While we wait for a Delphi roadmap, a "roadmap preview" is available from the new RAD Studio product manager.
- Frequent and regular FireMonkey updates
- A Next Generation Delphi Compiler with multiple hardware/OS targets
- Next Generation RAD C++ Compiler with multiple hardware/OS targets
- 64bit RAD C++
- Delphi and C++ iOS support
- Expanded Mobile UI and Device support like Location, Camera, Accelerometers etc
- Delphi and C++ ARM Support
- Extended iOS Support
- Android Support
- Win8/Metro Support - Intel and ARM
See
May the road(map) rise with you for more.
I will be interested to see where things go with Win8 support. It seems that Metro would require pure FireMonkey development. That's a natural solution for light Apps, but I think Metro will stink for heavy hitting business applications. (no overlapping windows - tiles - heavy on touch)
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if there is a way that VCL will ever support direct WinRT. Supposedly Visual Studio will have native C++ compile to WinRT. There's a lot of existing code in the world that works much better in VCL and with traditional Windows handling.
I think we can say for sure that VCL will not span the WinRT Metro UI. We might be able to access WinRT non-visuals from a VCL App, but WinRT is the native Windows library reinvented - so in a way you can call it a new platform. Can the visual part of WinRT be wrapped in FireMonkey? Don't know. Lots of exploration and hard choices ahead for the Delphi team, me thinks.
ReplyDeleteI m think, VCL should never be compatible with WinRT directly - only via legacy desktop part of Windows API.
ReplyDeleteDelphi RTL should be compatible with WinRT via new platform - for ex Windows.WinRT.* namespace, like MacOS API)
Regarding UI layer - don't know, no ideas. Maybe its best to produce some XAML-based bindings to new Win UI components, maybe the can port FireMonkey to Metro-like style.
And one more note: no text about OpenCL support, but logo is on screen)