Delphi suddenly interesting again

Windows, Mac, and iOS! native development. [Link]

Today I was fortunate to be present in Auckland at the World Premier of the launch event for RAD Studio XE2.  There is so much good to report that I really don’t know where to begin, so apologies if this post is a bit of a disorganised ramble.  But here goes.

Executive Summary

• FireMonkey – a scalable vector graphics based GUI framework exploiting GPU capabilities for hardware accelerated cross platform GUI’s.
• Cross-Platform support – Target Win32 and Win64 with single-source VCL applications or Win32, Win64 and MORE using FireMonkey.
• iOS support for native code FireMonkey apps !! – Yes folks – use Delphi to build iPhone and iPad apps that even Steve Jobs will be happy to have in his Store!
• LiveBindings – a way to create ‘live” relationships not just between objects but between individual properties of objects.
• Native Android apps – using PhoneGap in RadPHP
• Native Android apps – to come in the future for Delphi (as well as Linux)
• DataSnap client proxy generation – for Android, .NET, Objective-C, Blackberry, iOS etc etc
• Starter Edition will be available right from the start along with Pro, Enterprise and Architect.
• ALL platforms supported by the cross-platform capabilities will be in ALL editions, including Starter!

That’s a lot to cover, even in one whole day.  FireMonkey alone is such a huge advance for Delphi that I could spend this entire post talking about it (even as I sit here wearing the FireMonkey T-Shirt that I got for attending the event).

Yes folks – FireMonkey is big enough to warrant a t-shirt of it’s own!  Get used to hearing that name because I think we are going to hear a LOT more about FireMonkey not just from Embarcadero but from the industry in general.  It is a potentially game-changing technology imho.

If this all works as designed, it makes Delphi suddenly a much more interesting platform. I've moved onto .NET because that's where the jobs and development were, but I loved working in Delphi. Maybe I'll get to do so again at some point.