CodeGear Gets Back in the Game
It wasn't so long ago that a lot of folks were wondering if the Borland Developer
Tools Group had any future at all. After all, Borland was unable to meet its self-imposed
Q3 deadline for announcing a buyer for its tools group. Instead, in November,
Borland opted to spin the group out as a wholly owned subsidiary, called
CodeGear.
Now the firm is delivering its first new products as an independent entity.
And the releases follow through on earlier promises by CodeGear CEO Ben Smith
to make an entrance into the hyperactive arena of dynamic languages.
Delphi for PHP is a component-based rapid application development (RAD) IDE
that promises to boost the productivity of PHP Web developers by letting them
work within the mature toolsets encompassed by Delphi. The IDE goes beyond basic
editing and debugging, enabling a visual programming environment that supports
reuse of components. Also launched is the VCL for PHP, an open source visual
component library tuned for PHP development.
"As CodeGear, this is really one of the first new products we've come
out with and really demonstrates where we are going," says CodeGear Vice
President Michael Swindell. "We are going to go into new language areas,
and we've said that from the very beginning. This [launch] is proof of that."
CodeGear has also firmed up its base, announcing the release of Delphi 2007
for Win32, which adds support for Windows Vista and AJAX Web development. The
IDE incorporates CodeGear's DBX 4 database architecture, which provides a unified
data access architecture for Win32 and .NET development.
Swindell says Delphi 2007 for Win32 will appeal to CodeGear's base of ISVs,
system integrators, VARs and small to medium enterprises, which typically seek
to craft performance-optimized code.
Are you a Borland tool shop, and if so, do you plan to deploy CodeGear products
down the road? We want to know your thoughts on the new company and what it
must do to succeed in a marketplace dominated by Visual Studio and Eclipse.
E-mail me at mdesmond@reddevnews.com.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 02/21/2007