Subject: Jake's Conference Report--Tuesday Afternoon
Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 16:54:22 -0700
From: "John Jacobson" 
Newsgroups: borland.public.delphi.non-technical

[This will be the last report I can write from the conference itself, due to
computer lab hours, but I will write a final report when I get home on
Thursday.]

   There is a revolution afoot. Paradigms are being shifted and the culture
of programming itself will no doubt be permanently altered. Just as Java
burst on the scene a few years ago and changed programming irreversibly, so
now .NET is bursting upon us and will likely shift the paradigm. Delphi is
going .NET, though the timescale may disappoint the most diehard .NET fans.
Even if you don't ever intend to do any .NET programming yourself, the
changes to Delphi that will take place as Borland retools Delphi for the
.NET framework will improve your life. I've been following the .NET sessions
here and I have to admit I really really like what I am seeing. Borland is
apparently at as least as impressed with .NET as I, and sees it as a chance
to take Delphi to new platforms.
   I find it more than just mildly interesting that Danny Thorpe is now
".NET Strategist". Last year he was busy working on Kylix. I can't help but
speculate that this shift is not insignificant. I recall the way the Linux
community "guru's" treated him like a bumbling idiot on their hallowed
slashdot and/or newsgroups, unwittingly turning off one of the top compiler
specialists in the world from Linux. Not too bright for the Linuxheads to
have done that, if indeed my speculation is correct. It is not the first
time that I have seen the Linux community act like a bunch of silly
children, and we are not talking about the typical slashdotters here either.
There was no less than top penguin Linus Torvals himself sounding off on the
topic when it occurred. But enough about history. Let us talk of the future.
   Danny Thorpe mentioned that they call a JIT compiler a JITter, and
therefore when it has a flaw in it, that is then a jitterbug. Hmmm...
   You'll hear all the juicy technical details of Delphi.NET and Delphi 7
from others I am sure, so I just want to touch on some singular points I
noted here and there. It sounds like it is easier for Borland to port Delphi
to .NET than it is for MS to port their products to .NET. So much of .NET
has a Delphi flavor that it matches Delphi more closely than just about
everything else. In addition, it should be relatively easy for Delphi
programmers to extend what they know about Delphi development to .NET
development. .NET also means no more header file translations. The JEDI
project will have to move on to other topics, such as their excellent JVCL.
Danny Thorpe predicted that MS will be packaging the .NET run-time in every
product they ship and every OS they make within 6 months. If this
predictions turns out to be true, then .NET will be coming quickly.
   One thing that struck me was that .NET means that Delphi code and Delphi
programmers are no longer going to be niche players. As full participants in
the .NET framework, they will be able to consume and supply components and
code from and for all other .NET consumers. This is a big advantage and will
revolutionize the Delphi community. Currently proprietary vendors will now
have to compete with the whole .NET community, and at the same time, the
whole .NET community will have to compete with vendors currently cocooned in
the Delphi realm.

   During his session on porting to .NET, Alain "Lino" Tadros had his copy
of VS.NET freeze and he had to reboot to get it to work again. Anyone who
attended his session on using Delphi in .NET last year will recall that this
seems an annual event now. It is left as an exercise for the reader to
derive any deep symbolism in that fact. The .NET gods are mocking him.
However, I will point out the symbolism in the fact that the C++ Builder 6
demo on yesterday's RAD product address blew up saying it could not load
borlandmm.dll. C++ Builder seems the perennial afterthought, except when it
comes to wireless devices. (By the way, it seems a number of you had taken
to calling Alison Deane "the marketing babe" last year. She was unable to
attend BorCon this year because of viral pneumonia.)

   Yesterday, Anders Hejlsberg was the keynote speaker and Rune did a good
job of describing that keynote, so I'll not belabor it. I did note that he
still has a very noticeable accent despite all his years here in the States,
while in contrast, Anders Ohhlsen (sp?) has none though he was here for far
less time. Anders O. was unable to explain this phenomenon last night when I
inquired.
   Today's keynote speaker was James Gosling, the author of Java, giving a
speech that he could probably give four or five years ago. I fell asleep at
several points during his speech, but that may have been the effects of
sleep deprivation setting in. Last night, a number of us did not get to our
rooms until after 3AM. Ray Lischner was so bored he fiddled on his laptop a
little bit and then quietly left. I had seen Ray sitting by himself when I
walked in and so sat down next to him and asked him about his abandoning the
corporate 9-5 work ratrace.

   Anyway, here are some final points I've gleaned:
   C++ Builder for Mobileset to be released in the 3rd quarter of this year.
   D7 (codenamed "Aurora") will be released this year and will sport
language improvements, a Delphi.NET preview pack consisting of the Delphi
for .NET CIL compiler, VCL for .NET and will produce safe code.
   Galileo is slated for release in 2003 and will be a 100% .NET multiple
language IDE targeted at multiple platforms (including those not currently
supported or slated for support by .NET). This sounds very interesting.

   Oh, I almost forgot. Marco Cantu didn't do any funside of Delphi or Kylix
sessions this year. It was left to Mark Miller to offer light entertainment
in his Dark Side session Monday night. That was unfinished and in fact
completely lacked the second installment of the great "The Borlands" spoof
that Mark keeps saying he knows nothing about according to his lawyers. Mark
says that CodeRush 6 will be released in two weeks for real this time, by
the way. That reminds me I need to download the q beta when I get home.

   Well, the Tuesday night event is at Disney's California Adventure
tonight, so I need to get going. I need to remember to write about CLX
versus VCL when I get home Thursday.

   Wind it up, baby!