Board index » cppbuilder » Re: Links regarding the future of BCB

Chris Gordon-Smith

CBuilder Developer
 

Re: Links regarding the future of BCB


2003-12-28 12:08:02 AM
cppbuilder0
Jurko Gospodnetic wrote:
Quote
Hi David.

Thank you for replying.

>P.S. They've dropped the product, it ends at version 6.
 I gathered as much for other threads in this newsgroup,

I've been away from BCB for a while now so I haven't been up to date
with
events on these newsgroups. Now that I again have some time to catch up I
ran into everyone talking about BCB being a dead product so I was
wandering if anyone could provide me with some more concrete information
about that.

Information like:
- Where I can find official statements from Borland relating to this?
- What is the official successor to BCB and how are we supposed to
port our applications to this successor?
- When is it supposed to be released?
- What are the differences between it and BCB?

I gathered some information from the other threads here but can't seem
to
find anything substantial - just a lot of flames and hurt feelings so,
again, I'd be
really grateful if anyone could point me to some more precise information.

Thanks again,
Jurko
You have presumably found the open letter that was released in October
(community.borland.com/article/0,1410,31277,00.html)
Its pretty vague about long term support for VCL. There doesn't seem to be
anything more substantial than this.
The lack of any clear statement from Borland is pretty baffling, but for
what its worth my guess is that support for C++ Builder and VCL is no
longer regarded as commercially important by Borland. This seems to be the
only way to explain the lack of any product strategy that makes sense to
existing users, or even any attempt to explain what is going on. The talk
of lawyers holding things up is not really credible. If C++ Builder were
commercially important to Borland, they would not allow the product's
credibility to be damaged by a protracted discussion of legalities.
I have been using C++ Builder for quite a few years, and have been using
Kylix 3 (C++) since it was released. VCL/CLX forms a key part of my amateur
scientific research project.
My approach to dealing with the current uncertain state of affairs is to
wait and see. If in six months or so Borland makes a clear commitment to
providing ongoing support for VCL users then I'll be delighted, and will
continue to use it. In the meantime I'll continue using BCB 6 and Kylix 3
(C++), while at the same time thinking about how to migrate away from VCL
should this become necessary.
If I do have to migrate away from VCL, then it will very probably be to a
fully open source development environment.
--
Chris Gordon-Smith
London
Homepage:
Email Address: Please see my Home Page
 
 
Marc Collin

CBuilder Developer

2003-12-28 02:15:17 AM

Re:Re: Links regarding the future of BCB

Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:
Quote
Jurko Gospodnetic wrote:


>Hi David.
 >
 >Thank you for replying.
 >
 >
 >>P.S. They've dropped the product, it ends at version 6.
 >
 >I gathered as much for other threads in this newsgroup,
 >
 >I've been away from BCB for a while now so I haven't been up to date
 >with
 >events on these newsgroups. Now that I again have some time to catch up I
 >ran into everyone talking about BCB being a dead product so I was
 >wandering if anyone could provide me with some more concrete information
 >about that.
 >
 >Information like:
 >- Where I can find official statements from Borland relating to this?
 >- What is the official successor to BCB and how are we supposed to
 >port our applications to this successor?
 >- When is it supposed to be released?
 >- What are the differences between it and BCB?
 >
 >I gathered some information from the other threads here but can't seem
 >to
 >find anything substantial - just a lot of flames and hurt feelings so,
 >again, I'd be
 >really grateful if anyone could point me to some more precise information.
 >
 >Thanks again,
 >Jurko

You have presumably found the open letter that was released in October

(community.borland.com/article/0,1410,31277,00.html)

Its pretty vague about long term support for VCL. There doesn't seem to be
anything more substantial than this.

The lack of any clear statement from Borland is pretty baffling, but for
what its worth my guess is that support for C++ Builder and VCL is no
longer regarded as commercially important by Borland. This seems to be the
only way to explain the lack of any product strategy that makes sense to
existing users, or even any attempt to explain what is going on. The talk
of lawyers holding things up is not really credible. If C++ Builder were
commercially important to Borland, they would not allow the product's
credibility to be damaged by a protracted discussion of legalities.

I have been using C++ Builder for quite a few years, and have been using
Kylix 3 (C++) since it was released. VCL/CLX forms a key part of my amateur
scientific research project.

My approach to dealing with the current uncertain state of affairs is to
wait and see. If in six months or so Borland makes a clear commitment to
providing ongoing support for VCL users then I'll be delighted, and will
continue to use it. In the meantime I'll continue using BCB 6 and Kylix 3
(C++), while at the same time thinking about how to migrate away from VCL
should this become necessary.

If I do have to migrate away from VCL, then it will very probably be to a
fully open source development environment.

lazarus?
--
Borland rulez pages.infinit.net/borland
 
Chris Gordon-Smith

CBuilder Developer

2003-12-28 03:04:05 AM

Re:Re: Links regarding the future of BCB

Marc Collin wrote:
Quote
>If I do have to migrate away from VCL, then it will very probably be to a
 >fully open source development environment.
 >
 lazarus?

Thanks. Looks interesting?
Any idea how easy / difficult it will be to use with C++?
--
Chris Gordon-Smith
London
Homepage:
Email Address: Please see my Home Page
 

{smallsort}
Jeff Overcash (TeamB)

CBuilder Developer

2003-12-28 05:23:32 AM

Re:Re: Links regarding the future of BCB

Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:
Quote

Marc Collin wrote:

>>If I do have to migrate away from VCL, then it will very probably be to a
 >>fully open source development environment.
 >>
 >lazarus?
 >
Thanks. Looks interesting?

Any idea how easy / difficult it will be to use with C++?
AFAIK, you can't. Lazarus is an Obect Pascal Delphi like clone. It is not
designed to work with C++.
--
Jeff Overcash (TeamB)
(Please do not email me directly unless asked. Thank You)
If there is somebody up there could they throw me down a line. Just a
little helping hand just a little understanding. Just some answers to the
questions that surround me now. If there's somebody up there could
they throw me down a line. (Fish)
 
Alex Bakaev [TeamB]

CBuilder Developer

2003-12-30 12:56:42 AM

Re:Re: Links regarding the future of BCB

Marc Collin wrote:
Quote
lazarus?

Quoting?
.a
 
Marc Collin

CBuilder Developer

2003-12-30 07:03:02 AM

Re:Re: Links regarding the future of BCB

Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:
Quote
Marc Collin wrote:



>>If I do have to migrate away from VCL, then it will very probably be to a
 >>fully open source development environment.
 >>
 >
 >lazarus?
 >

Thanks. Looks interesting?

Any idea how easy / difficult it will be to use with C++?

if you want to do c++, try kdevelop and qt designer
--
Borland rulez pages.infinit.net/borland
 
Chris Gordon-Smith

CBuilder Developer

2003-12-30 07:17:45 AM

Re:Re: Links regarding the future of BCB

Marc Collin wrote:
Quote
Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:

>Marc Collin wrote:
 >
 >
 >
 >>>If I do have to migrate away from VCL, then it will very probably be to
 >>>a fully open source development environment.
 >>>
 >>
 >>lazarus?
 >>
 >
 >
 >Thanks. Looks interesting?
 >
 >Any idea how easy / difficult it will be to use with C++?
 >
 if you want to do c++, try kdevelop and qt designer

I already use KDevelop for code navigation and editing (Kylix C++ has no
code explorer). However, neither KDevelop nor QT Designer will compile VCL
code. In addition, QT is not open source on Windows.
Moving to Qt is a possible option for me, but converting existing code would
require substantial effort.
--
Chris Gordon-Smith
London
Homepage:
Email Address: Please see my Home Page