Dear Delphi Customer,
We have some exciting news to share on the progress and direction of the next
Delphi release, code named Project Octane. Over the past year much has
progressed in the world of Delphi, Windows and Microsoft .NET. Delphi 7 Studio and
the .NET preview have been met with resounding success. Weve seen the
Windows platform begin to steer directly toward .NET. And most importantly,
weve continued to receive valuable feedback from Delphi developers at
events, seminars, and surveys around the world that make it clear we are at
the stage where Delphi developers are ready for a full commitment to .NET.
Since Delphi has always been about simplifying Windows development, and with
the Windows platform and APIs transitioning to .NET, it makes sense that
Borland would be committed more than ever to continue making Delphi the best
Windows development platform with support for .NET. Therefore, we have
increased our focus on .NET technology in Octane, - the next Delphi release -
to 100%. This is an adjustment to our previously published plan which had
included an update to our Win32 Delphi technology in the Octane release.
Our plans for Octane now include a complete Delphi language implementation
for .NET, a full .NET implementation of the VCL framework and designers, full
support for Windows Forms and ASP.NET Web Forms, Web Services, ADO.NET, ECO
Model Driven development and much more. We are also pleased to note that we
remain on track for a 2003 release of this supercharged, complete .NET Delphi
development system.
Borland certainly believes that there are still many more Win32 projects to
be developed with Delphi for years to come and do plan to support and update
the Win32 Delphi technology in the future. However .NET is clearly the
direction of the Windows platform and will be the most important focus for
Delphi developers in the near term. We are tremendously excited about the
.NET opportunities ahead and we look forward to realizing them with you, our
valued Delphi customers, partners, and friends.
Best regards,
Simon Thornhill
Vice President and General Manager
.NET Solutions
See also Octane and Delphi Q&A
