Dr.Bob at BorCon98

Mr.Haki and Dr.Bob "live" from BorCon98
Last Updated: 1998/09/09

Welcome to our BorCon98 conference report, "live" from Denver (CO), with the latest facts on Delphi, JBuilder and C++Builder...
We used the internet connections in the Computer Lab at the Convention Area to upload new versions of this conference report from time to time (featuring the latest news and announcements).

At ICon98, Hubert did his great pre-conference tutorial on JavaBeans, and Bob gave a both session on Delphi 32-bit Efficiency and a final Introduction to Javabeans.
Updated papers and full source code will appear on the second burn of the ICon98 Conference CD-ROM (also for sale at that time for people who didn't attend the conference). Of course, as soon as we're back, we'll make our updated papers & source code available on this website as well, so stay tuned...

Hubert A. Klein Ikkink (aka "Mr.Haki"), wrote down his Conference Diary.

Facts

The BorCon98 has been officially named ICon98, and this will be the name from now on (so next year will be called ICon99, to be held in Philadelphia mid July 1999).

JBuilder

The Conference package included a 60-day trial JBuilder 2 C/S CD-ROM.

At the Meet The JBuilder Development Team session, Blake Stone mentioned that a new JBuilder inline release is in beta at this time.

In the Technical Keynote session, John Kaster showed JMIDAS - the MIDAS link for JBuilder, and Chuck Jazdzewski showed a BCC32J.EXE - a 32-bits Delphi to Java VM ByteCode compiler !!! This compiler will compile a Delphi Server application (= a non-GUI app) to Java ByteCode, so you can deploy it on a Unix machine, for example.
Read Allen Bauer's blog (May 2004) for the fate of BCC32J.EXE...

Dr. Alan E. Baratz of Sun JavaSoft announced at the Tuesday Keynote session that JDK 1.2 will be available on November 1998, followed by HotSpot (a performance booster - up to a factor 2) in Feb 1999.
Main features of the new JDK 1.2 are:

JFC & Java 2D
Enhanced Java Security Model (you can access files, the network - but controlled)
Java IDL, JDBC, JNDI

Sun will also be supporting Inprise in making sure that JBuilder gets more towards being "100% pure Java" itself (the JBuilder IDE that is, the produced code already is). This would result in future versions of JBuilder that would be totally platform independent themselves (i.e. we could run JBuilder X from Linux, for example).

C++Builder

We attended a session that was about the next version of C++Builder, with full support for Oracle 8, integrated CORBA development, etc.

Also, Raize Software Solutions showed CodeSite version 1.1 at the ICon98 (an advanced debugging tool), which now also supports C++Builder version 3 (and all versions of Delphi, of course).

Delphi

In the Technical Keynote session on Monday, Chuck Jazdzewski showed a BCC32J.EXE - a 32-bits Delphi to Java VM ByteCode compiler !!! This compiler (scheduled for release on an unspecified future date) will compile a Delphi Server application (= a non-GUI app) to Java ByteCode, so you can deploy it on a Unix machine, for example.
Another nice future (but demonstrated) feature of the Delphi TDatabase component is the ability to connect to a JDBC datasource (using the new URL property). Quite impressive...

The Spirit of Delphi award was won by the Delphi SuperPage and the authors of RxLib.
Marco Cantu, Bob Swart and Torry's Delphi Pages got an honourable mention.

Ray Konopka mentioned the fact that Raize Software Solutions has obtained the VisualPro package from Shoreline Software, and will integrate these components into Raize Components version 2 (which can be expected to have about 80 components now, and will probably be available in the September/early October timeframe).

Delphi 4

The Update Pack 1 for Delphi 4 is available in the Computer Lab at the conference, and for download from the Inprise website.
Note that the Update Pack 1 for Delphi 4 will only work on an existing Delphi 4 installation. Also, you need to download the right Update Pack for your installation (C/S for C/S, Pro for Pro, Std for Std), and finally you need to re-enter your serial number (the same one you needed in order to install Delphi 4 in the first place) when applying the patch.
Warning: A new Update Pack 1 was uploaded on Aug 12th, fixing a few (?) more bugs. Check your patched files. If they are dated before Aug 10th, then you applied the first patch (if they are dated Aug 11th then you already applied the second patch). You can apply the second patch directly on Delphi 4, or on Delphi 4 with the first patch already applied (no problem).

An update to the Delphi 4 Documentation and Helpfiles is also available for download on the Delphi Product Documentation Page (which summarizes the latest Delphi documentation, provides updates, access to forms for ordering printed documentation, and lets you send suggestions directly to the Delphi writing team).

That's it for now. We hope to be back soon with an update and the latest & greatest from other Inprise Conferences around the world...

Groetjes, Hubert & Bob