[DUG] Embarcadero article

[Paul Heinz]

Jolyon wrote: 
> > Project X is a rather suspicious title in that regard :-)
> 
> Hmmm, one might speculate that the project name is itself 
> cross-platform and
> loaded with hidden meaning :
> 
>   OS X
>   X-Windows
>   10 = X in Roman Numerals
>    .. 20 of course = 2 x 10
>    .. 2 additional "X" platforms are in the cross[sic]-hairs)
>    ...
>     2010 release
> 
> Oooh the numerologists are gonna have a field day with this one!
> 
> 
> Or maybe they just couldn't think of a name, called it "X" to 
> be going on with, and it just, yaknow, stuck.

I think you're probably right actually. From the blog posts (hah!),
Project X is supposedly a cross-platform GUI controlset for OSX, Linux
(i.e. X-Windows) AND Windows. 

So it looks like they're designing their own native cross-platform
toolkit from the top before the fact. They may well have come to the
decision that layering over Qt was too problematic and they're better to
build their own from the ground up - sort of a CLX done properly with no
nasty bits. 

Since they have their own compilers, they don't need the hoary kludge
that is moc and the sucky string based signals/slots, etc. that Qt
requires to be portable across C++ compilers.

The interesting issue is that if Project X 'works' as a 'VCL - the Next
Generation', the current VCL becomes a Windows-only parallel framework
for Delphi going forward. 

Then depending on who keeps buying Delphi, the VCL might become a legacy
framework since Embarcadero will focus their engineering dollars where
the most customer revenue is.

If Project 'X' is highly successful (which Embarcadero obviously hopes
is the case) and the VCL/NG Linux and OSX Delphi developer base grows
strongly, the VCL might become the red-haired step-child with waning
Embarcadero and 3rd party component vendor support.

Cheers,
  Paul.