Enter the Oxygene Programming Language

WILL

Published on 23-10-2011 10:31 PM

17 Comments

It seems that RemObjects Software has now declared Oxygene as it's own programming language. While those of you may debate what constitutes a programming language versus a dialect used by a separate language-based product, you can read more about Oxygene 5 on the RemObject website at www.remobjects.com.

The Oxygene compiler started as an "Object Pascal compiler for .NET" called Chrome which at the time more accurately supported the then growing .NET platform than Delphi for .NET did at the time. It was available as a standalone command line .NET compiler or was also offered as a suite that used the Visual Studio IDE Shell to make a more complete development environment.

The next generation of Chrome would have the current name Oxygene at which time Embarcadero exclusively licensed the next version of the .NET compiler for it's new Delphi Prism product which would act as a solution to their failed Delphi for .NET solution.

Oxygene is not on it's 5th major version of the compiler and with it RemObjects seems to be wanting to establish it's own branch of the Object Pascal programming language with it. This may have merit as there has been a lot of new language constructs that have gone into this spin-off of the language that better handle managed code on such platforms as .NET/Mono and Java.

Read up on the Oxygene for Java aka Cooper project currently in beta right here OR learn more about the new Prism XE 2 available from Embarcadero here.

Categories:
Developer Tools

Tags: .net, compiler, cooper, delphi prism, java, mono, object pascal, oxygene, oxygene for java, pascal, prism, programming, remobjects, xe2

17 Comments

JSoftware - 23-10-2011, 11:38 PM
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Hmm maybe I should give Oxygene another look

The link in the article is broken, btw

WILL - 24-10-2011, 01:40 AM
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This new "language" does have some merit and it is a solution for many of the other newer mobile platforms. (WP7, Android and possibly BlackBerry) Should you be a fan on managed/interprited code then it's a perfect solution for those who like the Object Pascal language.

There is even a physics engine for Java called JMonkeyEngine that was made for Oxygene for Java (Cooper). Here is the link to a video demo by Jim McKeeth here.

Actually here is the embeded version from YouTube!

WILL - 24-10-2011, 01:55 AM
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Here are a couple more videos about developing for Android and Windows Phone 7 with Oxygene...

Enjoy!

paul_nicholls - 24-10-2011, 02:13 AM
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Thanks for the videos WILL, I will have a play very soon!

code_glitch - 24-10-2011, 05:40 PM
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Now, reading the thread was a YAAAAY moment... But visual studio. Are there any Linux alternatives the PGD community could recommend? I know a lot of KDE stuff was written with oxygene and its one of those things I've been eyeing and thinking one day... Maybe one day...

WILL - 24-10-2011, 11:25 PM
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I think you might be in the same boat as the Embacadero camp with regards to development vs. target platforms. You might be stuck with Windows for development regardless of your intended target platforms.

You could inquire with them to see if there is a Linux solution on the horizon, otherwise Linux monkeys will have to settle with just Free Pascal and Lazarus.

code_glitch - 25-10-2011, 10:34 AM
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What a shame. I have to admit that although I was not a user at the time, I felt the world had become a little less the day embarcadero bought out remobjects... Although its of not much relevance my searching for Oxygene on linux brought up Monodevelop for some reason (its in all the repos so a 'sudo apt-get install monodevelop' has you covered) and as far as Visual Studio clones go, this is probably one of the best - I mean a whole different arena from eclipse or netbeans...

dwarfland - 27-10-2011, 02:26 PM
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Originally Posted by code_glitch

What a shame.

Oxygene for Java will also support MonoDevelop (on Mac and Linux) early 2012, and probably Eclipse, later the same year.

Originally Posted by code_glitch

I have to admit that although I was not a user at the time, I felt the world had become a little less the day embarcadero bought out remobjects..

FTR, Embarcadero has not bought and doesn't own RemObjects Software, they merely license Oxygene for .NET from us.

dwarfland - 27-10-2011, 02:28 PM
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ps: i must add that registering and posting to this forum has bene one of the most frustrating experiences i have had for a while...

JimMcKeeth - 28-10-2011, 06:06 AM
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Originally Posted by code_glitch

I felt the world had become a little less the day embarcadero bought out remobjects.

Embarcadero has just licensed our Oxygene for .NET compiler for Embarcadero Prism. RemObjects is still very much a separate company with other products. Oxygene for Java just being one of them.

Originally Posted by code_glitch

...my searching for Oxygene on linux brought up Monodevelop

We previously had Oxygene for .NET available on the Mac and Windows under the open source MonoDevelop. Unfortunately they made a major change to that IDE around the same time we were rewriting our compiler, so we don't have MonoDevelop support in the current release.

In the future we would very much like to have Oxygene for .NET and Oxygene for Java available on multiple platforms. Since Visual Studio is tied to Windows, then that means it will be in a different IDE. Likely candidates are MonoDevelop and Eclipse. Likely platforms are Mac and Linux. But I make no promises nor suggest anything like that may happen. ;)

code_glitch - 28-10-2011, 09:13 PM
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Please no eclipse, just please..... Just not anything java based/related. NOOOOO!!

Aside from that, as long as its pascal and on linux (preferably natively, wine can be a pain sometimes) I'm happy

WILL - 28-10-2011, 10:08 PM
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Originally Posted by dwarfland

ps: i must add that registering and posting to this forum has bene one of the most frustrating experiences i have had for a while...

Hi Marc. Sorry about that. We start every new account out as moderated to keep the spam bots at bay. (There are a ton attacking all the time.) So unfortunately there is a delay with new posts in that time as it requires a human to manually approve each post. I've set you as a regular member now so you can make new posts without delay.

We are working on a means to help streamline things a bit more while keeping the forums as spam free as they are now. Any suggestions as to how we can tweak our vBulletin site software to make things easier and less confusing for new members is always welcome.

WILL - 28-10-2011, 10:10 PM
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Originally Posted by code_glitch

Just not anything java based/related. NOOOOO!!

I think that might be a problem Ben, their whole business model for their compiler(s) is based on managed and interpreted code platforms like .NET and Java.

...mind you I would be interested in seeing what RemObjects would be able to do with Oxygene if they wanted to target a native platform.

Murmandamus - 03-11-2011, 06:03 PM
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I think a good question would be if RemObjects would be receptive to someone coming up with a native compiler and IDE for the Oxygene language. Like maybe porting it to the FP/Laz platform.

Murmandamus - 03-11-2011, 06:08 PM
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On that note, is there a formal language definition (EBNF or otherwise) for the grammar and a basic platform interface (RTL)?

JimMcKeeth - 10-11-2011, 04:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Murmandamus

On that note, is there a formal language definition (EBNF or otherwise) for the grammar and a basic platform interface (RTL)?

Yes, we have an EBNF language definition:

http://wiki.oxygenelanguage.com/en/EBNF

WILL - 21-03-2012, 07:03 PM
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Wow, 43910 hits since October last year. Talk about star-power.

I guess it's official with all the new additions that RemObjects is adding to this new language branch. Oxygene is just as much a new language as Object Pascal is to Pascal at any rate. And so it has also been added to the list of official languages allowed into the PGD Challenge game dev mini competitions.