IntraWeb XII (12)

IntraWeb XII (12)

We are not developing XII yet. But we are moving towards the planning stages and its likely near the new year we will start to ship alpha versions of XII.

Status

This is not a road map. Nothing regarding XII has been committed yet, we are merely exploring our options and have posted this “brain dump” to solicit feedback from our users before committing to a road map.

.NET dependency

XII likely will use CrossTalk which will allow us to use .NET code in IntraWeb. This will also create a dependency on the server side for .NET. User code would still be written in Delphi, but by using CrossTalk, internally IntraWeb will gain access to the .NET class library and other functions that would greatly enhance IntraWeb’s overall functionality.

Mac and Linux

CodeGear has announced that Delphi will be able to cross compile for Mac and Linux in the future. We find this proposition very exciting. However for IntraWeb these platforms are not necessarily a good match. Because IntraWeb XII will likely use .NET, deploying to a Mac or Linux based server will be problematic. Mac and Linux based clients will of course work fine with IntraWeb based applications.

Mac – While the Mac is a great desktop platform, its usage as a server is essentially nil. IntraWeb will not support deployment of server based applications on the Mac.

Linux – Certainly Linux has its credentials established in the server market. However IntraWeb currently does not support Linux, and does quite well in deployments (although a few users do deploy IntraWeb servers via Wine). We have been down this road in the past with Kylix. Deploying to Linux certainly is a desirable feature, however we believe the advantages provided by a Linux deployment are far outweighed by the advantages we will gain by using .NET and CrossTalk. Thus, likely IntraWeb will not support Linux deployment when Delphi does.

Browser Support

HTML 5 or Silverlight?

HTML 5 is on the horizon, but its not here yet. HTML 5 is probably at least 2 years out.

HTML 5

Some browsers support many aspects of HTML 5, and likely we will move on to those features of HTML 5.

Silverlight

Silverlight however offers us several capabilities that will not be available even with the final release of HTML 5. So likely we will still integrate more with Silverlight as well, but only in ways that are optional for users. That is, Silverlight will not be a requirement for IntraWeb XII applications. If used however, it could enhance the application greatly.

Browser Libraries

Completely up for discussion.

Other Features

There certainly will be other features as well. A few examples:

  • Server Manager will be released for XI and also upgraded for XII.
  • Source code will ship to general users for both XI and XII.
  • Browser Detection code revamp
  • Continued IPM (Integrated Page Mode) enhancements
  • CSS revamp
  • Template revamp