RAD programming language to write a windows application to display text, play audiofiles and show popup balloons

That is a broad question but I want to listen to your opinion.

Three options come to my mind, Delphi, C# and Java.

I have little experience with C#, but still my experience show that C# is not a RAD tool compared to Delphi. It's more like Swing/Java.

I see nothing on earth that can compare with Delphi, its simple and easy-to-use component model to build visual applications.

Java is very complicated when it comes to 开发者_开发技巧building visual applications.

Delphi, in its way, is too old and simply dead tool (my opinion). But with Delphi I can build such an application in minutes and it will be reliable, fast and comfy to work with.

Is there an alternative to building Delphi-like visual applications, fast, easy today?

The application must show a screen with html info, play a sound and react to user who can click on buttons displayed on the screen (navigate).

Delphi is certainly not dead, not by a mile. While there were 2 releases around 2005 initially considered to be buggy (service packs greatly improved the situation), that has all changed since Borland sold their developer tools division to Embarcadero.

Over the past 4 years, there have been 4 releases of the product, and each have been well received stable releases (Delphi 2007, 2009, 2010, and the latest: Delphi XE).

New features have recently been added in the past few years, including:

• native generics
• anonymous methods (aka closures)
• full UNICODE support
• support for touch/gesture features (for tablets, kiosks, and touchpads)
• build process built on MSBuild
• RTTI enhanced with attributes (language feature that allows annotating types and type members with special objects that carry additional information)
• Excellent database support (as always) and updates for SQL Server 2008, MySQL, Firebird, Interbase, etc.

The next version (scheduled for release next year) will have a 32 and 64-bit compiler, and will support creating native executables for OS X, and will have a preview of native compilation for Linux. Check the roadmap for more details on this.

There also is a very active Delphi community here on SO, and around the web. Check out DelphiFeeds.com for a nice aggregation of Delphi news/blogs.

Delphi is not dead at all, but is actually looking better than ever now that it is under new management (Embarcadero) that actually seems to have the interest of developers as part of their business strategy!

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Oh, and to answer your question, Delphi can do all of these things. Here are some links to get you started:

• How to play a .wav file in Delphi
• How to show Vista style balloon hints in Delphi?
• Here's an alternative to balloon messages as well.

When you want to quickly create WIN32/Desktop applications with nice GUI's then Delphi is the best option. If you're doing web development, C# is a better alternative. If you want to be platform-independant, Java would be your best choice. If you're building device drivers, C++ is the best option.
Every programming language has a specific field where it excels when compared to other languages. Question is, in which field do you want to develop code?

As far as I know there is nothing compared to Delphi for Win32 RAD development. It's a shame that Delphi have lost it's credibility by changing names like what, 4 times in the last 10 years (Borland to Inprise then back to Borland then CodeGear and finally Embarcadero).

Delphi is definitively not dead but it's user base is not as strong as the Delphi 7 days. It's still a really nice and powerful product.

Delphi is not dead yet, it's being kind of updated (compiler especially). It has features in Win32 on par with what NET framework languages support - generics, anonymous methods, attributes. C# too can be used for designing simple apps fast, dunno why you find it complicated.

I'd go with Delphi, but I just like the language.

Do not use java for this kind of application, playing audio files will give nothing but problems.

Visual Studio is not exactly a raid tool, but there is a rich GUI builder and lots of built-in components, so you can create a GUI relatively fast. Connecting logic should not be a problem too.

If you are thinking Delphi, but only know C++, think Builder C++. Same RAD tool as Delphi but with a C++ compiler.