Survey of Delphi Versions in use??

[Ian Branch 127]

Hi @Daniel,

Is it possible in this forum to set up a survey of some sort to asses what version(s) of Delphi Forum participants are still using these days?

Obviously respondents would need to be able to tick multiple versions.

I think it be interesting to see what is still in use 'out there' and rough percentages.

Just a thought.

Regards,

Ian

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

When you create a new topic you see the Content tab, but there is a second tab named Poll. That should give you all the tools you need.

[SwiftExpat 65]

Ian,

On the multiple versions, it might help to collect daily usage vs occasional.

One situation would be  I use  delphi 11  95% of the day on active projects.

Another is I occasionally support old apps on 10.4, 10.3, 10.2

 

I would almost suggest to force them to specify 1 daily version.

 

 

[Ian Branch 127]

Tke Uwe, SwiftExpat.

Which would be the most appropriate area to put it under??

[Daniel 417]

There is no specific area for polls like this.

"Offtopic" might be an option.

[dummzeuch 1505]

The forum software only allows for a certain number of options in a survey, so you will have to use some tricks if you really want to cover all possible Delphi versions.

Edited April 28, 2022 by dummzeuch

[Fr0sT.Brutal 900]

What's the sense in such surveys gathered from 20-30 guys?

[Sherlock 663]

56 minutes ago, Fr0sT.Brutal said:

What's the sense in such surveys gathered from 20-30 guys?

Well, we are the most important...

[Lars Fosdal 1791]

It may make sense to use an external survey service and post a link to it on prominent Delphi sites.
That will enable better version coverage in the survey.

[Roger Cigol 103]

something like this 

https://doodle.com/poll/d9hd42sisyemqbyu

 

[PaPaNi 23]

3 hours ago, Roger Cigol said:

something like this 

https://doodle.com/poll/d9hd42sisyemqbyu

 

It would be a good platform for this if there was an automatic ability to remove duplicates.  You can accidentally enter yourself more than 1 time.

 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by PaPaNi

[Roger Cigol 103]

But I also remind everyone about the valid points raised in this discussion a while back....

 

 

 

[dummzeuch 1505]

4 hours ago, PaPaNi said:

It would be a good platform for this if there was an automatic ability to remove duplicates.  You can accidentally enter yourself more than 1 time.

 

 

Good point, I had forgotten that I already my data. I have deleted the duplicate now.

[David Heffernan 2345]

When polling you need a methodology. If you poll the entire population, it's easy. But if you poll just a sample, then you need to choose the sample carefully so that it is representative, and you need to follow up non respondents. There is a lot of science in polling to get meaningful data. 

 

A self selecting poll on a site like this will not tell you very much if anything about the overall population. 

 

But perhaps you just want to know what active members of this site use. And even if that's what you want, it will be hard to impossible to get accurate data

Edited April 29, 2022 by David Heffernan

[Bill Meyer 337]

6 hours ago, David Heffernan said:

But perhaps you just want to know what active members of this site use. And even if that's what you want, it will be hard to impossible to get accurate data

Active members with an understanding of the relative value of polling data may simply disdain such polls, and not take the time. I can't recall a time when I participated in such a poll.

[SwiftExpat 65]

With some hesitation, as this creates its own set of challenges, I will open this for discussion. ( I doubt I am the first to suggest / think this )

Since we are developers here, we could write an expert that logs the data. Putting aside the privacy concern, though it is valid and will have to be addressed,

What data would need to be collected? What analysis would be usefull after collecting the data?

 

 

[Mike Torrettinni 198]

On 4/27/2022 at 5:46 PM, Ian Branch said:

Obviously respondents would need to be able to tick multiple versions.

If you decide to go ahead with the survey, try to give us more options, for example I use D2006 every few years for a few weeks. So, when I use it, I use it 75%-100% of the time, the rest is split between D10.2 and now D11. D11 is the only one that I compile for 64bit, and Linux.

 

Perhaps you can frame the purpose of the survey, like if you are you planning to develop something and sell to Delphi developers, in that case I would select D11 as the only version I would be interested in any new component/tool to use with.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Mike Torrettinni

[David Heffernan 2345]

3 hours ago, SwiftExpat said:

What analysis would be useful after collecting the data?

This question is the one that drives statisticians around the world completely mad. You need to decide on your goals before deciding what data to collect.

[Fr0sT.Brutal 900]

On 4/30/2022 at 1:58 AM, David Heffernan said:

This question is the one that drives statisticians around the world completely mad. You need to decide on your goals before deciding what data to collect.

They usually solve it like:

1) Collect as much as possible

2) Extract pieces that are needed for analysis

3) Sell other to 3rd parties

4) Double profit!

[David Heffernan 2345]

40 minutes ago, Fr0sT.Brutal said:

They usually solve it like:

1) Collect as much as possible

2) Extract pieces that are needed for analysis

3) Sell other to 3rd parties

4) Double profit!

No they don't. I'm talking about actual statisticians as in a branch of mathematics.