Update: Borland launches Sidewinder at C# programmers

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Posted on 10 Feb 2003 at 16:45

Borland has gone public with news of its C# programming environment. Codenamed 'Sidewinder, it will be a purely .Net development environment, with not an ounce of Delphi or Borland's venerable VCL (Visual Component Library).

In addition to a new drag-and-drop based IDE (Integrated development environment), Borland emphasises the wider application lifecycle support that the tool will provide for C# developers.

In the manner of JBuilder, profiling and testing tools - via technology acquired from OptimizeIt - will be integrated into the development cycle, blurring the separation of development and testing. Similarly, modelling technology acquired from Bold - and present in Delphi 7 - will blur the distinction between design and development. Technology from StarTeam will aid team-based development, including the automatic generation of project metrics.

'Sidewinder gives a clear message to the Microsoft development community - you've now got a choice,' said Borland's European Product Line Manger RAD Products, Jason Vokes, as he showed us the new environment.

Programming features include Code Folding (where sections of code can be abstracted, and literally hidden away), and Code Insight (the auto completion of program statements - pictured). The latter is particularly useful for C++ programmers having to get used to the case-sensitivities of C#.

As well as C#, Sidewinder will support VB.Net development because this is built into the .Net framework.

The Sidewinder environment is currently in beta form. While it is not officially a closed beta program, you will have to contact Borland to have access to the tool. Before the end of March a public beta release should be available.

Borland, however, is keen to emphasise that Delphi developers are not being sidelined or ignored. Delphi 7 programmers already have their own DCCIL (Delphi Compiler for Common Intermediate Language) 'diesel'-based route into .Net development and, incidentally, a further Delphi 7 update should be available in a couple of weeks.

In the future, Borland has further ambitions for its new tool - interoperability of Java with .Net. 'Borland can join Java and .Net worlds together in a customer focused way,' believes Vokes. 'We have key technologies in both worlds.'

Interestingly, a circle is being completed here. It was in 1996 that Anders Hejlsberg - key figure behind the development of Delphi - joined Microsoft as its Chief C# Language Architect. Similarities of C# to Delphi and its use of the VCL are not accidental, and this will surely help ease the integration of C# and .Net back into Borland's world. What goes around comes around.

Author: Alun Williams