Thursday 19 September 2013

Where has all the colour gone?

Once upon a time there was colour and interest a-plenty in development tool splash screens. Well, this was certainly the case with Delphi and C++Builder anyway.

And then corporate America took over and things dulled down with an unmistakable business-like tone.

Take a look through the progression of splash screen I have here and see if nostalgia strikes.

1997: Delphi 3

Delphi 3

1998: C++Builder 3

BCB3Splash

1998: Delphi 4

Delphi4Splash

1999: C++Builder 4

BCB4Splash

1999: Delphi 5

Delphi5Splash

2000: C++Builder 5

BCB5Splash

2000: JBuilder 4

JBuilder4

2001: Delphi 6

Delphi6Splash

2002: Delphi 7

Delphi7Splash

2004: Delphi 2005

Delphi2005

2005: Delphi 2006

Delphi2006

2007: Delphi 2007

Delphi2007

2007: C++Builder 2007

CBuilder2007

2008: Delphi 2009

Delphi2009

2008: C++Builder 2009

BCB2009

2009: Delphi 2010

Delphi2010

2010: Delphi XE

DelphiXE

2011: Delphi/RAD Studio XE2

DelphiXE2

2012: Delphi/RAD Studio XE3

DelphiXE3

2013 – Delphi XE4

DelphiXE4

2013 – Delphi XE5

DelphiXE5

18 comments:

  1. Yes, these are dark days for Delphi...

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  2. I suppose the graphics do not integrate well with the loading status messages that show up.

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  3. gosh, good they are gone, some of those were awful.

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  4. Ah!

    Delphi 3 & Delphi 5 = Good memories :-)

    Well... Delphi 7 too, for that matter...

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  5. http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/images/20792/tp3front.jpg

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  6. Delphi 5 was my favourite. I wish they'd bring back something like that to the product. Delphi as a whole now is too bland - back then it had vibrance.

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  7. Delphi 4 splash screen was awsome! The product didn't follow, but... this is a detail.
    Bring back those wonderful splash screens!!!!

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  8. This is a bit of a selective statement if you don't display the full range of splash screens up until XE5.

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    Replies
    1. Well, maybe so. I know all the XEn screens are pretty black, and my recollection of the others was not too pretty. But maybe my memory is poor. I'll add in a request for the missing ones.

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    2. I can't locate 1 & 2, which I'll grant you were quite grey. But other than that, the recent versions have lost their splash pizzazz. The panache has passed to the past and plain is 'pparently preferred.

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  9. It's just fashion changes... I don't care about splash screen. I care what happens when they close...

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  10. In this article http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/32778 is the D2005 splash

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  11. Funny post. Mind this also applies to A LOT of other products as well. Just compare Windows Bootup Screens and you'll get similar results ;-)

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  12. D5 was the best, way ahead for its time.

    Clean to install, no foreign runtimes and just worked.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, you say that. My rose-tinted memory was exactly like that. I've been using Delphi 5 with an aged project for the last couple of months and I'm stunned at how often it dies, chews up all the CPU and generally misbehaves.
      I'm going back to 7 as the prime number of choice. 3 was awesome & evolutionarily revolutionary but lacked too many more recently added features to be the outright winner.

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  13. As Delphi is more and more a business only product I think this is adequate.

    Nevertheless I am more concerned with the product itself than with the splash screen...

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