Shortly after I started working on Enigma using Free Pascal, a free version of Delphi came available. Embarcadero introduced a community edition of Delphi. You can use this edition if your yearly profit does not exceed $ 5000. For the Engima project that is an easy condition as there will be no profit whatsoever. The community edition is a welcome addition to the paid version that will cost you several thousands of dollars.
It is a nice opportunity but I decided to stick to Free Pascal. Why? I do not believe the official Delphi version has essential advantages compared to Free Pascal. The only advantage I can see is Firemonkey, visual components for Android, that are currently not available in Free Pascal. But as I will focus on a Windows version, for now, this is not an important advantage. Free Pascal, however, does have advantages compared to Delphi, mainly its support for Linux. And more importantly: you can rest assured that Free Pascal will be available for some time and will remain free. There is no guarantee that Embarcadero will continue the community edition forever. I still remember the end days of Borland, when a free version of Delphi was discontinued.
So I will place my bets on Fee Pascal and Lazarus.
Month: September 2018
Facebook group for Enigma
Today I started a Facebook group about Enigma. You can subscribe at https://www.facebook.com/groups/246475509388734/
I will mention all new items on this blog at this Facebook group.