Give me Delphi. No, seriously, give me Delphi, but for the web and in a modern popular programming language. Python would be great, but I will not turn my nose away from TypeScript or Go or Lua.
For those who don’t know, Delphi was (is?) a visual constructor for Windows apps that you outfitted with a dialect of Pascal. It was effing magic!
Nowadays the web ecosystem is so fast-paced and so fragmented, the choice is paralyzing, confidence is low. The amount of scaffolding I have to do is insane. There are tools, yes, cookie cutters, npx’s, CRAs, copilots and Cursors that will confidently spew tons of code but quickly leave you alone with this mess.
I haven’t found a solution yet.
Does the recently updated (and aptly named) Lazarus not suit?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43913414
A quick search yielded:
https://wiki.freepascal.org/Developing_Web_Apps_with_Pascal
and
https://www.reddit.com/r/pascal/comments/es8wlh/free_pascal_...
I've been playing around with the Godot game engine as a sort of modern successor to Delphi / Lazarus. I'm currently messing around with trying to create some database server management software using it.
GDScript is pretty similar in feel to Python, and you can also use C# if you want to. It has some level of GUI controls in the framework (not sure how many yet, but all of the GUI controls used to build the editor are available for use).
I want to believe the 3d capabilities might be useful for some kind of UI stuff, but I don't really have a real idea how to make that work - just a "wouldn't it be neat if..." question about it right now.
I am currently using a stack which consists of:
- Makerkit Next.js/Supabase Starter Kit
- Python backend processing
- BMAD framework for building specification
- Claude Code with Max subscription
- Cursor for in IDE adjustments
I have managed to make some pretty incredible tools, it definitely feels like magic.
I would say I split my time 70% using BMAD as an assistant to build out my scope and clarify what I am trying to do in my own head, then 30% supervising Claude Code.
I have also managed to build out more simple tools using Streamlit to great effect
Your best bet might be using blazor with a rad development tool, though I haven't tried it. blazor notably has devexpress components, which is what makes delphi tolerable.