Release Timeline for 2010

With the major release of Delphi Prism out of the way now, it probably is time to talk a bit about our remaining timeline for releases this year. I realize we haven’t updated our official ROadmap since the beginning of the year, and hopefully, this post will make up for that until we get a chance to do that.

The last release of ROFX, our suite of library products including RemObjects SDK, Data Abstract, and more, was in early March and the teams have been busy since, working on good stuff on all fronts.

Because we have several “big” features in the works for the next releases, we have decided to vary slightly from our usual quarterly release cycle this year by “merging” the May and August releases into one single release that will hit sometime in July, instead. This will give us slightly longer development cycles, both for this next release, and also for the (regular, as scheduled) November release later this year. This in turn allows us to tackle more big features in a single go.

Among the new features you will see this Summer (most of which we have already talked about or hinted at) are modelling support via Relativity Server and a full-blown Server Explorer and Schema Modeler for the Mac (in DA/OSX), new Server and Client side business rules scripting in both DA/.NET and Relativity, and a brand new New Project wizard system in DA/.NET that will make it way easier to start new projects, or add a new client project to an existing solution. And these are just the big ones.

For the Winter release (in November), we’ll expand the scripting support to the other two platforms (Client and Server for Delphi/Windows, and  Client for Mac OS X), and also bring you a new Schema Modeler for Windows. The current Scheme Modeler has gotten long in the tooth and we’ve been meaning to thoroughly revamp it, for a long time. The new SM will be driven by some of the experiences we collected implementing the Mac version, but also by years of working with the current Schema Modeler and learning its limitations and issues. We’ll also bring the new template system to Delphi, as well.

Betas

Starting a couple weeks from now (probably once I’m back from WWDC), we’ll start up a more regular beta cycle again, with (mostly) weekly beta builds of RO/DA for all three platforms, all the way thru to the July release, and beyond. Many of the new features (especially DASM/Mac, and the Scripting) will be fully functional by then, and we’ll be looking forward to your feedback.

Remember that beta access is available for all customers with an active subscription. Simply point your browser to beta.remobjects.com, which will take you to the beta section on our new portal site. After logging in, you will see a list of all the products you have with an active beta program, and a list of their beta downloads (if any – we don’t always have a current beta, especially not shortly after a “release” release). The usual caveats for using beta builds of course apply.