Last week, we officially announced Oxygene 5, the next major version of our Next Generation Object Pascal compiler.
Most of our products have a tradition of starting on one platform, and then gaining siblings that bring the same development experience to other development platforms as well, such as Data Abstract, which started as a framework for Delphi and now is available for 3 different development platforms.
With version 5, Oxygene is taking this step, and gaining its first sibling in Oxygene for Java. Just like Oxygene for .NET has been bringing a sate of the art Pascal based development experience to .NET and Mono developers for the better part of seven years now, Oxygene for Java (formerly also referred to as Project “Cooper”) brings the exact same language and development experience to Java and Android development.
- Oxygene for Java is the exact same language, 99% source compatible with Oxygene for .NET (and only different in the select few areas where it must be different to fit into the Java platform). In fact, it’s the very same core compiler, completely redesigned and rewritten for version 5, that handles both .NET and Java
- Oxygene for Java brings you the exact same state-of-the-art IDE experience, deeply integrated into Visual Studio 2010 with all the bells and whistles that make VS a great IDE, and all the great editions, such as Enhanced Error Reporting that Oxygene adds to VS, exclusively
- Oxygene for Java brings you a complete debugger for Java and Android apps that integrates with Visual Studio’s debugger architecture, but knows all about Java. You’ll be debugging your Java projects, or even stepping into Java-language frameworks you referenced, without even realizing how cool that is – it will feel just like debugging in VS always felt
- Oxygene for Java directly references the core Java and Android class libraries, as well as any third party frameworks, and it will generate 100% native “jar” Java applications or libraries that are indistinguishable from those created by a Java-language developer. You’ll be directly working with the platform’s native classes and APIs, without bridging or extra overhead.
- Oxygene for Java adds many Java-specific tool chain support right into the Visual Studio IDE. For example, you will be able to package your Android applications to a ready-to-deploy .apk file right a apart of hitting Build, or you can deploy your app right to the emulator or your Android device, as you press F5 to run.
Oxygene for Java is available for pre-order now, at only $399. This purchase gives you immediate access to the “very usable” weekly beta builds, as well as makes you one of the first to receive the final product when it is finished in October/November of this year.
Oxygene 5 for .NET
In addition to announcing Oxygene for Java, we have also released version 5 of Oxygene for .NET, which continues to be available from Embarcadero under their “Prism XE2” brand. Prism XE2 contains the same Oxygene 5 compiler that will also power Oxygene for Java, and adds several exciting editions to the language and the IDE experience. Some highlights include:
- Duck Typing and Soft Interfaces (read more)
- Inline Interfaces with “closure” like behaviors (read more)
- Inline Error Messages and Enhanced Error Reporting (read more)
- Fix-It support and Spell checking (read more)
- Oxidixer IDE integration to convert and import C# and Delphi code to reuse it in Prism
You can find a more detailed summary of the new features, as well as a great video showing off the new Error Reporting, Fix-It support and Oxidizer at remobjects.com/oxygene/whatsnew.
Prism XE2 (a.k.a. Oxygene for .NET) is available for purchase on our secure online store at remobjects.com/shop now, for only $399, world-wide.
Why Not Get Both?
We also have a pre-order bundle with both Oxygene for .NET and Java in one package for only $599, which we think is a very nice package. With both editions of Oxygene installed, the two products merge and become one unified experience for developing for both .NET/Mono and Java/Android with one unified tool set.
Check out the Primer Articles and Videos
To celebrate the new version 5, we have also started a new series of “Primer” articles and companion Videos on our new Oxygene Language Wiki and RemObjects TV. These primers will give you an introduction to using Oxygene to develop for one specific target platform each.
The first primer is all about developing mobil applications for Windows Phone 7 using Silverlight and Oxygene for .NET and can be found here: article, video.
More primers will follow soon, with Android (using Oxgyene for Java) and ASP.NET being next on the list. Stay tuned for more!
Summary
As you can probably tell,we are very excited about this new version of Oxygene, both for the new enhancements to the existing .NET product (all of which will of curse also be available in the Java edition), and of course about the new version for Java and Android.
We hope you’re as excited as we are, and we’re loping forward to seeing all the great apps you’ll be building with Oxygene 5!
Yours,
marc hoffman
Chief Architect,
RemObjects Software
