The Android 64bit deadline warnings have started

[Ugochukwu Mmaduekwe 42]

Just now, Mike Margerum said:

I may try it on windows and if it works ok i may try it there.  i'd imagine 95% of my target demo would be windows users anyway.  I'm really on the fence here whether to uses something native (lazarus, QT, wxWindows) or just go pure web.  The web stuff is, at this point, a superior development experience but these frameworks get rewritten every few years and I build software that runs for decades.  Maybe thats just not possible anymore 

Well I use Lazarus on Windows and Linux and it is quite stable (especially on Linux), I think the issue you are experiencing may be related to just Mac OSX.

Can you try to install the trunk version using fpcdeluxe? Your issue might have been fixed there.

 

[Mike Margerum 16]

8 minutes ago, Ugochukwu Mmaduekwe said:

Well I use Lazarus on Windows and Linux and it is quite stable (especially on Linux), I think the issue you are experiencing may be related to just Mac OSX.

Can you try to install the trunk version using fpcdeluxe? Your issue might have been fixed there.

 

Good to know there is full linux support.  I'll try laz out on a windows VM on my mac.

 

Thanks

[Sherlock 663]

"The web stuff" is very much dependent on browsers, their versions and manufacturers. That is not something to take lightly. Just look at all the poor folks that have to keep on using IE 10 or even 8 because of dimly written web based applications, that have been published in a fire and forget manner. I would only ever even consider going that way for non critical short lived Apps.

[Markus Kinzler 174]

Quote

"The web stuff" is very much dependent on browsers, their versions and manufacturers.

With an chromium based edge, all browsers will support modern web standards this problem will cease. Mozilla and others work on support Webassembly besides web/browser. This can became the better version of java (vm) and .net (il).

[Sherlock 663]

1 hour ago, Markus Kinzler said:

With an chromium based edge, all browsers will support modern web standards this problem will cease. Mozilla and others work on support Webassembly besides web/browser. This can became the better version of java (vm) and .net (il).

Yeah right. Do you really believe "they" will stop developing own tags and/or standards to set themselves apart from the competition? I'll believe it when I see it. Too much has happened since I first browsed the net with NCSA Mosaic on an HP Apollo Workstation (Micky D's was under construction back then... those where the days, man!)

[Mike Margerum 16]

6 hours ago, Sherlock said:

"The web stuff" is very much dependent on browsers, their versions and manufacturers. That is not something to take lightly. Just look at all the poor folks that have to keep on using IE 10 or even 8 because of dimly written web based applications, that have been published in a fire and forget manner. I would only ever even consider going that way for non critical short lived Apps.

I've already built a sizable app in vue/vueutify and honestly didn't have one issue WRT cross browser compatibility.  Of course i had the luxury of rejecting IE 10 or lower.    I'm perfectly willing to cut out that segment because the effort isn't worth it.

[Jose Morango 2]

So this means that for delphi firemonkey developers 1 August is already here? We cannot submit to android store already?

 

[Dalija Prasnikar 1396]

3 hours ago, Jose Morango said:

So this means that for delphi firemonkey developers 1 August is already here? We cannot submit to android store already?

 

You can still submit and publish to the store.

 

But when you submit application that does not have 64bit Android support you get warning that your application is not fully compliant with upcoming rules and that you need to fix that to be able to update your application further after the deadline.

[Chris Pim 34]

Has anyone heard any more about this yet? The dreaded 1st August deadline is 3 weeks away after which we won't be able to give our Android users app updates should we need to.

If things are running according to the last roadmap at EMB, then they're behind and haven't even released 10.3.2 yet let alone the sorely needed 10.4 which is supposed to contain the Android 64 bit work.

 

I'm getting very worried that we might not be able to support our Android users for 3 months while they get a 10.4 beta out. We have 220,000 of them and the thought of not being able to get even an emergency bug fix to them should we need to terrifies me! Surely EMB must be taking this deadline seriously?

[Dalija Prasnikar 1396]

2 hours ago, Chris Pim said:

Has anyone heard any more about this yet? The dreaded 1st August deadline is 3 weeks away after which we won't be able to give our Android users app updates should we need to.

AFAIK, everything said at May 2019 RAD Studio Roadmap still stands. 

 

https://community.idera.com/developer-tools/b/blog/posts/may-2019-rad-studio-roadmap-commentary-from-product-management

Quote

As of August 2019, Google will require that all Google Play Store applications are 64-bit enabled. Android 64-bit support is actively in the works for Delphi as we speak. In time for this new Google requirement, we plan to kick off our 10.4 beta this summer with support for building Delphi Android 64-bit applications. While the usual beta restrictions do not allow for building and deploying production apps, we intend to include a special beta EULA provision that allows 10.4 beta testers to deploy (production) Android apps to the Google Play Store. We followed the same approach for 10.3 and Google’s API level 26 requirement last summer and that process worked well for our customers. InterBase support for Android 64-bit is also in the works.

 

[Eli M. 38]

I've heard if you have a libunity.so in your APK or your project name is unity (so it generates libunity.so) then Google accepts it as a 32bit Unity app. YMMV.

[Chris Pim 34]

12 hours ago, Dalija Prasnikar said:

AFAIK, everything said at May 2019 RAD Studio Roadmap still stands. 

 

https://community.idera.com/developer-tools/b/blog/posts/may-2019-rad-studio-roadmap-commentary-fromproduct-management

 

Reassuring words from EMB about it already being underway. Summer is a long season so hopefully the 10.4 beta program will start sooner rather than later!

[Markus Kinzler 174]

13 hours ago, Eli M. said:

I've heard if you have a libunity.so in your APK or your project name is unity (so it generates libunity.so) then Google accepts it as a 32bit Unity app. YMMV.

Could be very risky

[Rollo62 536]

39 minutes ago, Markus Kinzler said:

Could be very risky

Better risky than out of business

[Chris Pim 34]

28 minutes ago, Rollo62 said:

Better risky than out of business

Very true, yet I still have hope that EMB get a 10.4 beta out soon so we can have a proper solution rather than a risky hack!

[Dalija Prasnikar 1396]

17 hours ago, Eli M. said:

I've heard if you have a libunity.so in your APK or your project name is unity (so it generates libunity.so) then Google accepts it as a 32bit Unity app. YMMV.

AFAIK, that hack does not work, after all.

[Clément 148]

Given the scenario, wouldn't it be better to skip 10.3.2 and go straight to 10.4?
I suppose the necessary workforce spent to release an updated such as 10.3.2, could be used to make 10.4 time to market shorter.
I guess most of us understand the difficulties Delphi is trying to get out of  (a lot of bugs and bugossaurs must be dealt with while keeping up with a very dynamic market).

 

I wouldn't mind skipping 10.3.2 if that would allow a more stable and anticipated 10.4 release. To be honest, if both releases are so close to each other, I would probably wait to install 10.4 anyway, since I need at least a week to proper test a Delphi version before migration.

[Chris Pim 34]

1 hour ago, Clément said:

Given the scenario, wouldn't it be better to skip 10.3.2 and go straight to 10.4?
I suppose the necessary workforce spent to release an updated such as 10.3.2, could be used to make 10.4 time to market shorter.
I guess most of us understand the difficulties Delphi is trying to get out of  (a lot of bugs and bugossaurs must be dealt with while keeping up with a very dynamic market).

 

I wouldn't mind skipping 10.3.2 if that would allow a more stable and anticipated 10.4 release. To be honest, if both releases are so close to each other, I would probably wait to install 10.4 anyway, since I need at least a week to proper test a Delphi version before migration.

I wondered the same thing but I guess as the NDA exclusion only mentions allowing Android updates from 10.4 beta not iOS, you’d still be better using 10.3.2 for iOS, Windows and Mac builds while they get 10.4 released if you’re already using 10.3 anyway. 10.3.1 is really buggy so if 10.3.2 is more stable then it may be worth upgrading.

[Chris Pim 34]

2 hours ago, Dalija Prasnikar said:

AFAIK, that hack does not work, after all.

That’s a shame but useful to know. Hopefully we won’t need any hacks!

[Eli M. 38]

On 7/12/2019 at 7:52 AM, Dalija Prasnikar said:

AFAIK, that hack does not work, after all.

It probably does work since there are actually 3 third party tools with exceptions. Just have to find what Google Play are looking for. I didn't try very hard.

http://www.fmxexpress.com/learn-how-to-deploy-delphi-10-3-rio-android-apps-to-google-play-with-android-64-bit-requirements/

 

I've been banned from Google Play twice before (nothing to do with this) so YMMV.

[Dalija Prasnikar 1396]

51 minutes ago, Eli M. said:

It probably does work since there are actually 3 third party tools with exceptions. Just have to find what Google Play are looking for. I didn't try very hard.

http://www.fmxexpress.com/learn-how-to-deploy-delphi-10-3-rio-android-apps-to-google-play-with-android-64-bit-requirements/

 

I've been banned from Google Play twice before (nothing to do with this) so YMMV.

I didn't say nothing could work, just that particular thing you mentioned does not work to save people trouble trying it.

[Guest]

On 5/9/2019 at 11:37 AM, David Heffernan said:

Kinda galling to realise the effort Emba is putting in for 64 bit mobile and Mac desktop platform support (all minority user bases) and at the same time the Windows compilers (overwhelming majority user base) receive no attention at all.

 

What kind of business model is it to take money of your customers and then spend it on developing functionality that is not useful to the majority of your customers?

I'm not surprised... Windows is the past, mobile development is the future and Delphi is virtually a dead language, used mainly to maintain legacy code. Object Pascal (in general) is removed from Schools (mostly) and replaced by Python. Young people don't want to use Delphi, most of them thinks it is long dead language and usually surprised when I say we use it in the company I work for; and yet at the same time we struggle to hire new blood to develop Delphi apps - heck, during the recruitment last months one candidate told me that his professor told them to stay away from languages like Pascal. My management team decided this year to ditch FMX in favour of Flutter (we are prepping to re-write all of our four apps), the large desktop apps (VCL) will remain for some time, but we will not invest in EMBA tools, Delphi Rio 10.3.1 is the last IDE we paid for, now only to maintain legacy code (and I must bear in mind favourite question from management - can you re-write it fast to the .NET?). Delphi is becoming larger and larger niche, now more for enthusiasts rather than for business, much like FPC/Lazarus (rather joke than some serious dev tools, not for the business again).  

 

 

I like the language (I started in 90's with Turbo Pascal) and new changes that came out, but crappy tools for high price and almost no new developers means death in longer term. And now even Microsoft is turning to Linux, so here no surprise that EMBA released FMX Linux 🙂 Windows is not the future and VCL is quite stable, so I think I understand this direction (that obviously must include macOS to fill all platforms). Also, the growing mobile market maybe a chance for EMBA if they fix FMX and IDE, but I think it maybe too late.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by Guest

[David Heffernan 2345]

2 hours ago, TomDevOps said:

Delphi is used mainly to maintain legacy code.

Which is my point.  I find it galling that the overwhelming majority of Delphi users are maintaining and developing existing code bases on Windows.  These are the people that are paying Embarcadero.  So why are their needs neglected?

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, David Heffernan said:

Which is my point.  I find it galling that the overwhelming majority of Delphi users are maintaining and developing existing code bases on Windows.  These are the people that are paying Embarcadero.  So why are their needs neglected?

New features will always get more attention.

 

Polish your car and nearly nobody will notice.

Mount a fifth wheel and everbody will have a close look.

[RonaldK 18]

9 minutes ago, David Heffernan said:

Which is my point.  I find it galling that the overwhelming majority of Delphi users are maintaining and developing existing code bases on Windows.  These are the people that are paying Embarcadero.  So why are their needs neglected?

What are these needs?