The Freep writes:

[Quoting Scott:]

But if it only has to run in Windows, use Delphi.

We've been using it for the past 4 - 6 months or so and the best we can say about it is "umm....it's got a better UI builder than Visual C++";

So what, exactly, is wrong with the rest of it?

it's only other saving grace for us is a good COM based Python interface.

Oh, I see! So -- the problem is, that *it isn't Python*!

Well, why the heck would anyone *think* it was?!? Or (which is more likely the problem here), why the heck are you trying to use it as if it were? If you want to use Python, why use Delphi at all?

Also, aren't you the guy who uses to heap loads of (well-deserved, per se) scorn on C++ programmers who moan that Smalltalk doesn't work exactly like C++, telling them that they gotta get into the Smalltalk way of thinking? I hope you're not truly so blind you can't see the parallel...

Delphi looks like it was a really good tool for circa 1996[.]

Yeah, actually, it was; it was, then (as now), the very *best* tool around for general Windows programming. And how, exactly -- given that it hasn't stood still, but evolved and acquired loads of new capabilities, since then -- how does that make it any worse now?!?

Like, would it have been better now, if it had been a really *bad* tool "for circa 1996"? (ObCheapShot: If that's the way it works, then maybe there's hope for your beloved Smalltalk some time in the future...)