I've used Delphi since the year it was released and have used nothing
else for serious production work since that time (though I've studied
any number of alternatives). I totally agree it is the best Win32
development tool around. And, I greatly prefer Pascal to C and its
children or any version of Basic. But, the handwriting is on the
wall. If Borland had announced the "DevCo" idea after they actually
had a plan (better yet, a buyer) in place, it would be one thing. But,
they didn't did they? And, Lazarus is a great idea if you're into
hobby programming, but it has a very long way to go if it is to compete
in the real world. Finally, the people using my products tell me they
want NET and they want it soon, whether they have good reasons or not.
So, with great regret, I am in the process of making the move to VS.NET
and C#. The experience is not painless - NET has many good points, but
there are some really bad ideas mixed in. In any case, I have never
been a Microsoft fan. I bitch about it constantly, but I am forcing
myself to stick with it because it's quickly becoming the only
alternative. This isn't the first time I had to abandon excellent
tools becuase the vendor (but not the tools) failed me. It is never
much fun, but sometimes there just isn't any choice.