Embarcadero August 2018 Product Roadmap Part 1

Embarcadero has had a very exciting year so far with the likes of the 10.2.3 Tokyo Release 3 of RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder, as well as the launch of the full featured (and free!) Community Edition for Delphi and C++Builder for those just starting in the development community.  

And there are even more exciting things to come with the upcoming release of 10.3. Also known as Carnival, the release comes with Language and Platform enhancements in addition to continued IDE modernisation. See the roadmap here for more info. 

The Embarcadero product management team have shared more details on some of the key areas. In this first post (part 1) we will take a look at FireMonkey, platform support, the debugger, VCL and Windows: 

FireMonkey Z-Order and Native Controls 

Over the years there have been several requests for Z-Order and native control support on Android, which Embarcadero is working on supporting in 10.3. Developers will be able to use FireMonkey styled controls like buttons, checkboxes and labels with natively rendered controls. Much like the browser and map control on the same form without the native control covering the styled control. Embarcadero plan to expand their support for more native Android controls in future releases.  

Z-Order support for Android will enable developers to mix both styled controls and controls rendered by the underlying OS on the same form without any overlap issues. 

Embarcadero is also working on upgrading their Android API level support in RAD Studio to support level 26, in line with the Google Play Store requirement.  

New Platform Support 

Android 64-bit support will be mandatory from Summer 2019, which Embarcadero is working on delivering by that time.  

Embarcadero has pushed back the macOS 64-bit back from the original 10.3 release to one of the sub releases to focus on other key quality and stability features.  

VCL and Windows 

Embarcadero is continuing to have a significant focus on VCL, a framework for Windows client applications. The focus will specifically be around the store applications and the ability to check the application status within the store, giving organisations the ability to check if the customer has paid for the app, if it is a trial and to aid the management of in-app purchases and subscriptions. 

Embarcadero will be expanding their Win32 API coverage and improving their support for High-DPI and 4K monitors on Windows. In a similar way to FireMonkey, they’re going to bring in a new image list control that can manage images at multiple resolutions, to avoid relying on image scaling – picking the best image for the current screen resolution. There are also plans to resolve a number of the issues that the current multi-monitor support has and are working on the new “Per-Monitor V2” mode that Windows 10 provides. 

Debugger 

A faster and more powerful debugger will be coming, one that can understand and interpret more Delphi statements, through working on their Delphi front-end (language understanding) integration before making use of LLDB on more platforms.      

We will continue to look at the other product and feature updates in part 2. This includes RAD Server, C++ and Delphi. 

Grey Matter is proud to be an Embarcadero Master Reseller for UK and Ireland. If you have any licensing requests or enquiries, please call us on +44 (0) 1364 655123 or email [email protected].  

Please note: These plans and roadmap represent Embarcadero’s intentions as of this date, but  development plans and priorities are subject to change. Accordingly, Embarcadero can’t offer any commitments or other forms of assurance that Embarcadero will ultimately release any or all of the described products on the schedule or in the order described, or at all. These general indications of development schedules or “product roadmaps” should not be interpreted or construed as any form of a commitment, and Embarcadero’s customers’ rights to upgrades, updates, enhancements and other maintenance releases will be set forth only in the applicable software license agreement. 

Sources: 

RAD Studio August 2018 Roadmap, Marco Cantu, 7 August 2018: https://community.embarcadero.com/article/news/16638-rad-studio-august-2018-roadmap  

August 2018 Roadmap Commentary from Product Management, Sarina DuPont, 7 August 2018: https://community.embarcadero.com/blogs/entry/august-2018-roadmap-commentary-from-product-management