The big benefit of Oxygene “Nougat” over other non-Apple tool chains for Mac and iOS is that it fully embraces the platform and is a native compiler for the Objective-C runtime (which is at the core of Mac OS X and iOS development) that works directly with the native Cocoa API and controls.
This means you get all the benefits of the platform and you can work with and access all the same APIs that Objective-C developers using Xcode can. You can, for example, attend WWDC or NSConference or read and watch any of the trillion online tutorials out there on iOS (and Mac) development — and all the things you see and learn apply directly to the code you write with “Nougat”.
My friend and college Jim has created a great new video to introduce “Nougat” and show you around Beta 3, which you can find here.
Beta 3 is a huge milestone for us, in that we believe it represents a state in the development of the product where we can call it “usable for production work”. That doesn’t mean we’re close to RTM yet — we have big and strict plans for how solid we want the product to be for “1.0” this summer — but it does mean that it is solid enough that you can start doing serious work with it. I should know, as i already have my first app created with Nougat in the App Store: Browse500. (Full source is on GitHub, too).
What’s Next?
As mentioned above, we still have a long way to go before RTM. Beta 1 last October had the goal of, well, getting something out to you guys to play with, and we got a lot of great feedback. For Beta 2 we focused on getting all the basic tool chain support in place (debugging, deploying, etc.) and our main focus for Beta 3, which we just shipped, was stability, so we spent most of our time fixing bugs in the compiler, IDE and toolchain. For Beta 4 we are shifting focus back on features — there are still quite a few things missing in the language, and we have lots of improvements and enhancements planned for the tool chain and the Visual Studio IDE support.
“Nougat” is not standing still, and the next two months should be a whirl-wind of new stuff going into the product.
After Beta 4 (and possibly a Beta 5), we are still on track for an official “1.0” release (actually, it will be 6.0) in late spring/early summer.
Get Nougat!
How do you get “Nougat”? If you bought or renewed Oxygene from us since last October, you already have Oxygene “Nougat” as part of your product portfolio. Simply head over to beta.remobjects.com and get your copy of Beta 3 (and don’t forget to participate in the beta forums as well to let us know what you think).
(If you have a Suite Subscription for Xcode, that of course includes access to Oxygene “Nougat”, as well).
If you have a license for Oxygene for Java or for Embarcadero Prism XE2 or XE3, you can renew to the full suite of Oxygene for all three platforms at $349 in our secure online shop.
If you own Delphi XE2 or later, you can take advantage of our cross-grade offer for $399 to get the full Oxygene package.
And finally, the full Oxygene package is available for new users at $499.
