Sneak Preview: Delphi 2011 is Delphi XE

We just posted the RAD Studio XE Sneak Preview at http://www.embarcadero.com/rad-studio-xe-preview. Each Tuesday for the next three weeks, we'll be previewing some of the great new things that are coming in the upcoming versions of RAD Studio XE, Delphi XE, C++Builder XE, Delphi Prism XE and RadPHP XE (formerly Delphi for PHP).

You may be wondering what is Delphi XE?  Is this Delphi 2011?

Yes it is, just with a different name.

We've changed to a new consistent branding and version numbering for all the products so the new versions will be called XE. You may have already seen our earlier XE product releases including DB Artisan XE, DB Change Manager XE, Rapid SQL XE, DB Optimizer XE, and Embarcadero All-Access XE. This new version of Delphi is a major upgrade and the equivalent of a "2011" version. Going forward, future versions will be called XE2, XE3, etc.

What does XE mean? It's not really an acronym for anything. However, there are three things that are common across all of our XE products.

1. Heterogeneous database support where you get a consistent experience when working with multiple databases and you don't have to pay an additional cost per-platform for database support. This is something that we've always offered with the RAD products but now has been extended to our database products as they move to the XE branding.
2. XE products are ToolCloud-enabled. The ToolCloud license management and provisioning system is a great solutions for companies and organizations that want to streamline license management.
3. Embarcadero XE products offer an easy upgrade to Embarcadero All-Access XE. I look at All-Access as kind of the Embarcadero equivalent of MSDN. You get the complete range of Embarcadero database tools and developer tools plus a year of upgrades. 

Let me know what you think about the RAD Studio XE Sneak Preview and be sure to keep checking back for more blogs and articles being added throughout the week and a new video added each Tuesday.