Just to add another note to this thread - I have also started to look at Delphi. This is principally because I see it as a much better performing alternative to Visual Basic.

I write Perl code from inside the 'EditPad Pro' text editor - which is a paid application. Since a license has cost me money I am reluctant to use something else like 'Notepad Plus', especially as it is on the whole a DAMN good editor. However the native 'Tools' function of EPP - where you might invoke a compiler or interpreter on the current piece of text - is very rudimentary and lacking for interactivity. Accordingly when you are writing Perl scripts and going through the massively recursive, repetitive write->run->debug->write... cycle it can get extremely tedious to use. This is even more the case when you have command-line arguments you want to send on each iteration. Therefore, as part utility and also an exercise to give the modern VB a fair appraisal I decided to write a small 'launcher' app which would start a Perl script sent to it with an appropriate environment. Critically it would store things like working folder and command-line arguments between launches. I used VS2013 and to my very great surprize found myself quite liking the VB.NET environment and programming experience!!! .NET 'application settings' are especially liberating when compared to the drudgery of accessing registry keys through the API. However the resultant 'assembly' (not programme of course!) is plodding slow even on a relatively modern processor because it runs from the .NET framework. In a launcher applet which is started 'cold' each and every time - even if the framework does cache the pseudo-code in some way - this slowness is amplified. Therefore I ended up wanting something that was as comfortable to use as VB.NET but produced a NATIVE 32/64bit executable with execution speed as close to a proper C++ binary as possible. 'Delphi' seemed to be a good answer.

Currently I am experimenting with a trial of the 'Embarcadero' Delphi/C++ package, but I fear that would be horrifically expensive to buy for permanent use. I have heard about a freeware alternative called 'Lazarus', which seems to offer pretty much the same object-pascal experience but from an open platform. Do any of you chaps use 'Lazarus' or for that matter the full 'Embarcadero' product?