BIOS: Technology Means Business

Borland Software has announced new versions of its flagship Delphi and C++Builder application development (RAD) environments, previously codenamed 'DeXter.' The updated software promises powerful new productivity and performance-boosting capabilities, in addition to a new C#Builder 2006, and are designed to enable software teams to eliminate tedious development tasks so they can quickly and cost-effectively deliver enterprise-class Windows applications.

Delphi 2006, C++Builder 2006, and C#Builder 2006 are now offered together as part of Borland Developer Studio - Borland's multi-language developer environment for Microsoft's Windows and .NET applications. It is the only integrated development environment (IDE) that includes support for Delphi (both Windows and .NET), C, C++ and C# applications within a single environment. Customers purchasing any of these individual products get full support for all four languages at no additional cost.

'Developers are at the core of Borland's Software Delivery Optimization vision, sitting at the heart of the application life-cycle,' said Boz Elloy, senior vice president of products, Borland. 'We are committed to continuing to serve Delphi, C++ and C# developers. Our R&D team has listened to these loyal communities and responded with an intense focus on quality and productivity, adding key new IDE productivity enhancements into a fully integrated suite of application life-cycle management (ALM) tools including integrated change management, modelling and rapid application design capabilities.'

New advancements in Delphi 2006 include live templates system and advanced re-factorings that automate source code changes and offer integration with Borland ALM tools, to help reduce the time and cost of building, managing, maintaining and extending both Windows and .NET applications. You can also speed development with support for reverse engineering, rapid prototyping, and advanced IDE integration with UML modelling, requirements management, version control, bug tracking, and team collaboration.

Additionally, because Delphi supports both Win32 and .NET, you can continue to develop and maintain existing Win32 applications while simplifying the path to the Microsoft .NET framework and next-generation Windows applications. Borland's enterprise framework in Delphi 2006, ECO III, provides enterprise application services such as object-relational mapping and transparent object persistence. ECO III also promises to help make design-driven development a reality with its model-powered framework, especially useful when building Web Services, ASP.NET, and Windows form-based database applications.

Model-powered applications can be also be created using the new ECO Synchronization Server, offering multiple synchronised object caches for increased scalability and performance. Also new in ECO III, developers can design robust enterprise applications at the state-diagram level, allowing teams to focus on business-centric design, not low-level application 'plumbing.'

As part of the Borland Developer Studio, Borland has updated and refined its popular C++Builder IDE with the latest RAD and ALM features. This 'major' new upgrade gives C++ developers many of the same features that Delphi, Java and non-Windows C++ teams have had for years. C++Builder 2006 provides new C/C++ build configuration and project management capabilities, as well as new 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' (WYSIWYG) Web design and application development capabilities.

C#Builder 2006, also part of Borland Developer Studio, brings enterprise development capabilities to .NET, and is pitched at development managers and project leaders that need to do enterprise development on the .NET platform or manage and maintain C# projects, especially those transitioning from Java/J2EE and C++ projects to C#. By providing an enterprise framework (ECO III) with capabilities familiar to J2EE programmers, like object-relational mapping, persistence, UML modelling, transactions, and ALM support, development and transition complexities should be significantly mitigated.

Integration with Borland's Together modelling solution, which includes two-way LiveSource functionality, should enable customers to reverse-engineer code to ease maintainability and help to ensure code and models are always in sync. C#Builder 2006 also enables C# developers to optimise enterprise .NET development with integrated audits and metrics, requirements management, and source code management tools.

Delphi 2006, C++Builder 2006 and C#Builder 2006, all part of Borland Developer Studio, will be available for pre-order between 17 October and 1 December, with customer shipments scheduled for early December. Customers pre-ordering these products will be entitled to a 15 per cent discount.