Embarcadero Technologies announced a suite of major new releases to help developers rapidly build, migrate and maintain single-codebase native applications for Windows 8 and Mac OS X Mountain Lion. Embarcadero’s new developer tools, Delphi XE3, C++Builder XE3, and RAD Studio XE3, aim to help enterprises support the rapidly growing heterogeneous client environment.
According to Embarcadero, with buyers increasingly choosing Win/Mac applications over Windows only products, Embarcadero’s new tools also create an opportunity for ISVs to sell to new users in a growing market as well as being more competitive in the Windows packaged software space. Delphi XE3 and C++Builder XE3, both included in RAD Studio XE3, enable developers to build native PC and Slate/Surface Pro tablet applications with the Windows 8 UI style widely known as “Metro” as well as Retina-ready native OS X Mountain Lion applications for Apple’s Mac hardware line.
“Today’s mixed Windows and Mac environment poses unparalleled opportunities for ISVs and enterprises,” says Michael Swindell, senior vice president of marketing and product management at Embarcadero. “Time pressure and R&D costs are the real barriers to reaping the Win/Mac benefits. Delphi XE3 and C++Builder XE3 enable development teams to code a project once, and deliver true native user experiences across multiple Mac and Windows OS versions and form factors.”
According to Embarcadero, the new “Metropolis UI” toolset RAD Studio XE3 enables developers to easily build new applications or migrate existing applications to the Windows 8 UI style with integrated support for touch, Live Tiles and tablet device sensors. The tools enable easy migration of legacy Windows apps and applications with the new Windows 8 UI style that can be deployed across Windows versions from XP to Windows 8, including x86 based Surface Pro and Slate tablets.
The new FireMonkey FM2, included in Delphi and C++Builder, enables development teams to visually design and develop user interfaces with powerful 3D graphics and animation, then compile and deploy to multiple versions of Windows and Mac OS X. The new FM2 UI engine delivers a choice of “pixel perfect” native OS UIs or fully custom UIs developed by graphic designers or third parties and enables designers to quickly create Mac App Store ready applications with built-in Retina support.
In addition, new Visual LiveBindings in RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder XE3, enable developers to visually connect user interfaces and graphic elements to any data source by simply drawing connections between data and the UI. Visual Live Bindings makes it easy to design data-driven UI rich applications with dynamic content, eliminating the complex coding of data bindings and connections. Delphi and C++Builder are available with high performance embedded, client/server, n-tier and cloud connectivity to major RDBMSs including Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, InterBase, Sybase, MySQL and more, as well as web, REST, and cloud services.
Delphi enables developers to rapidly develop prototypes to high performance native applications for Windows and Mac OS X, delivering rich user experiences with powerful data connectivity. Delphi is a developer “force multiplier,” increasing developer and team productivity by up to five times.
C++Builder is a rapid C/C++ development solution that enables Delphi-like productivity, with standards based C/C++ coding for both Windows and Mac OS X. Time consuming and repetitive code such as UI and data access are encapsulated into visual components, so developers can focus on coding the business value in standards based C/C++ leveraging existing ANSI/ISO C/C++ source code and libraries.
RAD Studio is an integrated development solution for Windows, Mac OS X, mobile, and Web. RAD Studio includes Delphi, C++Builder, InterBase and new HTML5 Builder - which enables visual development of web and end-to-end mobile apps (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone) from a common HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript codebase.
RAD Studio XE3, Delphi XE3, and C++Builder XE3 are now available for purchase at http://store.embarcadero.com, directly from Embarcadero, and from partners. Product downloads are available at http://www.embarcadero.com/downloads.