In the recently published 2011 Roadmap, with regard to the VCL products I stated that
The next big change is that we are going to restrict which Delphi/C++Builder/RADStudio IDEs we will officially support. For Delphi these are Delphi 7 (we know a lot of you are still using it), Delphi 2007 (it’s the last ANSI string version), Delphi 2010, and Delphi XE. For C++Builder, it’s C++Builder 2007, C++Builder 2010, and C++Builder XE. (Of course, these include the equivalent RADStudio versions.)
photo © 2006 Leif K-Brooks | more info (via: Wylio)A customer who’d downloaded our recent beta for v2011.1 was somewhat put out that it wouldn’t install in Delphi 2009 and pointed out that, in essence, we’d provided little to no notice about our decision to limit the number of IDEs, meaning that he was left high and dry. A valid point, and since the vast amount of feedback we’ve had about this decision has centered on RAD Studio 2009, we’ve decided to make a change to our IDE policy with regard to that particular version.
We will support Delphi and C++Builder 2009 for our VCL products for v2011.1. The next beta we release will add back the support for RAD Studio 2009.
This gives everybody on that particular IDE some extra time to upgrade to the latest, and much better, RAD Studio. I will note that, for the month of March, Embarcadero have a discount plan in place to encourage everyone to upgrade to RAD Studio XE. You can find details here. My recommendation is to upgrade. Upgrade now, and port your apps over. If you’re using a version of Delphi earlier than 2009, take advantage of this offer and upgrade: your fave old compiler version may be dropped next. Don’t get caught out again, because…
I will state now (and in bold no less) that v2011.2 will not support RAD Studio 2009.
Indeed, I dare say by Q3 when we release v2011.2, Embarcadero will have or be almost ready to release RAD Studio XE2 with 64-bit and all that jazz. We will be supporting that new version of course, and will drop RAD Studio 2009 support to do so.