[UPHPU] Cole reports on the Delphi for PHP presentation

[cole at colejoplin.com]

Hi Everyone,

That would be everyone, as in no one from this group, except me,  
bothered to show up at the Borland demo for Delphi for PHP (and other  
new CodeGear-branded products) at the U of U campus. At first, I was a  
little disappointed. About 20 people, Delphi geeks, little web  
experience outside .Net stuff (yuck). But at the end, they had a  
drawing for a free copy of the product, and I won! So in retrospect,  
I'm glad everyone had other things to do, which increased my chances.  
Thank you. ;)

I know I'm set to do dynamic PHP to PDF in June. Would there be any  
interest in a product demo? I don't mind doing a separate presentation  
at another time. Feedback? I have a 10% discount coupon for anyone  
that expires April 25. Just offering if someone wants it.

Short version:
Delphi for PHP is a very polished PHP5/AJAX RAD/WYSIWYG tool. It's a  
very slick form generator and PHP/SQL builder. It creates absolute  
positioned elements inside forms by default (which I would immediately  
delete and use the external stylesheet compnent, which is easy  
enough). There are over 50 AJAX components a click away. It easily  
connects to every major DB you can imagine (including PostgresSQL).  
The breakpoint debugging and watches are very nice. If you're looking  
for a PHP framework, and you also want to learn AJAX, this is a  
super-quick way to go, a serious option.

Longer version:
I love the product, I love the IDE. It's similar to Dreamweaver, but  
the object properties and events are totally crazy (in a very good  
way). Ironically, I can see it's possible for a non-programmer to  
write almost no actual code with this thing. It generated PHP5 code,  
uses the now open source PHP VCL library, and fully integrates AJAX.  
It can write a vast majority of your code for you, so you can  
concentrate on the PHP details.

I wouldn't say that this tool is made for page design, but is similar  
in scope to AJAX. So, I don't see me giving up my Dreamweaver for  
layout. But the speed that it can build forms, build outrageous menus,  
and connect to databases, is really impressive. I should get my boxed  
copy in a week or so. They have a trial that lasts for 14 days now.

I've played with different php frameworks (I kinda like CakePHP) and  
AJAX. But I have to say that there's a new sheriff in town, guys. Will  
enough people want to fork out $299? I don't know. It only installs on  
Windows, so our Linux zealot bretheren will simply not go there.

I'll definitely kick the tires, but I have something else in the  
wings. The new Dreamweaver CS3 is supposed to also integrate AJAX,  
with more PHP capability. I wonder if they will do PHP5 instead of the  
current PHP4 code, or let us choose. Until I use both, side-by-side...  
I'm just really happy that my choices in life, as a php programmer,  
are getting much better right now.

-- Cole