Well folks, the Good News is that it appears BDS 2006 will be released to manufacturing before Thanksgiving!

The Not So Bad News is that, desipite the readiness of the IDE and its personalities such as Delphi and C#, the C++Builder personality is not quite ready for final production and needs to bake a little longer! But, just so that the C++ community isn't short changed, a preview release of C++Builder will none-the-less be offered with BDS coupled with a promised update of the bonafide version by likely the end of December.

For more on the story please read this post by David I. What you will find is a very transparent and honest letter to the C++ community regarding the state of C++Builder in this release, and that they are committed to producing a quality product!!!

Essentially I find this all good news. That is to say, I think this is the Right Strategy for Borland to take! And the Right Committment to Customers. Think about it! We still get C++Builder in the coming release (called a preview), which we can use now AND we "know" an update and improved version is coming!!!! How great is that? So, while the Delphi guys get the product they're ready for, the C++ guys also get something to play with. It's like getting a chance to peak and play with the gifts you're getting for Christmas -- but still getting the joy of opening the gift on Christmas day! And the newness we get all to ourselves (won't the Delphi guys be jealous since it may no longer seem new to them?)

Based on David I's letter - I think this is one of those times we can truly thank Borland for both their honesty to their customers and, just as important, their reinstated dedication to C++! Mhhh - "their ... dedication to C++" -- how nice it is to say that again!

This is the day I presented my topic titled "3150 - Developer's Perspective on Design Patterns". All I can say for now is that I had a GREAT audience. Thanks guys for making it fun!!!! For those interested in an encore presentation, I have my session captured on Camtasia and have made it available for viewing!

Marco followed my session (in a much bigger room) with another Design Patterns discussion focused specifically for Delphi Developers. I hope, for those that attend both, that my session was a good seguay into his and you left San Francision to be more active in "pattern-driven develoment!"

Marco later presented the "Fun Side of Delphi and C++Builder", and while I missed this one, I've witnessed them in the past. And just as in the past, I heard this was equally great!

While the conference may have lacked the "creativity" of past BorCons, as you've read in my blog speaker sessions were generally very good. Food was excellent. And the news and demos of BDS 2006 (now featuring C++Builder!) certainly deserves top billing!

I was also quite pleased with the number of C++ developers I bumped into! And glad to see some C++ topics (unlike the few we saw last year). I hope everyone who went had a great time! For those that didn't, there should be some good Camtasia videos (including C++ ones) that I hope Borland will make available in the future.

Also, thanks for all the kind words for those of you at the conference thanking me for my effort on the "C++Builder open community letter". From my perspective - it was all of us -I was just a messenger -- it's good too see C++Builder coming back!!!

The 2nd day of DevCon was largely focused on technical sessions. The two most noteworthy sessions in my mind were both from Keith Chuvala. His first session he talked about the ins and outs of the VCL - it was titled "3130 - To VCL or Not to VCL? Pathways for C++ Developers". He had an excellent delivery and did an excellent job engaging the audience. His later session he highlighed the C++ development effort for the WorldMap software app, which run on a shuttle-equiped notebook. This session was titled "2150 - CASE STUDY: Sending C++Builder Apps int Orbit - WorldMap 5.0" Great job Keith!

There were some other great sessions as well that I sat in that were non-C++ oriented. These included Vishy Kasar's session titled "2122 - Build your Own Eclipse Plug-Ins Efficiently", and Randy Miller's session titled "4110 - Designing Software Systems Through Modeling".

For the General Session, Boz Elloy had some banter with Marco Cantu and a skit focused on Software Delivery Optimization (SDO) which featured the new product called Tempo, which was acquired via the Legado acquistion. I think from a developer's stand point this General Session may have not been too interesting, but from a management perspective it was intriguing technology. BTW - at last year's BorCon in 2004 (San Jose) I had a chance to chat with Boz regarding the future of C++Builder after the infamous "C++Builder Beat The Team" event - so I thought he'd remember me this year - especially since I had something to do with the Open Community Letter, but when I bumped into him this year he acted as if he had no idea who I was - even after I mentioned my name. Let's just say, the good Lord finds ways to keep me humble (almost on a daily basis) - and this was certainly one of them.

The day ended with burger-fare, ice cream, and arcade games. Tram Chase, a colleague of mine, was amazing on the foosball tables. He and Marco Cantu, who was also pretty decent, teamed up to win big time on a few games. On the third game we switched up and Marco and I were able to be the Tram-inator and his teammate (and my other colleauge) Jerry O (but it was close!). I think next year they need to have a bonafide tournament! My bets are on Tram!

Well, the first "official" day of Borland's DevCon (San Franciso) started with a surprise!

During the morning keynote - conference attendees were introduced to Borland's newly appointed CEO - Tod Nielson who's previous stints have been at Microsoft, BAE, Oracle. Personally I wasn't expected this -- I had anticipated Scott Arnold to give the keynote. My first impression of Tod Nielson is a good one. I think he will connect with develoeprs. I especially enjoyed his amusing "real-life" story of when he learned that Developer's Rule the World.

Of course, the big interest may not be the new CEO, but the forthcoming Borland Developer Studio IDE - for both Delphi 2006 and C++Builder 2006, which also includes C# and a nifty HTML editor. I had a chance to play a small role in the C++Builder 2006 Product Address - sharing my thoughts and showcasing how rapidly I could build web service client application. (Thanks Troy, Jason, and David. I!). I plan to offer a Camtisia video of my "User-Test Drive" soon.

While there's great interest in BDS, I would say the interest in JBuilder has waned from years past. There is, however- some interest being exhibited by attendees in the Eclipse camp. This is also an area of intrigue for me and my company. Much of our new stuff - that needs to be cross platform - will likely be built using Eclipse (Java). We will also continue to use C++Builder for prototype development and mission critical applciations plus maintenance development of legacy apps. Over the course of the last year, we had also been doing some C# development using Visual Studio, but much of that work is transitioning to Elipse and Java. I have to say though, I am really excited about the "scratch pad" C++Builder 2006 is going to provide me and the other developers we have here to test out new ideas and possibliy new products. Am also curious to see how Borland transitions to the Eclipse framework by this time next year.

Regarding the venue - well, it's much different than years past. There's definitly fewer folks here, but, being in a hotel, I find it can be a bit more cramped. I guess we're so used to the wide open space of a convention center. The exhibitor area (and number of exhibitors) is significanlty less than last year.

Later in the day we were treated with some pretty good cuisine during the Exhibitor Reception -- There was a wide selection, which forced me to eat too much! (Gotta try it all - right?) The food, drink, crowded space, made it a good time to mingle and chat with quite a number of people!

The meet the team event, which closed out the day, was much much different than years past. This year, selected team members gathered at various tables for informal chat and dicussion. Personally, I missed the formal team introductions and the open mic Q&A activities of years past. But, I guess I can understand why they took the approach they did this year, as most of the development team was back at the office churning and burning on the BDS build!

For those interested, John Kaster posted links for all the recordings at http://bdn.borland.com/article/0,1410,33368,00.html.

For C++Builder info check out the following...

• The Kick off with David I - Michael Swindell, Jason Vokes, Malcolm Groves
• Scott Arnold Borland's CEO who higlights C++Builder
• Troy Kitch (and gang) who talk about all the great new things you'll find in C++Builder
• Allen Bauer who talks about the new IDE available to Delphi, C++ and C# developers
• Eli Boling who talks about the C++ compilier
• Hadi Hariri who talks about Intraweb C++ support
• Alisdair Meridith who talks about ANSI C++ happenings (potential future capabilities to be integrated?)
• some guy with the same name as mine who talks about the return of C++Builder ;-)

Those are just a few C++ items to listen to. Keep in mind that there are other great recordings to listen to as well. One that intrigued me the most was Brian Long's. Check it out when you get a chance.

I had great fun participating in the 24 Hours of Dexter internet radio event! If you missed it, I had about a 20+ minute window to share my thoughts on Dexter -- specifically C++Builder 2006 - from the hours of 7:15-7:35 Eastern. Here's the audio replay (MP3 download - 9mb) for those that want to replay it or having trouble sleeping.

During my time I also shared briefly some of the input received from the C++Builder users, which we used in the development of the Open Community Letter we sent out a year ago! Essentially I talked about the desire we as a community have for the continuation of C++Builder (including support for Win32 and the VCL). And that we're very happy about the response we're now seeing with the announcement of DeXTER! I also highlighted my upcoming "Patterns" session at DevCon, which will include a mix of C++, C# and Delphi code in our reflection of some pattern examples! (Plan to use DeXTER for the presentation)

For those curious, I had originally captured the comments I wanted to share for the 24 Hour event in Word as a bullet list. I had 8 pages of thoughts printed out in front of me when John Kaster "Skyped" me into the show. But, as I typically do for my presentations, I limited the use of my notes and just ran improv. I guess I just felt it was better to try to engage with David, John, Michael Swindell (who was present) and Anders and respond to their questions and comments rather than read from my bullet list as a "paper tele-prompt". I certainly I had a lot more on the list than I shared, but I hope that at least the things I did say it came across as genuine, real, somewhat entertaining, and -- most importantly -- that we are certainly excited about the return of C++Builder!