Daniel Stenning wrote: > Lets face it, neither GCC or Xcode have much need commercially to keep > providing new sexy features - neither the open source community or Apple > need to derive any income from their tools. Hence one can expect to see much > higher fix to new feature ratio. > Actually, much work is being done to add to the GCC suite and it is constantly being optimized due to pressures from high-performance users. Maybe optimization isn't a sexy "feature" and expanded support for Fortran won't impress people outside the sciences, but these are major tasks. gFortran (2003 spec) has added a lot of features. However, the "market" for GCC is also the very people updating it.
Work on Objective-C definitely stalled for the last decade -- which is inexcusable. The new revision will be a decent, but incremental, move ahead. Apple is letting programmers migrate to automated garbage collection at their own pace, while I would have pushed it much harder. Microsoft hasn't sat still. C# is a major move. CodeGear has introduced Delphi for PHP, while also reviving the "Turbo C/Delphi/C++" line of tools with both .Net and Win32 editions. Real Software is introducing "new" features because they need to catch up in some ways, and then be better in others. Killing bugs is essential to surviving, if you ask me. I don't like to think I'm using a compiler from a company with a buggy IDE -- it just feels wrong. It's an emotional response, not a logical one. Heck, most tools I use don't even require a particular IDE. RB is in a tough market. I'm finding myself running more Windows apps via Parallels and caring a lot less about cross-platform code. If a Windows compiler produces faster code, that's where I'll be. Apple's move to Intel has really freed me from any one OS or compiler. Kill bugs, improve speed, then add features. I was current through 2006r4 because I'm an optimist -- Real knows we have options. Lots of options. That's a lot of pressure to fix things or lose developers. - CSW _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
