By far the single most significant Delphi release since 1995, and even more significant than that, RAD Studio XE2 has finally been announced by Embarcadero Technologies, along with dates and locations for the XE2 World Tour.
RAD Studio XE2 brings with it (amongst other things) Delphi for Windows 64bit, MacOSX, as well as a new GPU-accelerated GUI suite called FireMonkey to produce both stunning HD and innovative 3D applications, transcending the Platform Barrier.
FireMonkey
Embarcadero describe FireMonkey as “the GPU-powered next-generation application platform“.
GPU-accelerated GUIs open up a wealth of new opportunity for our applications, enabling us to create transitions, effects, and overlays which not only make our applications more appealing to consumers, but can apply emphasis to key areas of our forms, enabling consumers to make use of our applications more efficiently.
From the information Embarcadero has released, it becomes apparent that the same GPU-accelerated FireMonkey applications can be deployed for both Windows (32 and 64 bit) and MacOSX, enabling us all to unify the look and feel of our applications no matter which platform the consumer is running.
Windows 64bit
Going 64bit enables large-scale enterprise applications (or, in the case of my background hobby, video games) to leverage significantly more RAM, as well as exploit performance gains on operations (for example, Floating Point calculation). This doesn’t mean that we should no longer care about optimization, but that we can make our applications do more, and in less time.
Something else worth considering is the ability to produce native 64bit extensions to Windows itself, or for other applications previously untenable for Delphi (such as 64bit Office).
MacOSX
There’s no more denying that Mac has become a large piece of the consumer pie for consumer applications, and Delphi XE2 now enables us to reach this market using the same RAD-oriented suite we know and love.
As previously mentioned, we’re going to be able to release the same applications for both Windows and OSX, with a unified look and feel, or (should it be appropriate to do so), with a unique look and feel to reflect the platform.
RAD Cloud
RAD Cloud enables us to extend our multi-tier DataSnap applications with new mobile and “high-availability” connectivity. Admittedly, I don’t know too much about RAD Cloud at this stage, so I cannot really say more than has been said.
LiveBindings
LiveBindings allows us to link any visual element (I’m presuming this will also work with non-visual elements) to data of any type, which should be good for use with such things as Lists and Trees.
VCL Styles
Embarcadero says “Modernize the look and feel of your Windows applications with VCL Styles“, so it stands to reason that VCL Styles are in essence Themes, enabling us to dispense with the stagnant look and feel of the Windows VCL.
RadPHP
Continuing the growth of the RadPHP product line, you can produce mobile-optimized web applications and standalone apps for iOS and Android devices using RadPHP XE2.
I am left to hope only that Embarcadero finally address RadPHP’s single most annoying issue: the forced generation of style= markup for every object. Presuming this is no longer the case, RadPHP XE2 will become a staple part of my development toolkit for current and future projects… a perfect compliment to the native development targets of Delphi XE2.
To learn more…
If you want to learn more about the future and RAD Studio XE2, you should make plans to join Embarcadero on the RAD Studio XE2 World Tour. I intend to participate at both the London and Manchester events, and am hoping to be given the opportunity to give a presentation on Future-proofing (though I have yet to discuss this with Embarcadero, so I can’t say with any certainty). Whether I end up presenting or not, I hope to see you at these events!
XE2 and LaKraven Studios
My upcoming Lua4Delphi suite will provide full support for all the offerings of Delphi XE2 including:
- FireMonkey wrappers, and direct integration compatibility
- Windows 64bit Compatibility (along with the existing Windows 32bit)
- MacOSX Compatibility
- Wrappers for DataSnap and LiveBindings
- Wrappers for VCL Styles
- All up-to-date for the latest component offerings of Delphi XE2, no matter the platform.
TKinect will remain Windows-only, with the objective being to target both Win32 and Win64.
Social Delphi OSN Platform and Suite will support all target platforms, and is being designed so that you can implement it identically no matter what platform(s) you target. If you don’t already know, the Social Delphi OSN Platform and Suite is a complete set of Social Networking components I’ve been working on, covering all your favourite Online Social Networks (OSNs) such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Google+.
August 2, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Looks good, but I’ll happily exchange all that great things for an IDE as fast as D7 was…
August 2, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Sadly I can’t comment on that… except to agree that the Galileo-based IDEs have never been as fast as the classic Delphi 7.
That said, the trade-off is worth it! Delphi 7 was ground-breaking in terms of stability, and the satisfaction it bred in its users (myself included), but beyond that, it was no different to Delphi 2-6.
I think the “big push” at Embarcadero is for us all to get the features we need, then to be followed by the IDE performance and stability we desire.
August 2, 2011 at 6:33 pm
What specifically is slow in the Galileo IDE ?
August 2, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Pretty-much everything, really…. it takes a long time to load, for a start…
That said, it makes a lot of sense, given that it’s carrying far more features than the IDEs of old (circa Delphi 1-7)
Things have improved a lot since Delphi 2006, certainly!
August 2, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Simon, I must say that with Andreas’ excellent work, I don’t see much of a difference anymore in term of speed in Delphi XE compared to D7.
And I wouldn’t give away the new features for a slight speed improvement, but YMMW…
Oh, and the last time I had to use D7, it was bombing on me multiple times per day; so much for its supposed better stability/quality.
August 2, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Don’t get me wrong… I completely agree with you! I wouldn’t trade the newer features for performance at all…. and yes, Andreas’ work has drastically improved things since the first Galileo IDE.
I was just pointing out that, compared to D7, I can see how people would consider XE’s IDE to be slower.
In terms of D7′s stability, well… it’s not like it’s been updated since the days of XP. Hardly a surprise it doesn’t remain steady on Vista/7/8.
August 2, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Also, what does YMMW mean?
August 2, 2011 at 7:10 pm
What the LUA icon in the page banner has to do with XE2? Can you elaborate please.
August 2, 2011 at 7:16 pm
That’s my blog banner (not just for that one page)… and it represents my Lua4Delphi project.
August 6, 2011 at 3:55 pm
i don’t understand the complaining about speed. i use D2009 and only once a day i start Delphi. (even less i often use standby in windows on my laptop) after start i think the IDE is much much better than i ever had when i used D3-D7. So i’m almost certain to upgrade to XE2
August 6, 2011 at 4:20 pm
I never said it was “slow”…. I said it’s “slower than D7″, and that it makes perfect sense that it would be given that it has FAR more features (well worth it).
August 9, 2011 at 7:24 am
I think Mac OS X support is reduced to 32 bit version, because FireMonkey uses the Carbon API, which is 32 bit only. See http://developer.apple.com/carbon
It’s worth saying that making a 64 bit version will need to call only direct POSIX / Open GL APIs, just like iOS, or use an Objective-Pascal syntax. Some additional work…
I’m still waiting for the Linux version. FireMonkey ancestor (aka DXScene) was already Linux ready (using GTK/Pango/Cairo/OpenGL), and they already have an ELF linker in-house (the one from Kylix, which was very good). I understand that Mac OS X had a higher priority in the list, since it’s a more common platform for desktop computing. But for server applications, Linux is a most have. In XE3, may be?
August 9, 2011 at 7:27 am
FireMonkey isn’t based on the Carbon API…. it’s “all native” and, on OSX anyway, it uses raw OpenGL (as I understand it). It’s more likely the OSX 32bit-only restriction is simply because they haven’t completed the OSX 64bit compiler yet!
I absolutely agree with you about the need for Linux! It’s a far higher priority for me personally than OSX or iOS will ever be!
October 19, 2011 at 9:59 am
I wad super-excited when i first got the news of RAD Studio XE2′s arrival, but after checking some post about some develoeprs tried XE2, I was like being tossed off the sky.
The perofrmance and memory leak in iOS, that is a issue all complain about. Embarcadero did it great, but always release something “unfinished” which is really upsetting.
I really hope they can elaborate on one version which like the Lengend Delphi7, make it rock solid and let it impact the world.
I love Delphi at day 1 i meet Delphi, today delphi is getting forgot by the world day by day, XE2 release make Delphi like a Spring coming, but I really hope this is true.
Maybe targeting multi-platform is Embarcadero’s start, they just started the job, if that, I hope they make efforts to make current XE2 rock solid, when XE3 comes out, I hope it can live up to it’s name.
Tim
November 4, 2011 at 7:36 am
After having looked at the source code, FireMonkey is not based on the Carbon API, whereas DXScene was. It use either the fpc’s ObjectivePascal mode or iPhone, either their own wrapper around the ObjectiveC libraries (e.g. Quartz).
November 22, 2011 at 9:19 am
We bought license of Delphi XE2 last month (october 2011) and we are starting transfer our old application (D2009) in new tool, but we have problem on start – in zip component we have not found password option, fast report with minimalistic options, but I think that is good new tool no matter what (64-bit and Mac options) ?!