DELPHI vs J2EE

J2EE is, of course, Java. Java enjoys the benefit of being ubiquitous: you can always find developers for Java. There's also the simple fact that Java is a powerful, pervasive buzzword in the IT industry these days. In fact, Java is probably the most popularly advertised-for programming language in help wanted ads right now.

Java is also renowned for "portability". In Java's case, what this means is that you can compile Java bytecode and it will run on any machine that has a Java Virtual Machine running. Of course, such bytecode interpreters are essentially just glorified program interpreters like those used for languages like Perl and Python, but that's an argument for another day (especially when you get into the compilation and bytecode options available for Perl).

Java is loved by many, and loathed by many. Delphi is pretty universally scoffed at, though this is more in keeping with the way someone that wears Calvin Kleins will scoff at a pair of Wrangler jeans rather than any actual useful judgment of the design environment's characteristics.

Something to realize about Delphi is that it's just an IDE. The IDE is, of course, for the Object Pascal language, which in many ways is one of the best-designed languages ever created. In others, of course, it lacks some characteristics that many people consider critical.

Probably the most important downside to Object Pascal code is that it's very difficult to find programmers to support the code in the future.

Delphi produces executables (binaries, for the Unixy among us). These executables tend to be rather less bulky, and faster-running, than Java bytecode. In fact, Delphi-compiled binaries often run faster than binaries compiled from C++ source. As far as I'm aware, though, there's no Object Pascal Virtual Machine in existence for running bytecode, so "portability" for Delphi-designed applications will have to be measured by how easy it is to create binaries for different platforms.

The newer Delphi versions can be had with the ability to compile for Unix/Linux. In that sense, at least, Delphi-compiled binaries are extremely portable.

So. That's what I've got, off the top of my head.

It is difficult to answer your query (specialy item 2) without having more information about your application.
Could you could provide more details ?

In the meantime here are a couple of remarks:

1) Be carefull about arguments mentionning portability as a factor to switch to J2EE. It is nice to be portable but for an existing application the cost is high. For a new application if there is any chance of switching to a new platform then by all means use Java (forget Microsoft .Net).

2) Be sceptical of any arguments mentioning J2EE being too slow. With the right mix of technology and proper design J2EE will work perfectly when appropriate.

3) If you do make the switch get some expert training and/or counseling.

Good luck!
JS

a delphi application, then there are no technical advantages in porting it as it is.

In the UK
Delphi with it's pascal basis is definitey less popular than it used to be. C based languages have grabbed the bulk of the market. There are developers out there, but the youngest I know of is 28 and I taught him myself.

We can go down the Delphi vs C religious debate, or the even dumber Delphi vs VB one.
From the purist code point of view ObjectPascal done properly creams the opposition, but quick and easy has pushed not as easy and robust out of the development market. So if you are looking at this from a resource point of view you are probably right.

The only other reason I can think of doing it is portability of code, but if you are talking hitting alot of platforms, your code will be very dependant on the quality of the JVM in place and the vendor's interpretation of what java is. So poratbility may cost you a lot.

From a technical point of view, I'd be having a serious think about this for any major/complex piece of code, even if you were going from J2EE to my beloved Delphi.

Any programming language makes certain things easier and others harder, a powerful optimized design will make use of the enablers and design round the constraints.

Pascal and C style languages 'the way things should be done' start off different and diverge rapidly. So it may not be a question of whether you should, but whether you can, without a substantial re-design anyway.

1. They are doing this on an experimental basis, to weigh the pros and cons of Java over Delphi.
OR
Need to make the application portable; for
example: a global corporate intranet application.
OR
Cost factors? J2EE programmers are a dime a dozen
these days versus the rare-to-find Delphi team of
developers.

2. As previous posters have stated : it depends on
a variety of factors.

This is just my opinion though.

if it is for portability issues, you may want to port to delphi.
if it is a complete rewrite to do so, then talk to sun about including the vm for the target os with the app.

then you have the app functioning, with the best interpreter possible.

The moment that Microsoft released the .Net CLI to ECMA, the Mono project was born. The Linux community has worked quite hard, and had a lot of help from Microsoft itself, to create Mono 1.0, which is the .Net Framework release for the Linux environment. Use that and the #Development IDE for a very powerful .Net development environment on the Linux platform.

If you dont want X platform portability then why change ? Delphi is simply the best developer envireonment that has ever been produced for Windows. Java performance is poor. Java gui really is bad.
Why would you want to take 10 times as long to develope something that runs at a 10th of the speed ?

On the other hand... If it was web development the maybe Java is a good consideration ... that is until ASP.net came along.

The port you should really be looking at is a port from Delphi to Delphi for .net using Delphi2005.

Tony

If you dont want X platform portability then why change ? Delphi is simply the best developer envireonment that has ever been produced for Windows. Java performance is poor. Java gui really is bad.
Why would you want to take 10 times as long to develope something that runs at a 10th of the speed ?

On the other hand... If it was web development the maybe Java is a good consideration ... that is until ASP.net came along.

The port you should really be looking at is a port from Delphi to Delphi for .net using Delphi2005.

Tony

there was a discussion not to long ago about why borland went the .net way, instead of making a delphi to jvm compiler...

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/borland.public.delphi.non-technical/browse_frm/thread/ab50b6418788338d/82dfe1a033a9a914?q=group:borland.public.delphi.*+insubject:java#82dfe1a033a9a914

tinyurl...
http://tinyurl.com/5t7wz

as for why one would convert to delphi from java,
you could always post on newsgroups.borland.com to get a delphi-biased viewpoint...

news://newsgroups.borland.com/borland.public.delphi.non-technical

a kylix limitation, that's a compiler limitation.
which even includes windows versions of delphi, as kylix and delphi both use borlands compiler.

give them a bit of time and they will address the 64 bit issue.

Hi rajanikanth,

you didn't specify what architecture are you using on Delphi application. Is Client/Server, Web, SOA ?

Assuming that it is client/server, it will be a hard work because J2EE has a Web architecture: before the language stuff, there will be the architecture problems that have to be surpassed.

Advantages of J2EE over Delphi: portability, deployability and more resources (human and documentation)

Disadvantages: the HTML/Web architecture itself; hard to learn (if you are a Delphi programmer); difficult server configuration.

In my opinion: try a n-tier solution incrementally. Write some web services that will be used by your current Delphi app and later by your J2EE app.

Good Luck,
Josir Gomes

Hi there,
Some background , am Delphi + Java Developer
1. reason is because Delphi's strenght is mostly in Desktop application. To develop client server application, Delphi uses socket conenctions, and for Web Application Delphi 5 used to run on ISAPI DLL for web application through IIS.

The real question is in the scalability and the availability of these ISAPI DLL. They consume loads of memory and you can run out of windows handlers if your server is receiving too much hit. Eg. ebay's website can sometimes be too busy. It is running on ISAPI.

J2EE was built and designed for Distributed Client Server Application in mind. It is able to scale , and provide the kind of availability no other technlogy is able to match up. They can even talk to legacy systems and provide a very beautiful architecture in terms of program maintainability and expandibility (object oriented)

2. I think I have answered this briefly