Developer Express, one of the largest software component makers focused on the Microsoft market, has outlined updates to its product families and technologies for the rest of 2011. The company cautioned, however, that “these plans are our best estimate at this point in time for what we should be able to do in 2011, given our resources and our understanding of the technology landscape in which we operate. Any dates given are estimates. Any functionality we describe in this road map, especially the further out it is, may be postponed or cancelled altogether.”
In brief, the plans are as follows:
Silverlight: Smooth scrolling, RIA services support and Instant Feedback UI in DXGrid, Scheduler control, new data editors, backstage view, and Microsoft Office for Mac style in DXRibbon
Windows Presentation Foundation: Smooth scrolling, RIA services support and Instant Feedback UI in DXGrid, TreeList control, new data editors, backstage view, and Microsoft Office for Mac style in DXRibbon.
ASP.NET: Theme Builder tool, Docking Control, new ASP.NET MVC Extensions, TrackBar Control, Image Gallery Control, advanced tooltips.
Windows Forms: Enhancements mostly focused on usability and performance, Year View for Scheduler Control, Document Server component for mail merge.
Reporting: Silverlight report designer, ASP.NET MVC toolbar and viewer, new WinForms Report Wizard, report preview for LightSwitch.
Charting: ASP.NET MVC Chart extension, new 2D and 3D chart types, striving for feature parity between the traditional (XtraCharts) and the new platforms (DXCharts).
Analytics: New DXperience Analytics package, ADOMD.NET support for ASP.NET Pivot Grid, performance improvements in WPF Pivot Grid, new Silverlight Pivot Grid, and XPF Gauges.
Frameworks: Instant Feedback support for DXGrids, Silverlight data layer, OData provider for XPO, workflow integration with Workflow Foundation, and support for wizard UI.
Visual Components Library: New packaging and release schedule, server mode in ExpressQuantumGrid, and new features in Scheduler, Pivot Grid, Docking Manager and Editors.
CodeRush: ASP.NET MVC 3 support, new language features in C# 5.0/VB 11, code formatting and code clean-up, and new refactorings and code issues.
More details can be found here.