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C++Builder and Platforms Support

David Millington

David Millington (Senior Product Manager), Atanas Popov (General Manager, Developer Tools), Kyle Wheeler (General Manager, C++)

Over the past year, we have had many customers ask about our plans to continue cross-platform multi-device support in C++Builder. We’d like to provide an update on our plans.

Platform Overview

We prioritized VCL work for C++Builder to FMX, which puts us behind on our support on platform support. Currently, C++Builder 10.4 supports:

Those most impacted should already know the following, but to be clear: On August 1, Google’s deadline for 32-bit applications will come into effect and if you want to continue to update your apps on the Play Store, you will need to recompile them as Android 64-bit. C++Builder does not currently support this platform. We will not deliver Android 64-bit support by August 1st, nor in C++Builder 10.4.1 (2020.)

It’s worth noting that 32-bit Android applications are still fully functional – in fact, we released a hotfix to 10.4 solving C++ Android 32-bit exception handling issues a few days ago. Android devices still support 32-bit apps; it is only the Play Store that has the 64-bit limitation, meaning that in-house applications or sideloaded applications remain fully functional.

We also have not scheduled macOS 64-bit support for 2020. When we do, we will likely move directly to support ARM (Apple Silicon.)

If Android 64-bit is important to you, RAD Studio with Delphi is fully compatible. Contact us today to discuss a discount and make the switch.

Customer Feedback and Platforms

In March 2019, we sent out a customer survey. The overall feedback from our C++Builder customers in that survey was to ask us to focus on Windows and Windows quality: compiler quality, STL, and IDE (including code completion.)

The majority of our C++Builder customers are targeting Windows only, using the VCL. They do so because of VCL’s performance and the native controls, and the new controls we provide; further, Microsoft has created pressure to upgrade to Windows 10 and our Windows 10 support is highly useful to those migrating apps, or to those looking for a high-quality UI app environment for Windows 10.

The strategy this put us on was clear: to focus on Windows and ensure it met your expectations, ahead of working on other platforms. For this reason, we removed macOS Catalina support from the roadmap, and we have been working on Windows quality ahead of Android 64-bit support since then.

Windows Quality

We are very aware that since our Clang upgrade in November 2018, the quality for Windows, including IDE tooling, has not been what we want to deliver.

So what’s our plan? What are we addressing?

We have long-standing issues around code completion, the linker, some STL classes, and some compiler ICEs. Further, there are IDE productivity features we want to provide to ensure C++Builder surpasses other IDEs in terms of productivity. Our goal for Windows is the following:

For quality:

For features:

The ultimate aim here is to ensure that (a) things work as you want and expect, and (b) we are both compatible with general C++ (which helps you) and surpass other tools in productivity. Our libraries, like the VCL, are world-leading — having IDE productivity also at that level will make C++Builder a significant force.

While we are not there yet, that strategy explains our focus and what we have delivered since that survey. Let’s dig into both what we have delivered, and what we have planned, with some comments that explain them in light of the above.

Improvements

In the time since that survey, we have delivered:

In future, we plan to deliver:

Summary

Our C++Builder customers have asked us to focus on Windows and quality, and that’s what we’re doing. We are focusing on providing high-quality Windows development for you, especially with a focus on IDE productivity to match our existing UI productivity, as well as resolving important issues. This does mean that we will not have Android 64-bit or macOS support in the short-term (6-9 month) timeframe. However, we are working on – and have delivered – some important improvements to Windows already. Further items, like Visual Assist integration, are exciting for making C++Builder lead ahead of other IDE’s productivity. We understand that this prioritization may impact some of you negatively for which we apologize. We feel that focusing on quality and Windows is the right thing today to ensure we give you the product you want and need.

Once we are confident in the quality enhancements and feature set for Windows development we will reevaluate the landscape and take appropriate steps to address other platforms and features. Stay tuned for upcoming releases and stay in touch with other feedback or requests!

Note: These plans and roadmap represent our intentions as of this date, but our development plans and priorities are subject to change. Accordingly, we can’t offer any commitments or other forms of assurance that we’ll ultimately release any or all of the described products on the schedule or in the order described, or at all. These general indications of development schedules or “product roadmaps” should not be interpreted or construed as any form of a commitment, and our customers’ rights to upgrades, updates, enhancements and other maintenance releases will be set forth only in the applicable software license agreement.

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