Watch your memory

Delphi has a nice feature (since version ??) to check whether you leak some memory in your project. All you have to do is set the ReportMemoryLeaksOnShutDown property to true in your project file.

begin
  ReportMemoryLeaksOnShutdown := true;
  Application.Initialize;

If you forget to free an object you will get an unexpected memory leak exception when you close your application.

This is nice, however we always release allocated memory, don't we?;-)

Although it is nice to know that you leak some memory the messagebox does not help us to find out where it happens. It only reports the type of object, and the spilled memory in bytes.
In the marketplace there are several tools that can be used to signal memory leaks. One in particular, which I am evaluating right now, is Eurekalog.
You can use this tool to catch exceptions and memory leaks in your application. A detailed log file, with call stack, will tell you exactly the location (unit and linenumber) in the source of the unfreed object. Double clicking a line in the call stack opens the unit at that line in the IDE.
Another nice feature of Eurekalog is that you can activate it within your application, so that whenever your user hits an unexpected exception, or memory leak he/she can send the report to you by e-mail or even sent it to your bug tracking system.

The Eurekalog log file for the above memory leak looks like this:

Although we always free memory, use the try...finally construct, you will leak memory sooner or later. Tools like Eurekalog can help you tracking them down easily. Do you know more sophisticated tools, like Eurekalog, to track down memory leaks?

.NET Enumerator basics

I hereby declare this week as the week of the enumerator. ;-)
Hallvard Vassbotn started this week with an excellent post on using enumerators patterns on your own collections. You should really give this high School enumeration stuff, a read!

The .NET Framework it self offers a lot of basic functionality for enumerators. It is friday so let's take a look on some basics here:

Sometimes it is necessary to let a user pick a value from a enumerator type. For example you want the user to pick some property value of a component, which is enumerator. You could, of course, fill a combox with string values by hand (keeping the order), but in future releases the list could extended, having you to alter your code.

Looping an enumerator
It is easier then to simply loop through the enumerator type. Update! In Delphi win32 this is not possible. This is false! Uli commented that it can in Delphi Win32!, using the Typinfo unit. (See the code in the comments)

In .NET however this is possible using the Enum.GetNames method.
 
In C# you code looks like this:

foreach ( string s in Enum.GetNames(typeof(SeriesChartType)) )
{
   Messagbox.Show(s);
}

the equivalent code in Delphi .NET is:

for s in Enum.GetNames(TypeOf(SeriesChartType)) do begin
   MessageBox.Show(s);
end;

Exists a value?
Check if a enumerator value exists in a enumerator type with the IsDefined method.
Delphi .NET code:

s := 'Point';
if Enum.IsDefined(TypeOf(SeriesChartType), s) then
  MessageBox.Show('Yes')
else
  MessageBox.Show('No');

Conclusion, the .NET framework Enum class, which is the base class for all the enumerator types, adds valueable methods to the basic enumerator types.
More information can be found on MSDN here.

Fooling around with TWebbrowser #4

TWebbrowser and the Enter key
For some reason the Enter key in TWebbrowser does not work. This is very annoying, because users can't use the enter key to submit a form or, even worse, can not go to the next line in a textarea.

Searching the Internet I found two solutions to this problem:

Solution1: Use your applications MessageHandler;
The best solution,imo, is this one provided by SwissDelphiCenter. This solution 'listens' through the application's messagehandler to handle the keystrokes of your webbrowser. (Webbrowser1 in this case).
In my multitab browser I had to tweak this a little bit to give the handler the active webbrowser. (Don't forget to nil the FOleInPlaceObject when you switch TWebbrowser objects).

if AWebbrowser <> ActiveWebbrowser then begin   
 FOleInPlaceActiveObject := nil; 
  Webbrowser1:= ActiveWebbrowser; 
end; 

This works just fine! Kind of magic to me, but it works.

How to handle popup browsers?
As told in a previous episode of this serie, it is sometimes necessary to invoke the NewWindow2 event to handle popup-browsers. This is typicaly necessary when you need to retain a browser session.

In the NewWindow2 event a new form of you application is popped up modeless to hold the webbrowsers popup. To get the active webbrowser for your messagehandler in this scenario gets a little complicated, because there could be more popups open at the same time, and a popup could have one or more popups. The next solution seems to be more appropiate for that.

Solution 2: Use the Keybd_Event message
Well the Enter key might not work in textarea's, CONTROL + M seems to be doing just what we need, inserting a new line in the textarea.

So we must send a CTRL + M to our webbrowser. Here a solution, as found on Delphi3000, using the Keybd_event function. This function can be used to synthesize keystrokes. So send the CONTROL + M when an enter key is hit and we are done. (Supposing there is only a webbrowser on your popup form).

However there is one side effect with this solution, if you have a textarea and a submit button on your popup webpage, the page will also be submitted if you enter a new line in the textarea. Simple solution for this is to send the CANCEL event after the handling, so this is the code with the extra line (looks a bit messy):

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.FormKeyPress(Sender: TObject; 
      var Key: Char);
begin 
  //Don't forget ot set the Keypreview property 
  //of the form to true!
  if (Key=#13) then begin 
    Key := #0; 
    Keybd_Event(VK_LCONTROL, 0, 0, 0); //Ctrl key down 
    Keybd_Event(Ord('M'), MapVirtualKey(Ord('M'), 0), 
        0, 0); // 'M' key down 
    Keybd_Event(Ord('M'), MapVirtualKey(Ord('M'), 0), 
        KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0); // 'M' Key up 
    Keybd_Event(VK_LCONTROL, 0, KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 
        0); // Ctrl key up 
    Keybd_Event(VK_CANCEL, 0, 0, 0);
  end; 
end;

More info on how use Keybd_event function take a look at the msdn article.

Well in my case it was a little harder to tackle this problem, but it works now just fine. Hope this usefull for others as well.

.NET Framework sourcecode will be free

According to this blogpost, by ex Borlander Charlie Calvert, Microsoft will ship the source code of the .NET framework with the next Visual Studio release 2008.

He says:
Here is a piece of wonderful news: Scott Guthrie has announced today that we will be releasing the source code to the .NET framework when we ship Visual Studio 2008 later this year!

An option will be made available to allow you to step directly into the source from your own code, so you can see exactly what is happening in the .NET framework. This is exactly what developers need, and it will greatly improve the experience of developing on the .NET Framework .

Scott's announcement.

This is really great news. As Delphi Developers we always had the sourcecode of the VCL (since 1995). Having the sourcecode of any framework is indeed a great learning resource!

Blog searching

Blogger offers the posibility to search a specific blog with a query, which will return all the blogposts that meets the criteria.

For instance http://beensoft.blogspot.com/search?q=TWebbrowser will return all my blogposts about TWebbrowser including the Fooling around with series. Did not know that, thought I let you know!

On with RAD Studio 2007 with mixed feelings

Yesterday I installed the RAD Studio 2007, over my existing Delphi 2007 for Win32 (Update 3) installation.
Installation gave no problem, except for a few packages that needed to be recompiled. Although I don't need RAD Studio 2007 anymore (since it does not have a winform designer), I was curious about the new ECO IV for VCL.NET.
Well it looks that ECO is only available in the Architect edition, which it was in the BDS2005 erra, as I recall. In BDS2006 it was introduced in all the SKU's at different levels.

Anyway I have mixed feelings for this release, at one hand it fast, stable (iow it rocks!), but on the other hand it misses important features compared to BDS2006.

Go Delphi for Win32!

Fooling around with TWebbrowser #3

Some more tips to make a webbrowser application that rocks!

Get the right popupwindow size
In episode #2 we managed to retain the ASP.NET Session for popup windows in our TWebbrowser application.
Initially we don't know what the size of our popup form must be. Fortunately TWebbrowser has two events for that, so that we can size our window accordingly.
Use the OnWindowSetHeight and OnWindowSetWidth event to do this.

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.WebBrowser1WindowSetHeight(
    ASender: TObject; Height: Integer);
begin
  Self.Height := WebBrowser1.Height + 20;
end;

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.WebBrowser1WindowSetWidth(
    ASender: TObject; Width: Integer);
begin
  Self.Width := WebBrowser1.Width + 20;
end;

The additional distance of 20, is to avoid scrollbars.

Filling up a combobox with the visited websites
If you use a combobox to harvest the visited websites, just like Internet Explorer then you could use the OnDocumentComplete event to get the complete URL and then add it to your combobox. I use this event for three reasons:

1. It gives you a complete URL (not www.codegear.com not http://www.codegear.com but http://www.codegear.com/)
2. If the typed address is not available (a non existing website) the OnNavigateError event will trigger, so you could then decide not to add the URL to the webbrowser.
3. Having a good URL gives the ability to locate the URL in combobox again if the user navigates back to the page.

You don't have this advantages if you add the URL into the combobox directly after input.

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.WebBrowser1DocumentComplete(
    ASender: TObject;
  const pDisp: IDispatch; 
var URL: OleVariant);
begin
  AddAddressToCombobox(URL);
end;

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.AddAddressToCombobox(
    Adres : string);
begin
  Adres := LowerCase(Adres);
  If (Adres <> '') 
  and (cboAddress.Items.IndexOf(Adres) = -1) then begin
        cboApplication.Items.Add(Adres);
     end;
  end;
end;

Enable/Disable navigatebuttons (back/forward) automatically
If you put two buttons on your form to navigate back and forward in the webbrowser you will get an error if there is no page to go back to. (Webbrowser1.GoBack and Webbrowser1.GoForward methods)
You can use the OnCommandChange event to make this buttons 'case sensitive':

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.WebBrowser1CommandStateChange(
    ASender: TObject; Command: Integer; Enable: WordBool);
begin
  case Command of    
    CSC_NAVIGATEBACK: tbApplicationBack.Enabled := Enable;
    CSC_NAVIGATEFORWARD: tbApplicationNext.Enabled := Enable;
  end;
end;

Add a progress bar to your application
If you want to see the load progress of a page then use the OnProgressChange event.

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.WebBrowser1ProgressChange(
    ASender: TObject; Progress, ProgressMax: Integer);
begin
    ProgressBar.Max := ProgressMax;
    ProgressBar.Min := 0;
    ProgressBar.Position := Progress;
end;

Have the url in your statusbar or label
Use the OnStatusChange event to show the navigated address in a label or statusbar.

procedure TfrmPopUpBrowser.WebBrowser1StatusTextChange(
    ASender: TObject;  const Text: WideString);
begin
  StatusBar.SimpleText := Text;
end;

SA or not SA

Is SA worth while?
This is what Bruce McGee asks himself (and us) in this blogpost.
From a financial point of view it is a good deal. Personally I am very disappointed with my first SA experience.

Together with the Delphi 2007 for Win32 edition I bought software assurance because I tend to use the Delphi .NET personality for my winforms development (What was I thinking?). At that time nothing indicated that the winforms designer was not in the RAD Studio later that year.
Now that RAD Studio is out, it is kind of funny (ahum sad) that there is no reason, for me, to even install it. The Update 3 is all I need.

Is SA worth while?

Fooling around with TWebbrowser #2

In the last episode of this serie (9 january 2006) we talked about the fact that we could use the TWebbrowser component to display simple webpages within our Delphi application.
Recently this project extended and was used to hold a complex ASP.NET webapplication, which gave some additional problems with the ASP.NET Session object. The problem is that this webapplication popups several windows (Internet Explorer windows) which looses the session of the webapplication.
As a result the user must login on every browser, which is a showstopper of course.

The cause of this is that the webserver sees our application as a different process compared to Internet Explorer. (ASP.NET sessions are process dependent) Different process, different session. The solution of this was rather simple, although a little hard to find.

How to retain the browser session within your application
The trick is to get the popup to run into the same process as our application, so basically to run it in our application.
TWebbrowser has a NewWindow2 event for this. In this event you can specify the application to be used throught the ppDisp (IDispatch) parameter. (our application, in this event)

Suppose you have a second form, Form2, containing another TWebbrowser, you could 'redirect' the new window like this:

procedure TForm1.WebBrowser1NewWindow2(ASender: TObject; 
var ppDisp: IDispatch; var Cancel: WordBool);
begin
  ppDisp := Form2.WebBrowser1.Application;
  Form2.Show;
end;

Quite simple, isn't it?
To let our form act in the window-name resolution it is wise to set the RegisterAsBrowser property to true.

More information can be found on knAlertz:
How to maintain the ASP.NET session state
How to use the WebBrowser control NewWindow2 event in Visual Basic .NET

VB developers, now is the time to shift to Delphi

Every now and then the discussion on how do we get 'the abandoned VB6 developer' into Delphi community pops up.

If you are VB developer, who wants to get into Delphi, now is the time to move to Delphi! If you do, and you should, you might find one of the following links usefull:

Delphi versus VB
- Delphi for Visual Basic developers by Delphi About
- VB to Delphi at Cyber Matrix.
- Migrating from VB to Delphi Whitepaper (PDF) by CodeGear.

Delphi the IDE, and the language
- Marco Cantu's essential Pascal all about the basics of Object Pascal, the language used in Delphi.
- Marco Cantu's all about Delphi Essential Delphi the IDE combined with the language.
- Zarko Gajic's delphi.about.com, with lot's of tutorials and sources.
- Delphiland offers online lessons for beginners and intermediate users
- Delphi basics provides help and reference for the fundamentals of the Delphi language.

Delphi the community
- CodeGear Delphi product page
- CodeGear Developer Network Delphi
- Delphi Newswhat Newsgroups and Blog aggregator
- Also via newsgroups.codegear.com.
Tip! Don't miss the Delphi non-technical newsgroup!

Books on Lulu
All Delphi books on Lulu
Marco Cantu's Delphi books on Lulu
Bob Swart's books on Lulu

Delphi wikis
Delphi Video's
Delphi Useful sites

Delphi blogs
Delphifeeds blog aggregator

More resources?

CodeGear RAD Studio 2007 announced

CodeGear announced in this press release the upcoming new version of BDS 2006 / Delphi 2007 for Win32, now called CodeGear RAD Studio 2007, to be available this month.

More information can be found on the RAD Studio product page.

Update! Technical datasheet is available here.
Much more links (product pdf's etcetera) can be found on David I's blog here.

Delphi for PHP Update #2

Delphi for PHP Update 2 is available!
Download it here.

Go get it! It contains fixes, improved documentation! and an updated VCL for PHP.

ADODB Promptdatasource in .NET

In Delphi Win32 it is very easy to use the standard Windows OleDB datalink connection dialog to build Connectionstrings at runtime.


It is as simple as this, use ADODB and you have the PromptDataSource function:

ConnString := PromptDataSource(Handle, ConnString);

In .NET however it is a little more complex. To make a function that can do this, you must first add references to both the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.8 Library (=ADODB namespace) and the Microsoft OLE DB Service Component 1.0 Type Library (=MSDASC namespace). In C# the code looks something like this:

private string PromptDataSource()
{
  MSDASC.DataLinks dataLinks = new MSDASC.DataLinksClass();
  ADODB.Connection connection = new ADODB.ConnectionClass();
  object oConnection = (object)connection;
  if (dataLinks.PromptEdit(ref oConnection))
    return connection.ConnectionString;
  else
    return "";
}

In Delphi .NET the code looks like this:

uses ADODB, MSDASC; (Add to your uses clause).

function TForm1.PromptDatasource : string;
var
  Datalinks : DataLinksClass;
  ADOConnection : Connection;
  oConnection : TObject;
begin
  Result := '';
  Datalinks := DataLinksClass.Create;
  ADOConnection := ADODB.ConnectionClass.Create;
  oConnection := TObject(ADOConnection);
  if Datalinks.PromptEdit(oConnection) then begin
    Result := ADOConnection.ConnectionString;
  end;
end;

In Delphi .NET it is wise to remove the namespace prefixing.
Default there is a prefix Borland.VCL. If you don't remove that the compiler will use the Borland.VCL.ADODB namespace instead of the ADODB namespace from the COM import.
You can do this in the options dialog under Tools.
(Or alter your project specific namespace prefixes in the project options)

Highlander, can't take that long, can it?

It just can not be taking that much longer (in time) that Highlander (Rad Studio 2007) will hit the doorsteps. There is a lot going on, like the beta blogging, and sheduled RAD 2007 Chats and sheduled RAD Studio 2007 Developer Days.
(Taking place 5, 12, 13 september)

There are some nice beta blogging entry about the new kid on the blog.

Generics:
Bob Swart shows some generics
Hallvard Vassbotn has a very detailed overview of generics and other new language features.

ECO IV:
Peter Morris has a detailed overview of ECO IV
Dave Clegg shows, in this CDN video, ECO IV with VCL.NET
Olaf Monien shows XAML coding using .NET 3.0/WPF.

Blackfish:
John MosHakis has some information about Blackfish SQL

Intresting CodeGear blogposts
Dee Elling talks about the improved help

No, no doubt RAD Studio 2007 is coming! (Real soon now?)

Highlander, the preview

Nick Hodges shows the new release of Delphi code name "Highlander".
Watch or download it here.

Back online, catching up and the human compiler

After spending three weeks in Italy (Adriano-Ravenna) on the Adriatico coast, touching no computer at all (except my PDA) it is now time to start things up again.

Catching up the Delphi scene

It looks like Delphi update 2 is coming real soon now. (It seems someone slipped some readme file)

Nick Hodges reveals the things that are not on the roadmap, with, of course, the stopped .NET 2.0 Winform designer which I blogged about sometime ago. He talks about why development was stopped, which is understandable from their standpoint of view. Developers who does not use Delphi .NET winforms are, of course, happy about it. However for those that used Delphi .NET for Winforms since Delphi 8 they will have to move away from Delphi for that type of applications. But you know: Sh*t happens, step over it

There is a nice (new?) site called codegearguru.com with a lot of video tutorials. Have not dived into it, but it looks good.

Marco Cantu is working on a Delphi 2007 handbook.

Steve Peacocke has some nice blogposts about the history of Delphi/Pascal.

The human brain is a cool compiler
I tend to read some, not computer related books, on holidays. This year I had some book about the human brain and how it works.
Did you know that the human brain does not have to read all the letters in a word to understand the meaning of the word? Only the first and last character of a word must be in the right place. Let see if this is true, can you read this?

So Ceagoder is cionmg rael soon now wtih udptae 2 of Dlehpi. Is tihs not amnzaig? If tihs cuold be ileemepnmtd in teh coepimlr it wuold gvie lses erorrs on tpoys!

Well OK, back to work!

Some IDE Experts

Triggered by some comments in my previous post I have digged a little into some available Delphi IDE Experts.
So far I found and used (not completed tested) the following:

1. Castalia
Castalia has two comboboxes on top of the Delphi editor, with the classes and methods of the current unit, which are great for navigating your source. Another nice feature is structural highlighting, where lines are placed between the begin and end blocks of your source. A free Castalia version is available for registered BDS 2006 users.

2. GExperts
GExperts offers lots of extra functions in the editor. To name a few: Find procedure, reverse statement, replace and rename component functions. The rename component function helps you to use your component naming convention wisely.
GExperts is open source.

3. DDevExtensions
DDevExtensions offers some nice, more technical, functions. If you don't like the BDS 2005-2006 and Delphi 2007 tool palette, DDevextensions allows you to use the old style tabbed tool palette. DDevExtensions is freeware.

4. cnPack
I have not yet used it very much, but it offers lot's of functions to help you to be more productive. cnPack is freeware.

Anyhow IDE experts can help you be even more productive in the Delphi environment.

I am sure there will be more out there, so if you have/know another one please leave a comment! (I will add it to this list)

Btw if you want to make your own expert, these links are a good start point:
Experts and Wizards in Delphi (delphi.about)
Delphi Open Tools API Nice overview and tutorial by Mustangpeak.

Some IDE enhancements to consider...

The Tool Palette has this great option of filtering its content. Give it the focus (or click the filter button) and start typing. For example you will find all the type of buttons when you type 'butt'.


This is just great!

Today I had to search a unit for specific functions, and you can search the code structure with the structure pane which is a list of all the components and methods of a unit in alphabetic order.


Would it not be nice to have a filtering option on the stucture panel too? Just type 'Formc' and you have your FormCreate event.

Taking this idea a step further, also the Object Inspector and Project Mangager could benefit from such an option.

I am not sure if anybody already came up with this, but if it is in Quality Central I sure would like to vote for it. (Did not find it yet)

The day after...more options?

Ok, CodeGear drops Winforms. It is now clear that I belong to an exclusive group of Delphi .NET Winforms developers out there. That sounds cool, but they now have a little problem, driving their applications into the future. I am not happy about this affaire, but live goes on. Time to sort out my options.

What was I thinking, doing Winforms development in Delphi .NET?
As I told you before I use(d) Delphi .NET Winforms for only few applications belonging to the same project.
This project is a VCL Win32 project, built up in a couple of modules (read seperate applications) which I started two years ago. Why VCL Win32? Simple Delphi is VCL
The last two modules needed Gauges and Charts. At first I builded this in VCL Win32 with TMS Software's Instrumentation workshop, however my client came up with the Dundas Gauges and Charts. And he was right, these are a class on their own.
Of course this were .NET components, which I could not use in Delphi Win32. So a decision had to be made. Basically there were two options Delphi for .NET Winforms, or VS C#. (I tried to wrap them into VCL.NET, but that did not work)
Although the controls were built for VS.NET (and supported), I choose for Delphi .NET for the simple fact that I could reuse my coreclasses by sharing them between my Win32 and .NET projects.

Bringing my Delphi for .NET Winforms apps into the future
No panic, however at some point in time I probably have to upgrade my applications to 'something else' (Or I will have to install BDS2006, and .NET 1.1 framework, for the rest of my life ;-))

At this point I think that my only option is to bring the projects over into VS C#.

More options?

CodeGear to drop winforms designer in Highlander

Early june the roadmap for Delphi and C++ Builder was published. At first sight I found it a good roadmap.
It became even better with the updated one, where the nice codename Commodore for a 64 bit Delphi was introduced.
I first became a bit worried by a blogpost of Devexpress CTO Julian Bucknall who somehow managed to read between the lines. What he read was that C# Builder and Winforms support was dropped (Kaput as he says). His exact words:

There's no mention of the WinForms designer. Indeed, as I understand it, it's kaput. You should be using the forms designer that targets VCL.NET.

Huh? Let's take a further look at the roadmap, it says:

"Highlander" is a planned release that is both a major upgrade to Delphi .NET and a roll up of Delphi 2007 for Win32 and C++Builder 2007 into the complete 2007 RAD Studio. Highlander is planned to enhance Delphi's .NET support up to .Net v2.0 including both framework, design, and language enhancements.

Delphi developers will be able to develop rich, full-featured websites using RAD techniques and ASP.NET 2.0. VCL developers will be able to easily migrate code to managed code using VCL.NET. Delphi developers will also be able to use model-driven development to drastically improve their productivity.

Specific areas of focus under consideration for Highlander are: ... etc

OK search the roadmap for Winforms and, yes, it is not mentioned. But highlights in the above quote: major upgrade to Delphi .NET, enhance Delphi's .NET support up to .Net v2.0 including both framework, design, and language enhancements

Oh well Julian must be wrong, it will all have to do with C# Builder. Dropping C# Builder, hmmm I can imagine such a decision. Because C# Builder is in fact the Microsoft C# compiler and C# syntax = C# syntax.

Well he was not wrong, in fact he had it right. After reading this non.tech thread it was all clear to me, someone asks:

Will there continue to be a Winforms designer for Delphi for .Net? Because,
that's what our ECO applications are using and we are using DevExpress .Net Winforms components. Especially, after reading Julian's blog entry of
yesterday.

and Nick Hodges from CodeGear replies:

> Will there continue to be a Winforms designer for Delphi for .Net?
No -- we aren't going to be supporting Winforms going forward.

Shock, WTF, no more winforms support???
How can a roadmap talk about design enhancements, but in fact drop it?

Delphi .NET, the history
Before I continue it is good to take a brief look at the history of Delphi in the .NET world.
Delphi entered the .NET world, announced as a first class .NET citizen read about it here. First class with everything on it. It was a evolution, instead of the revolution, so Delphi developers could embrace .NET the easy way. Well it turned out that Borland/CodeGear had to play catch up with Microsoft. .NET 2.0 support is still not here.
I remember once at a Delphi launch, here in the Netherlands, that someone asked when will Delphi support .NET 2.0? The anwser: Within a few months after its release. OK we know that a few month became a few month more, but what the hack we can wait, we want to do Delphi, also in .NET!

Finally its there, but it is crippled without the winforms designer support.

What does this mean for Delphi.NET Winform developers?
This one is not hard to answer. Delphi .NET and C# programmers will have no form designer if they move forward to .NET 2.0 and beyond. Be assured you can manually code your design (Yeah, yeah I am looking forward to that...) and compile your code. So basically they are forced to move to either VCL.NET or VS. The first option, VCL.NET, is, imo, not a real option because the lack of thirdparty components. So the only valid option looks to be, to move on to VS. This will drive those developers away from Delphi, is that the goal? I doubt that.

What does this all mean for Delphi as a product?
Well I can only write down my own opinion here, but I think it is a bad mistake. Whether we like it or not .NET will become more and more the synoniem for Windows Development. Win32 will be supported for a long, long time but from a business point of view as well from a personal point of view (jobs) you can't deny .NET when you development has a focus on Windows. You just can't.

What for appeal has a .NET IDE with only ASP.NET support?
Personally I think it is more logic to have an IDE that support both.

Is VCL.NET a true alternative for Winforms?
I don't think so. I don't know if it is used often, but it seriously lacks thirdparty support.

I think that Delphi will continue to be strong on native Win32/64, but its .NET participation will decline.

What does this mean for me?
I always tried to pick the right tools for the right job. At this moment I do projects in Delphi 2007 Win32(60%), Delphi .NET(10%) and Visual Studio 2005 C# ASP.NET(30%).
In the long term I will probably move my Delphi .NET applications to VS C#. Fortunately they are not that big, but it will cost me some time. I think it is a pitty, because VS2005 has also it's quirks. Even now I find that Delphi .NET (the IDE) has some advantages compared to VS. (Still can't get used to the endless list of tabs in VS)
Delphi will stay to be my number one tool in the Win32/64 native development world, but on .NET it will be another story.

The roadmap
Nevertheless the roadmap has some great things for the near future (Unicode, Win64). However I find it a bad sign that the roadmap is not clear on the Winforms departure, which has great impact on the developers using it.
It seems that messages from CodeGear now, and Borland in the past, are still driving confusion, and that will affect its customers, and eventually CodeGear self.