BDS London conference...

[savage]

I just got back from the BDS London conference and thought I would share the highlights...

* NewDevCo are not looking to be bought, but are looking for venture capitalists to invest in the new company. So it is essentially a spinoff from Borland not a selloff and they don't want to be bought by another company. They want to become their own company that is developer focused.

* Talks with investors start next week and it is expected that the new company will be operational in the Summer.

* Dev Tools that will move to NewDevCo are...
Delphi, C++, C#, JBuilder and "Peleton", Interbase, JDataStore, Developer Network. Everything else ALM related will stay with Borland.

* They claimed that there are currently 12M developers worldwide and that by 2009 there will be 17M and that they will be able to get a share of that market.

Road Map
-----------
2007 - Highlander
Will contain VCL for .NET 2.0, VCL for Compact Framework, 64 Bit .NET ( which is free really ) and initiall Vist support

2007->2008 - Delphi for Vista
Will contain...
VCL for Windows Presentation Foundation ( Avalon )
VCL for Windows Communication Foundation ( Indigo )

2008 - Win64 Native code compiler and VCL for Win64

They also demonstrated some very cool features in Delphi 2006 via code templates and also using model driven coding, as well as creating a codeless Web driven DB application using ECO III.

As I mentioned earlier I was more concerned with what was happening with the NewDevCo and also the technology roadmap. So now it's just a waiting game to see what will happen in the summer time.

[Eric]

Any word on getting an entry-level Delphi version out?
A Delphi Express, Personal, Standard, etc.?

[WILL]

Too early to be asking about Linux and MacOSX I guess huh? :)

Well this is interesting news indeed. And it makes a little more sense from all the past things that have been going on. We sort of already got the idea that the IDE developers would be 'moving' to this new company... but we actually know how they're going about it now.

So does this mean that David I. is going to helm the new company? Maybe I missed some news out there... I've been a tad distracted from the Borland on-goings of late. :P

[savage]

I forgot to ask about an entry level version of Delphi while I was there, but last night I fired off and email to David I to ask him about it. So if he answers I will let you know.

Dean "technomage" asked about Linux/MacOS X on Intel and David I said that they are looking at to see if it is viable, but that was all he could say. He joked about releasing a Ruby compiler.

[JernejL]

2008 - Win64 Native code compiler and VCL for Win64

Too late, TOO LATE AGAIN!!!

[WILL]

It's obvious that there is a nice huge gap available for everyone else to jump onto Pascal for Win64 well ahead of the Delphi team.

Also, considering that RemObjects has jumpped onto the Object Pascal & .NET bandwagon, I don't really see anything here that will give Delphi that much of an edge at all, under a new company or not.

Don't get me wrong, I like Delphi, but the team is not doing anything to make enough of an impact in the market I think. These are the sort of lazy timelines that Borland has been feeding us and making us all unhappy with them for it. Maybe there is productivity here that I'm just not seeing, but that just seems like more of the same from what I've seen.