TatukGIS support for Embarcadero RAD Studio XE2
As probably you already know, a great new release of Delphi / C++ Builder is coming with a few very important new features:
- 64 bit support
- OSX (Mac!) support
- New GUI FireMonkey framework
- iOS (iPhone and iPad) support
As you see, this is probably the most important release since Delphi 2 (which introduced 32 bit support).
Our plans:
We are working hard to deliver support for all the above listed features. Our plan is to, soon after release of XE2, be ready to provide the DK v.10 with full support for VCL 64 bit applications. After than we will focus on FireMonkey with OSX and iOS.
How easy will be to port an app to 64bits?
Very easy indeed. Recompiling your existing code to 64 bits is just a matter of selecting: "Target Platform: 64-bits Windows". All your existing code should recompile smoothly.
The biggest difference you should be aware of is that all pointers are now 64 bits wide. Therefore, any castings of pointer to Integer like:
my_var2 := Integer( @my_var1 )
Should be replaced carefully with
my_var2 := NativeInt( @my_var1 )
What features of the DK are supported upon 64-bits compilation?
Almost everything! The whole DK10 has been altered to be fully 64 bits aware: all 3rd party drivers like MrSID, SqlLite, Gdal are supported as 64-bits DLLs. But please be aware that MSJET database is not supported on the 64-bits platform at all. So, for lightware databases, this is a time to consider Sqlite.
Also please check if you use a 32bit DLL or COM. If so, such fragments of the code should be altered to use 64-bits counterparts.
Why Developer Kernel support for OSX or iOS is not yet ready?
With XE2 you can develop Windows, OSX, or iOS FireMonkey applications. Furthermore you are able to debug an application on Mac just using RAD Studio IDE (via remote debugging). The ability to have a single code, native application which can be delivered to Mac without changing a single line of code is fantastic.
However, FireMonkey architecture is totally different than VCL (it is fully decoupled from the Windows operating system and is portable across platforms). We simply need more time to address this new technology.
What about the TatukGIS Editor / Viewer
The Editor was built with Delphi XE. Therefore creating 64-bit version of the Editor should be child's play - and we believe it will be. However, we use a number of 3rd party libraries (GUI components and a few others) and we must wait for the vendors of these components to update their stuff. This will take a while and is difficult to estimate how long.
Exactly the same situation is with Editor/Viewer for OSX (or Editor/Viewer or iOS): it is too early to predict when we can be ready but, generally, we want to do this as soon as possible.