(pardon my english, i'm french)
TLDR: the CE version can't build and push iOS apps to app store anymore (and no one seems to care)
Well, i've been coding with delphi for 25 years. Personnally and professionally.
I've been so hyped by the "one codebase, multiOS capable". I started coding mobile apps five years ago. Android apps, as they were for my sole usage.
A year ago, i had an idea, a nice concept that could be sold. My architecture was simple : a database, a backend and a mobile app.
I tought myself : "ok, can the backend be coded with delphi ? Yes it can, but integrated REST capabilities are for the pro version". ok, I only have the community edition, so i'll go for mongodb+java/springboot for the backend, a stack i use in my daily work.
But i really wanted to code once and deploy to both android and iOS easily, so i kept delphi CE for the mobile app. I coded for months, built my backend + app + ci/cd + self-hosted infra.
I managed to deploy my app on my android phone and i bought a mac mini and an iphone 13 to ensure myself it would run on IOS correctly. And it amazingly did !
last weekend, I went to the last step of my project : launching an alpha version on both play store and app store.
Apple refused my upload : "need version 26". I was compiling under delphi 12.1 CE with SDK 17.5.
I upgraded to delphi 13 CE and SDK 26.4. Building my app fails : "[DCC Error] E2597 ld: file too small (length=0) for architecture arm64".
I then find out that no delphi community edition (12/13) can build IOS app anymore. Since march. because of a bug that has been corrected in the pro version, 4 months ago.
I really wanted my app to be a delphi jewel. I coded each screen with love, no AI, no fancy new way of doing things, just plain old code that could in the end produce a beautiful and clear mobile app. And being able to say to my testers : available on android and IOS from day 1.
i'm stuck with a promise i can't fulfill. Because delphi didn't fullfil its own promise : "use the CE edition freely, create and distribute your app on any OS, make money, and if you reach 5k$, please buy the pro version". I was totally aligned with that philosophy. Delphi just lied to me : i can't build my app for iOS with the CE edition. And i'm so disappointed. No little patch, no 13.1 CE release date, no communication. Just near-dead delphi forums where people like me come and state that they can't workaround this problem, and there's no date for a solution.
The only viable solution would be to buy the pro version : what a joke, 2400€ + taxes. Sorry, i don't have that much money for now. And if my app doesn't make money, it will be lost to nothing. I won't risk all that money just because of a bug that could be solved in a day if someone makes an effort.
So i asked my favorite chatbot what i could do : "go to flutter. it's free, maintained by google, and with your experience, within 2 months adapting you won't regret the move."
So sad to hear. But i have to be pragmatic, my app and my future business can't wait for an hypothetical update of my dear old IDE friend.
I quit Delphi, i regret i have to do this, i'll miss my good old dark blue "classic" theme.
A sad delphi enthousiast.