Only days to go
It is now only a matter of days before Smart Mobile Studio 1.0 goes on sale. It marks the end of a one year journey for us to create something completely new for the object pascal community, written in nothing but Delphi itself. But while the journey from idea to realization is over, the next stage of Smart technology is about to begin – and it’s going to be big. Really big.
In this our first release, focus has been on providing you with a solid foundation. A visual javascript component library (VJL) with identical parent/child relationship to what you are already familiar with. An integrated development environment with essential functionality including a component palette. And last but not least, a mock form designer with live rendering of the actual HTML5.
As we move ahead each aspect of the formula will be expanded, strengthened and refined. And while we cant blow the whistle just yet, we have something very exciting in our labs that is going to change everything. Forever.
This is quite possibly the most significant Pascal
development to be watching right now, and brings
the wonderful Pascal language to the world of
Internet development! -Simon Stuart, Delphi developer via Google+
So, do you have to have Delphi to use MS or does it run standalone?
No Delphi needed. It comes with an IDE that allows you to edit your code, compile and test it. It also has a built in Chromium wrapper which allows you to run the code directly without even having chrome installed.
Cool beans! Thanks!
Hello – what will be the price tag? I’m really happy to see such a software – keep going.
We have opted for a 1 year subscription, which is $399. This includes everthing: all new units, RTL fixes and expansion, and ofcourse our components (including the upcomming database and RPC layer) – and all IDE updates and improvements.
Sounds a little pricy, perhaps you might consider offering other alternatives.
If you compare the price to the number of times you upgrade a product over the course of say, two years, then the benefit of a yearly subscription makes sense. If you also compare our RTL, our compiler technology and IDE to the alternatives, for example blitzbasic or android basic – which is between $100 and $150 lower in price but without anything extra — the benefits are clear. No other system on the marked with the exception of native systems, delivers so much at this price.
Also, we dont seperate support from the product. Other systems on offer charge less for the actual product, but then add getting help and asking questions into a seperate deal. The sub total ends up the same.
If you take into consideration the learning curve for native alternatives, like C# or Objective C, the books you have to buy and time spent learning the ropes of an alien language – $399 for a 12 month subscription is not a bad deal. Not to mention the number of target platforms you reach (you can even run our code on a TV browser).
And we are just getting started. Over the next year our product will grow, the RTL will gain more and more classes and features – and so will our component base and IDE. The price is not for a “single shot” buy where you get a static snapshot of the current version – you get everything we add, improve and make for the next 12 months.
Take your time and look at the alternatives, their RTL and language features – I’m sure you will see that you are getting a huge amount of technology at a very reasonable price.
Is there a link for the trial/beta/alpha release so I could try the products before deciding if I am interested in buying?
I could not find any…
A trial version will be make public very soon. People will ofcourse be able to try and play with the product before they buy.
What are the changes of the version 1.0 in relation to beta 2?
And what is new?
A full technical fact sheet will be uploaded shortly.
Will there be any splitting in different versions (Standard, Professional, Enterprise)?
No we have only one offer at the moment. By splitting up in different versions it would mean a lot more hours would have to go into this, and also more potential conflicts between versions. We would also need a larger infrastructure to maintain the code and customer base. By keeping it simple we will be able to put all our energy into expanding the product.
Could you please consider cheaper version for noncommercial usage… That is too expensive for hobby stuff…
+1
It could make sense especially for Open Source projects.
IMHO $399 (hoping it won’t be €399!) is a bit high for an IDE+classes, since the IDE is working but far away from Delphi (or even Lazarus/MSEIDE), and since the core of Smart is the DWS compiler, which is Open Source itself.
When we started, the parts that were later added to dws, did not exist. It was eric and myself that sat down with the idea and worked it out. So this is not just us kidnapping dws and re-selling it, quite the opposite. There wouldnt be a codegen without us. While eric started on the codegen, I created the runtime library and ide – while we were still building the backbone (so you can imagine the challenge). There is a huge amount of time, effort and energy that has gone into this. It is absolutely not just a case of dropping dws on a form. We have a pre-processor and other key elements that have nothing to do with dws – and there are many things in the IDE that is not yet visible, but will surface in the upcomming weeks and months. Including smarting up the ide with more delphi features, and a faster live designer.
We also have a class model between the ide and dws, so we can in fact hot-swap compiler at any time.
If you compare our price to other products, like say blitzbasic or perhaps more fitting: monotouch – which is a language plugin for monodevelop – it’s price range is from $399 to over $1500. The same type of pricing is found in the world of javascript editors which doesnt even have an RTL.
We think our price is reasonable considering the amount of money, time and energy we have put into this (I have dedicated a whole year of my life making this happen) – and plan to further invest in the system over the comming years. We will ofcourse take all comments into consideration, and we have looked at several models already.
Things like the RTL looks easy now, but figuring out all the details and making the whole project happen was expensive and time consuming.
When I started with C#, I bought 4 books that set me back $200. I bought monotouch (pro) which cost me $399, and I bought my apple developer license which cost me $100. All in all I had to pay roughly $700 just to create and publish our time management client. I also spent 2 months learning the language and coding the product. The same product was re-created in smart over a weekend. In fact part of the motivation for smart was that these alternative languages, like C#, objective C and the likes – were overly cumbersome. There has to be a better way if you want to create mobile web apps. And thus smart was born. At half the price of monotouch, which is also based on an opensource system.
In the months and years ahead, javascript will become more and more important. And object pascal will be there to push the limits of what a browser can do.