title: Delphi versus C++ Builder - Which is Better Choice for a Java Programmer Doing Win32
body: <p>I'm a pretty experienced Java programmer that's been doing quite a bit of Win32 stuff in the last couple of years.  Mainly I've been using VB6, but I really need to move to something better.</p>
  
  <p>I've spent a month or so playing with Delphi 2009.  I like the VCL GUI stuff, Delphi seems more suited to Windows API calls than VB6, I really like the fact that it's much better at OO than VB6, and I like the unit-testing framework that comes with the IDE.</p>
  
  <p>But I really struggle with the fact that there's no widely-used garbage collector for Delphi - having to free every object manually or use interfaces for everything seems to have a pretty big impact on the way that you can do things effectively in an object oriented way.  Also I'm not particularly keen on the syntax, or the fact that you have to declare variables all at the top of a method.</p>
  
  <p>I can handle Delphi, but I'm wondering if C++ Builder 2009 might be a better choice for me.  I know very little about C++ Builder and C++, but then I know very little about Delphi either.  I know there's a lot to the C++ language, but I suspect it's only necessary to know a subset of it to get things done productively...  I have heard that the C++ of today is a lot more productive to program in than the C++ of 10 years ago.  </p>
  
  <p>I'll be doing new development only so I wouldn't need to master every aspect of the C++ language - if I can find an equivalent for each of Java's language features I'll be happy enough, and as I progress I could start looking at the more advanced stuff a bit more.  (Sorry if that sounds painfully naive - if so please set me straight!)</p>
  
  <p>So, for a Java programmer that's new to both Delphi and C++ Builder, which would you consider to be a better choice for productive development of Win32 exes and dlls, and why?  What do you see to be the pros and cons of each?</p>