{"id":9118,"date":"2015-03-20T11:14:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T10:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/?p=9118"},"modified":"2015-03-20T11:14:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T10:14:19","slug":"delphi-and-rad-studio-2015-roadmap-no-universal-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/9118-delphi-and-rad-studio-2015-roadmap-no-universal-apps.html","title":{"rendered":"Delphi and RAD Studio 2015 roadmap: no Universal Apps?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embarcadero has posted a roadmap<\/a> for RAD Studio 2015, its suite of tools for building apps for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.<\/p>\n

Note that the company says the (sketchy) plans outlined are \u201cnot a promise, or a contract\u201d.<\/p>\n

I will be interested to see if the company intends to support the Windows 10 Universal App Platform (UAP), which Microsoft is pushing as the future of Windows client app development. UAP apps run on the Windows Runtime, a sandboxed environment introduced in Windows 8. In Windows 10, UAP apps are integrated with the Windows desktop, and run on Windows Phone and Xbox as well as on PCs and tablets.<\/p>\n

When Window 8 came out, Embarcadero came up with a project type called \u201cMetropolis\u201d, which simulated the Windows 8 Metro environment but with a Win32 executable. It was neither one thing nor the other, and mostly ignored as far as I can tell. That said, lack of support for Windows 8 Store apps proved to be no big deal, because of the low take-up for the platform in general. At this stage, nobody knows whether the UAP may be similarly unsuccessful, though it seems to me that it has a better chance thanks to its broader scope and changes that have been made.<\/p>\n

The roadmap promises \u201cIntegration with new Windows 10 platform technologies\u201d but does not promise support for the Windows Runtime or UAP, so my assumption for the moment is that Embarcadero is steering clear for the time being. There may also be technical challenges.<\/p>\n

Not much new is promised for the venerable VCL (Windows-only apps), and only a little more for the cross-platform FireMonkey: new mobile components including Maps, a WebBrowser component for desktop apps, and more iOS platform (real native) controls.<\/p>\n

A new iOS 64-bit compiler is promised, as well as moving the Win32 compiler to an LLVM-based toolchain, as is already the case for 64-bit Windows.<\/p>\n

There is an Internet of Things slide which promises \u201cmobile proximity integration\u201d and components for connecting to different devices. Exactly what is new compared to the IoT support described here<\/a> for XE7 is not clear to me. <\/p>\n

Under consideration, Embarcadero says, is Linux server-side support for its middle-tier technologies like DataSnap, support for Intel Android, and a 64-bit toolchain for Mac OS X.<\/p>\n

Since it is on SlideShare, I can embed the whole thing here:<\/p>\n