Embarcadero Technologies, one of the top providers of tools for application developers and database professionals, recently launched a major overhaul of its development tools line, integrating them all into RAD Studio XE3. RAD Studio comes included with Delphi and C++ Builder. The company said this latest release of RAD is to improve support for cross-platform development across multiple versions of Windows and OS X, along with enhanced database connectivity and HTML5 support.

RAD Studio also boasts an update version of FireMonkey, Embarcadero’s UI engine that allows Delphi and C++ developers to use a single code base for both Mac and Windows. The company says that the new FireMonkey UI engine allows for the creation of "pixel perfect" native OS user interfaces, as well as custom user interfaces developed by a third party. FireMonkey can also develop Apple (News – Alert) App Store-ready applications with Retina support.

RAD Studio XE3 also features a new framework specifically for Windows 8 development called Metropolis UI, which includes integrated support for touch, Live Tiles and tablet sensor devices. Metropolis UI also includes tools to migrate legacy Windows apps built on an existing Visual Components Library.

Although Delphi and C++ Builder were rumored to include true Windows Runtime (RT) support, Embarcadero director of product management, John Thomas, said that this features has not been implemented — at least not yet.

"Delphi and C++Builder native compilers do not support WinRT in XE3," said Thomas in a statement. "While we have plans to support that environment in the future, the majority of our customers have asked us for Windows Desktop support (traditional Win32 APIs, etc.) with the Windows 8 look and feel because porting to WinRT would be a serious effort otherwise."

Embarcadero also released the new HTML5 Builder, available as part of the RAD Studio or as a standalone release. HTML5 Builder allows developers to build Web and mobile apps with Javascript, HTML5, JQuery mobile and CSS3. Best of all, this tool is capable of targeting iOS, Android (News – Alert), BlackBerry, and Windows Phone from a common HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript codebase, making for easier cross-platform development.

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