Herb's Interview

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Here on our web site we are interested in programmers views about the programming field. So we are conducting interviews with people who program for a living or as a hobby.
Herbert Kern (Herb) talks about programming in an interview. He is a down-to-earth type of guy and has a interesting sense of humor :-). Herb is also a member of our Delphi e-group.

Q: What was the first computer you ever used?

A: Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16K

---- Q: Why did you first have an interest with computers?

A: Well... to scare the girls at school, actually. And..err.. I wanted to write a game but I didn't know which :)

---- Q: Why did you decide to learn computer programming?

A: I couldn't afford buying software :)

---- Q: What is the computer hardware you use at home? Make/Model/HD Size etc.

A: Noname, AMD K6 200, HD: 2 gig, Ram: 128 MB, monitor: 17"

---- Q: What programming languages have you used in the past?

A: Assembler (68000, 80x86), Pascal, C, C++, Object-Pascal and Visual Basic (if
you consider this a 'programming language')

---- Q: Do you use Delphi at home and at work?

A: No, Delphi is great but at home I don't code.

---- Q: Why do you use Delphi?

A: Why Delphi? My nose started bleeding all the time I used VB. Furthermore Borland invested a decent amount of time and money for the development of the VCL. Delphi makes the hard things easier, that's it.

---- Q: How do you compare Visual Basic to Delphi? Advantages/Disadvantages etc

A: Delphi Disadvantages: Reoccurring problems with Update packs; lack of DBGrid
for hierarchical data sets; Quickreport; Delphi Advantages: object-orientation, loads of components, best support for MTS, it's the fastest, easiest, most extensible, most open
development environment available for Windows.

VB Advantages: MS Hierarchical Flexgrid, Datadesigner in VB6 for hierarchical cursors.
VB Disadvantages: just about everything else. e.g. There's no alignment property in visual controls, splitters and automatic alignment have to be hand coded, many errors cannot be detected by the 'compiler' (properties, types), it's not really object oriented (well... it supports aggregation), MTS support *sucks*, VB6 supports only Single Threaded Apartment...

---- Q: What do you think of MS Jet?

A: I used it on a project once. It's not thread-safe so I didn't continue
using it.

---- Q: Do you use Access and/or Paradox? If so, what do you think of them?

A: I used Access and I used Paradox as backend format of databases.
Multiple simultaneous users where a pain with both of them. I'm
now into C/S and multitiers using ADO 2.0.

---- Q: Do you have a wish list for the next versions of Delphi, if so what?

A: Operator overloading, (Enterprise-) Javabeans as components, Delphi for
Linux, native Support for ADO or OLEDB (without BDE :) ), static variables;

---- Q: Do you have a wish list for the next release of Visual Basic?

A: No. I do not expect using VB again. We dropped VB due to Delphi.

---- Q: What do you dislike about Delphi the most?

A: BDE Updates, missing files in Updatepacks, the lack of static variables, the lack of operator-overloading :)).

---- Q: How can people contact you?

A: They can send me an email. mailto:[email protected]

---- Q: What books and magazines do you recommend for a new Delphi programmer?

A: This is a list of my favorite resources for information on Delphi.
Resources for newbies are marked with an asterisk.

Books:
* Delphi 4 Unleashed
* Delphi 4 Developers Guide
Algorithms (Szedgewick)
Design Patterns

Magazines:
* Delphi Magazine (UK)
Windows Developers Journal
Visual Developers Journal
Dr. Dobbs Journal
Microsoft Systems Journal

Web:
* Delphi-Box at Inner-smile
* Dr Bob: http://www.drbob42.com
* CodeCentral at www.Borland.com (in the near future :) )
* Charlie Calvert's Techvoyage at www.Borland.com

---- Q: Many rumors are going around about Delphi or Inprise/Borland not surviving the
next few years, what do you think about these comments?

A: Even if Borland/Inprise will not survive, Delphi will. Either by making Delphi Open Source or by selling the Delphi-Source code. Borland/Inprise will survive even easier if they consider giving LINUX a try. Borland is the only company that can keep up with Microsoft when it comes to Development Tools. On the other side I think Inprise/Borland will survive.

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