What is Delphi’s DNA?

I was chatting with someone today who was less familiar with Delphi. He asked what is it about Delphi that makes so many people continue to love it. I thought I would share my answer and see what everyone else thinks.

1. Developer productivity – When Delphi was first introduced it was going head to head with Visual Basic in getting things done fast, and most of the time Delphi was faster for getting things done, and the rest of the time it was still really fast. That continues today. I’ve done presentations for people and they are just blown away with how fast I can do things with Delphi.
2. Fast native apps – When it comes to app performance Delphi was way faster than VB, and is competitive with Visual C++ and any other compiler out there. This is because it is builds native apps that run fast.
3. Database access – One of the original goal of Delphi was first class database connectivity. That is something Delphi continues to deliver. BDE was ahead of its time, but FireDAC is a whole new breed. And the great thing is there are so many 3rd party data access libraries to choose from, to give you just the right set of features you need.
4. Platform API access – I remember the first time I needed to access some Windows messages and a Windows API that wasn’t exposed through the RTL. I kind of expected it to be a lot of work. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy and natural it was to add that to my program. I love that Delphi let’s you work at the nice high productive level, and then reach down to “touch the metal” and access the APIs.
5. Visual form designers – I’ll admit it, Delphi has spoiled me. I’ve checked out a number of other programming tools, and it is rare to find one that works as good. The ability to design your user interface and preview what it will look like so easily is so useful.
6. Reliable applications – I’ve heard stories about when they demonstrated Delphi’s ability to handle exceptions and people were falling out of their chairs. I don’t know what it is about Delphi, it might just be that the developers who use it are amazing, but I am frequently impressed with how reliable programs are that are developed with Delphi.
7. Good strong community – All the Tech Partners, MVPs, authors, trainers and developers make the Delphi community amazing. It is always great to see all the amazing projects everyone is working on. So many people willing to help and just be fantastic. It is a great community to be part of.

I made this graphic a while ago to explain why developing with Delphi was so awesome. I call it the three levels of development. The idea is each level builds on the one beneath it. The higher levels provide great productivity benefits.

The great thing about Delphi is it lets you easily move between these levels. You can do so much in code, even at design time, but it doesn’t keep you at that high level. When you need it you can move down to a lower level, even to the point of writing in-line assembly code on Win32.

Most other development tools are stuck at just one level, or with just bits and pieces of the other levels. Delphi gives you all 3 working together. This is really amazing, especially for a cross platform development tool.

What did I miss? What else is in Delphi’s DNA? What is the one thing that makes Delphi the tool of choice for you?

Update: A few more characteristics of Delphi’s DNA from the comments

8. Readability and Maintainability – This is really important since most programs spend way more time being maintained than in the initial writing. Code that is easier to read is easier to maintain. This is aided by the fact Delphi is easy to read and has a strong type system.
9. Backwards Compatibility – This is something Delphi really spoils us with. Even when there are breaking changes they are typically minor and easy to work around when compared to other development technologies.
10. Speed – Delphi has this in spades: Speed of development, speed of compilation, and speed of execution. Sure, you may be able to find some situations where something is faster in one area, but over all Delphi is very well rounded in the speed department.