Delphi Prism is dead, long live Oxygene.

I just learned that Rad Studio XE4 will not include the "Prism"  (delphi compiler for .Net) product in the bundle anymore.

I for one am not surprised.  RemObject's delphi-flavored "Oxygene" language that powered the "Delphi Prism" product (a rebranding of Oxygene, since day one) has been more of a threat to Embarcadero than an asset, since the move towards iOS ("Nougat") and Java.

Embarcadero has a really nice plan, a cross-platform-Delphi go-to-market strategy, and I believe that their plans and RemObject's plans have been on a collision course for some time. As a consumer who purchases products from both, I am happy.  As I should be.  Because that means there will be competition.  I believe that the perception from inside the Embarcadero camp might be that they are a serious producer of compilers and native-code-generation tools, and the idea that .Net based "JIT" is "native development" is laughed at inside the hallowed halls of Delphi's developers, the idea being that  Delphi's core compiler and IDE technology is of an order of magnitude more importance and sophistication than the tiny little product known as "Prism" inside the RAD Studio box, and Oxygene everywhere else.

I don't actively use Oxygene/Prism, but I'm definitely interested in both it, and in XE4's cross-platform abilities when they ship.  As I have already learned iOS and Objective-C I don't need anyone to spare me that learning curve. It's done.  But I could use a tool that will let me build one app and target more than one mobile platform at once.

RemObjects' products, including Oxygene, are powerful precisely because they are built on top of a big open source ecosystem (Mono on non-Windows platforms) and by being built atop .Net are also leveraging powerful .Net platform capabilities, on Windows.

Ironically, the era of doing your own compiler from scratch is drawing to a close as Embarcadero prepares for a future where a new llvm-based Delphi compiler allows for native-compilation on iOS, and Android.  This is an era of collaboration and an era of competition, at the same time.  While Embarcadero may be "big" compared to RemObjects, both are small compared to the real juggernauts in the software industry.  Microsoft has the Windows platform just about sewn up, and VisualStudio has a commanding presence on Windows.   As Embarcadero and RemObjects set sail on the "blue ocean" of cross-platform development I wish them both the best of luck.

My personal bet is on the Embarcadero horse, because I like the idea of an llvm-based compiler and no runtime overhead and full static optimizing compiler tech, on mobile, windows, and mac.  But if that falls short of its promise for some reason, I am glad that there is another horse in this race.  Having Embarcadero and RemObjects as competitors is better for me, the intended target market for both company's products.

I am not on any Delphi XE4 field tests or betas and the information in this post is based purely on what I have read in public websites.

Update:I was not aware that the ios apps emitted by nougat were native compiled binaries... However I do not consider the dalvik stuff any less of a jit based java tech, dalvik does do preJit compilation, just a change of degree not of nature. Optimizers happen at device load time and are less effective. There is still an overhead in dalvik but it is part of android and you don't redistribute any runtimes. So when I say "native" I mean non jvm and non jit. If I am truly mistaken here I ask to be corrected.
Update 2: I just read the docs for Xe4. Zero based immutable strings? What the hell were you thinking, Alan? I have reversed my bet and am now betting on remobjects. I guess oxygene strings are like .net strings and are thus zero based and immutable but if I have to bear that kind of semantic seismic shift I think I also would like it named something other than Delphi when you're quite finished turning delphi into objective c with begin and end keywords.oh well. I must admit that Arc is pretty damn cool, I forgive you Alan, I am still super excited to try this out when it ships! This is probably the price for using a string type in the new compiler which participates fully in objective c classes as a toll free bridged equivalent to nsstring.
Update 3: I plan a followup that covers the reality better as soon as I get hands on time eith both xe4 Rtm and Nougat RTM. Color me a possible Oxygene customer.