "Imagine going back in time to late-80s/early-90s, and vividly describing all the tools we have now to folks back then -- coding agents, loops, autonomous multi-hour agentic workflows, automated testing, and PRs, and whatnot. Wonder what their reaction would be. I sometimes look at my pre-2024 workflows and feel like I'm looking at a caveman's toolchain. Absolutely bonkers as to how quickly we humans adapt to things. ", "context": "", "use_case": "programming IDE", "switched_from": "", "story": "Borland Turbo Basic"}, {"id": 788448672, "item_id": 49278042, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49278042", "by": "bdamm", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Delphi first and then tried Visual Basic", "excerpt": "It was never clear to me who showed up first, but I used Delphi first and then tried Visual Basic and was like \"Oh! It's here too!\"", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available"}, {"id": 788446592, "item_id": 49277912, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49277912", "by": "ketzu", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Whenever I looked into it, I ran into the insane conditions Embarcadero has for a license, so I never went back.", "excerpt": "Delphi was the first language I learned, and I really enjoyed it. It was so sad it got less and less accessible to me, so I moved to C++ (Which became my favorite language for a long time). Whenever I looked into it, I ran into the insane conditions Embarcadero has for a license, so I never went back. And realistically, I don't know enough Delphi/Pascal anymore to use it (or Lazarus).", "context": "former Delphi user, now C++", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available"}, {"id": 753165312, "item_id": 47072832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47072832", "by": "zac23or", "date": "2026-02-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Delphi. The best days of my life as a developer were spent using Delphi.", "excerpt": "> Unigui has been around for over a decade Is it possible to take a VCL project, change some configuration, and turn it into a web server? Unigui is similar to Intraweb, isn't it? You need to recreate the project as a Unigui/Intraweb project. > No, fpc builds, optimizes, and runs exactly like Delphi It's not my experience. As an example: https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,4958 > for years, this part", "context": "longtime Delphi developer", "use_case": "desktop application development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi is 31 years old \u2013 innovation timeline"}, {"id": 753073808, "item_id": 47067113, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47067113", "by": "zac23or", "date": "2026-02-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Delphi was magical. Nothing compares to Delphi's productivity.", "excerpt": "I started using Delphi 3 and stopped at 7, migrating to web development (Rails, Django, etc.). Delphi was magical. Nothing compares to Delphi's productivity. Rails is good, but it doesn't even come close to Delphi's productivity. People love Go's speed. Go is glacially slow compared to Delphi. The WYSIWYG form editor is incredible. I can use Delphi 3 on a Windows machine with 16 MB of RAM. VCL is fantastic; the idea ", "context": "used Delphi 3 through 7, moved to web dev", "use_case": "application development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Delphi is 31 years old \u2013 innovation timeline"}]}