We’ve released a first peek at Hydra 3.0 in the past few days, in form of our HY07, but things are about to get a lot more interesting as we’re preparing for the offical announcemennt of the HY3 Preview Program, later today.
For those of who have not been keeping up with our plans for Hydra, you will want to know that Hydra 3.0 (or ‘HY3’ as we codename it internally) will not just be a mere upgrade of the existing Hydra 2.0 for Delphi project. HY3 goes far beyond what he have provided so far, making it essentially a new product (although retaining full backward compatibility).
While Hydra 2.0 allowed Delphi developers to build modular Win32 applications that were extendable using a flexible plugin system, HY3 widens the reach to span both the Delphi and the .NET platfrom, in one product.
Basically, HY3 will provide two sets of libraries – one implemented in Delphi/Win32 based upon the current Hydra 2.0 and one implemented in 100% managed .NET code – that will allow you to achieve the same pluggable flexibilitiy on both platforms. But what’s more – and this is what, i think, sets HY3 apart from the rest – the two libraries have been designed with interoperability in mind, allowing you to seamlessly match host applications and plugins built on the different platforms.
What would you do with Hydra 3.0?
For example, you could take your existing Delphi Application and expand it by writing new modules in managed .NET code (using .NET 1.1 or the new .NET 2.0 or even 3.0 platforms that give you advanced features such as Generics or Language Integrated Query, not available in Delphi).
Or you can reuse some of your existing and time-proven Delphi/Win32 modules in your new .NET application by exposing them as a plugin.
Or, and i personally think this is an option that will apeal to most Delphi developers, you can use HY3 to slowly migrate your existing application to .NET – first by making modular, and then by step-by-step porting the different modules to .NET (or simply implementing new modules in .NET)
And, of course, you can still use Hydra to simply build single-platform applications that are plugin based and easily extendable.
Can’t wait?
Want to get started yourself? Stay tuned for our Preview Program anouncement, very soon!
