25 January, 2012

EurekaLog and FireMonkey / Win64 / OSX

Clarification about EurekaLog and latest Delphi versions...

Delphi XE2 has introduced a new visual framework - FireMonkey, as well as support for more platforms, including Win64 and OSX.

There are constant income of questions about EurekaLog's future and possible support for these new technlogies. So I've decided to publish general explanation for everyone.

EurekaLog and FireMonkey

The answer is simple - EurekaLog will... never support FireMonkey, because there is nothing to support! FireMonkey is visual framework. But EurekaLog just don't use any visual frameworks - it don't use VCL and it certainly don't need to use FireMonkey. EurekaLog uses API for all visual UI.

That's why you already can use EurekaLog with both VCL and FireMonkey applications.

Of course, if you want to create your own custom error dialogs for EurekaLog or something like that - fine, use API, VCL, FireMonkey or whatever technology else. There is no limitations. However, EurekaLog is not related to VCL or FireMonkey. It's just exception tracer.

EurekaLog and Win64

Sorry, but EurekaLog 6 will never support Win64. It was written without considering other platforms in mind.

However, there are good news: EurekaLog 7 will support Win64. Right now we're working on it, even though it dind't appear in any public releases. Support for Win64 is our current top priority!

It's expected that Win64 support will be released (as beta) after we ship stable release of EurekaLog 7. You can help this to happen sooner by testing EurekaLog.

Preleminary estimate is that Win64 support will be basic for first few releases and then we'll add advanced features (like disassembler view).

Another good news is that we want to make migration process as painless as possible. Ideally you should be able to install EurekaLog 7, open your old project, recompile it - and it should work.

EurekaLog and OSX

The case with OSX support is very similar to Win64. EurekaLog 6 is out of question, but support for OSX is planned for EurekaLog 7. This is our second top-priority.

We want to finish Win64 first and then start going for OSX. Currently, there was no work done for OSX, but all current work is done with future OSX target in mind.

EurekaLog and... Lazarus/MSVS C++

Yes, there is slight possibility for appearing EurekaLog for other IDEs like Lazarus or Microsoft Visual Studio (C++). However, currently this is considered as low-priority in far-far away future.

Note: this information is highly preliminary and is suject to change. Also, there is no estimates available.