Embarcadero will offer next month an upgrade to its Delphi Prism platform, enabling Object Pascal-based development in Microsoft’s newly shipping Visual Studio 2010 IDE.
Delphi Prism 2011 is built on top of the Visual Studio shell and can be used either with Visual Studio 2010 or independently. The Visual Studio shell features the Visual Studio IDE framework as well as editors and editors.
“[Delphi Prism 2011] is actually our .Net solution for the Delphi and .Net world,” said Mike Rozlog, Embarcadero product manager for Delphi, which was once a Borland technology. Embarcadero acquired the former Borland development tools unit CodeGear in 2008.
Object Pascal is “considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn,” in the .Net space, Rozlog said.
“Object Pascal in the .Net environment can take advantage of everything .Net has to offer,” Rozlog said. Developers can build .Net. ASP.Net and data-driven applications.
When coupled with Visual Studio 2010, Delphi developers can take advantage of everything in Microsoft’s software development platform, including capabilities for Silverlight 4; .Net Framework 4, and Windows Presentation Foundation, according to Embarcadero. Parallel processing enhancements in .Net Framework 4 are supported.
Developers also can build for Windows 7 and the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform.
Also featured are a redesigned IDE with improved usability and enhanced code editing.
Besides .Net 4 support and Visual Studio 2010 integration, the 2011 version of Delphi Prism features enhancements for aspect-oriented programming as well as language enhancements. An obfuscator is featured to make it more difficult to reverse-engineer code, Rozlog said. Developers also can take C# code and have it automatically converted to Prism code.
Delphi Prism 2011 offers improved connectivity to InterBase and Blackfish SQL databases. Developers also can build clients in .Net for the Delphi DataSnap application server.
Also featured with Delphi Prism 2011 is Novell’s MonoDevelop IDE for building a Mono-based application development via Delphi. Mono is a runtime that allows developers to use .Net-based skills to build applications for platforms including Linux and Mac OS.
Embarcadero did not have information available Tuesday about the price of Delphi Prism 2011. The company plans to offer a new version of Delphi, for Win32 development, probably in the second half of this year.
