Announcing Elements Twelve

Hi everyone.

I'm overjoyed to announce the immediate availability of Elements Twelve, the next major version of our multi-language, multi-platform compiler and development suite.

What's in a new version number? As you know, we ship weekly updates to Elements with new features and enhancements (and, of course, bug fixes) year-round, so Elements evolves continuously and publicly. But there are at least two major technologies that we have been experimenting with that are coming together in Elements 12 to warrant, in our opinion, the new version number, and that is our new Island/Delphi platform support and our AI-powered coding assistant in Fire, CodeBot.

CodeBot

We first announced an experimental preview of CodeBot in the spring, and the feature has expanded and evolved since (and will continue to do so). CodeBot can answer your questions about your code, find and fix bugs, implement entire methods or classes for you based on a description, convert code from other languages, and even help you with error messages and exceptions. And new in Elements 2867, you can choose between different versions of the underlying GPT model, giving you even better results and responses with the new GTP-4.

Island/Delphi

Next up is Island/Delphi, an amazing extension to Island, our native compiler platform for unmanaged apps. We have extended the compiler with full 100% binary-compatible support for the Embarcadero Delphi object model, and linking against packages created with Delphi.

This means that not only can you implement your own classes descending from Delphi's TObject (and its subclasses), but you also have full access to virtually all the types and APIs in the Delphi ecosystem – right from your Elements code, and regardless of which Elements language you are using. You can use the VCL or FireMonkey class libraries for visual applications that run on Windows or cross-platform. You can use the TDB* components to access your favorite databases from your Island project. Or use any other components and classes provided by Delphi, as well as third-party component packages. Best of all, you can also directly use your own Delphi code, if it has been compiled as a package.

Island/Delphi makes all of this extremely easy. With one click, Water lets you import the library from your version (or versions) of Delphi and make them available as regular system references. With that one-time task out of the way, you can simply set the Delphi SDK setting in your Island project to the version of Delphi you want to use, reference any of the dozens of packages you like, and use their APIs directly from your code, as if they were native Elements types.

No header conversions, no inter-op layers, no nothing. And you can implement your own Delphi classes simply by specifying an existing class - say, TForm - as an ancestor, or by applying the [Delphi] object-model attribute. The compiler will take care of all the rest for you.

Island/Delphi is supported for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and will use the packages from your existing Delphi installation (of any version from Delphi 7 to the currently latest Delphi 11.3).

Of Course, There is More

Of course, those are just the two big-ticket items. Elements Twelve brings many other improvements in all areas, from full support for C#11, vast improvements to Delphi language compatibility, as well new language features such as Required properties in Oxygene, Git integration in Fire and Water, improvements to Elements RTL, and so much more.

Get it Now

As always, Elements Twelve is a free update to everyone with an active subscription and it is available for download on the Stable channel now, with build .2867.

If you are not developing with Elements yet, you are missing out! Grab a free 30-day trial version here, or purchase your license now, for only $999 including support for all six languages, all platforms, and all product features.

You can learn more about Elements at remobjects.com/elements.