CodeGear does scripting, Microsoft does migration

There’s more to life than high-level languages, like Java, C/C++ or C#. Perhaps we’re witnessing a new era, the age of scripting languages. They’re faster to code in, better suited to tasks such as Web development, easier to learn, and highly portable.

What scripting languages have lacked, however, have been a wide variety of professional-grade tools purpose-built to accommodate their unique characteristics. Sure, there have long been some great tools, such as ActiveState’s Komodo IDE and powerful super-editors like MetaEdit+ or Visual SlickEdit. But for the most part, script-writers have been forced to shoe-horn themselves into generic IDEs, or use text editors like vi, BBEdit or even Notepad. (By tools, I don’t just mean an editor; I mean everything from design/modeling to coding to static/dynamic testing to deployment.)

Thus, my pleasure this week at CodeGear’s announcement of Delphi for PHP, a visual RAD system for PHP-based Web development. It’s got editing and integrated debugging – the same resources, in fact, that Delphi has offered for Object Pascal shops for quite a few years. Delphi for PHP is a huge step forward, not just for script-language developer, but also for the new Borland subsidiary. (I saw a prerelease build of Delphi for PHP in my recent visit to the CodeGear campus, and was impressed with what I saw.) It’s expected to ship in March.

Also this week, Microsoft shipped final versions of several free tools to help IT administrators deploy Windows Vista and Office 2007 ; I haven’t worked with any of them. They include:

Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 helps resolve potential application compatibility issues encountered when moving to Windows Vista.

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0 inventories all PCs on a business’s network without installing any software agents on each PC, assesses their hardware and device compatibility with Windows Vista, and generates a set of upgrade recommendations.

Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0 activates multiple Windows Vista-based PCs in which are covered by volume license agreements.

Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003 hosts a local service that is used during the Windows Vista activation process without sending information to Microsoft.

Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment 2007 bundles some of the tools above with deployment guidelines.

>> Update 10:15 am PT: Reposted because I had originally referred to Borland instead of CodeGear. Old habits die hard.