Question about C++ Builder's popularity and future

[Awareness]

I like C++ Builder and think about buying it.But I am worried about it's popularity.It seems like it's not much popular and finding anything about C++ Builder on web is difficult(other than embarcadero's website and some youtube videos). For example,while searching for something about C++ Builder,if I type ,for example,"tcombobox delphi firemonkey" instead of "tcombobox C++ Builder firemonkey",a lot of pages come up,if I type the latter much less pages come up.I worry that if Embarcadero abandons C++ Builder or it's popularity decreases more.

Is C++ Builder's popularity increasing or reducing,what do you think about it?Embarcadero made it available for mobile platforms too and I hope it's popularity will increase.

[rlebeau]

I worry that if Embarcadero abandons C++ Builder or it's popularity decreases more.

Borland (the original author) killed C++Builder once before, after version 6. CodeGear (Borland's child company, later bought by Embarcadero) resurrected it in BDS 2006. I doubt it will ever be killed off again, at least not anytime in the near future.

As for its popularity - back in the early days, Borland C++ compilers were very popular. Towards the end of C++Builder's first life, there was some slippage in popularity. After it was killed, there was several years before its resurrection, allowing competition (VC++, gcc, etc) to have time to mature and surpass it. Today, Embarcadero is still playing catch up. That really hurt C++Builder's popularity. So did Delphi's continued maturity while C++Builder was dead. Many C++Builder users either jumped ship, or switched to Delphi, and never looked back. Many third-party vendors dropped support for C++Builder, and have hesitated to trust it again. Some have come back over the years, and some have not.

Personally, I stuck it out and stayed with C++Builder over the years (and my company did for awhile, before eventually jumping ship to C#).

Embarcadero made it available for mobile platforms too and I hope it's popularity will increase.

Hopefully, but that is more a factor of framework rather compiler, I think. FireMonkey is far from mature, it still has a lot of problems and still has a lot of growing up to do to prove itself.

[Awareness]

Thanks for your answer.

[DPINCGK]

I am a cross platform person so the idea of developing an application for both OSX and Windows is truly awesome. Originally I was hoping that FireMonkey would be the new cross platform VCL but I'm not sure - it may have slightly different design goals. I'm sticking with Embarcadero until something better comes along.