Good News from Camp Borland

Will Borland recommit to a VCL-based C++Builder?

It's hard to believe that this question has been asked on a daily basis since probably the end of 2002 -- almost two years. Consider that this is when the last VCL-based version of C++Builder was truly being marketed by Borland and written about by others as evidenced by the two books that were released at that time. Since then, however, we've seen Borland move towards a new look C++ IDE, which honestly just hasn't caught on although it is enticing for those with a cross-platform support requirement, and we've seen Microsoft peddling an IDE and new language (i.e., C#) that has tempted virtually every BCB user that I've met -- including myself.

But in the final analysis, BCB has been missed -- greatly! The VCL, the RAD, the language -- it was all the right blend -- or close to it. Now, the long awaited question has finally been answered. We learn today that the "the next version of C++Builder will be part of the Delphi IDE family"

The brief, but encouraging letter that answers this question can be found at http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,32845,00.html.

My sense is that the community's early reaction to this letter of recommitment is...

"YES!"

This good news is learned one day before their own deadline, which, if that date had passed, would have likely done more damage to Borland than any other questionable decision that they have made in the past -- and they have certainly made a handful (remember Inprise, the frequent open letters that they've failed to deliver, dropping Kylix, the often questionable/suspect marketing, and more).

But I guess it is always easy to remember the disapointments. However, the truth remains that, despite the disapointments, Borland has been the one company that Developer's have always seemed to cheer for. It's a lot like the hometown team. You get mad at 'em when they loose and make poor decision during the execution of the game, but you always hope that they can turn it around and win big.

Well at this state the game isn't won yet, but what this letter does is set up Borland for a chance to WIN. Management finally seems to side with the fans and with the players on the team. This is good news!

In fact, I'm willing to guess that there are those inside Borland -- the players on the team -- who are just as happy about the news as those of us that are on the ouside depending upon BCB for our projects.

The new question that is to be answered, and honestly it's great to be able to ask this, is when will we see this next version?

While that question is being pondered by Borland, I hope in the meantime that Borland will release a TurboDemo of the very early development version, which we saw at BorCon 2004 in San Jose that already integrates into the Borland Delphi IDE. Showing an early cut of the IDE will provide tangilbe proof of the commitment described in the letter

And in the near future, I hope we see a beta release available to the community of BCB developers. For those who contributed and/or signed the community letter that we wrote to Borland, I hope that we can participate as one of the first beta candidates.

The key though is that we need to continue to hear (and see) more from the Borland camp regarding C++Builder! But, there's no doubt, this is the first big step!

Go Borland!