Next version of NetXP to be open-source

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Dacris Software Inc.
May 8, 2007

Dacris Software today announces a major shift in strategy regarding NetXP. In order to concentrate development efforts on ActiSetup, the next version of the popular NetXP control library is going to be an open-source project, where the .NET development community would be able to view and contribute to the source code. Dacris Software believes the .NET community would hugely benefit from an open-source control library.

Codenamed "Palmetto", this upcoming version of NetXP is expected to be a major overhaul of the existing NetXP control library, so that its controls will be more relevant to today's rapidly growing community of .NET 3.0 developers.

The initial source code for "Palmetto" will include elements from NetXP 4.0. However, the fraction of NetXP 4.0's source code that will be made available will be very small, due to the fact that the majority of that code is irrelevant to the new world of .NET 3.0 and WPF. The bulk of the code in "Palmetto" will be new code, written for the purpose of enhancing .NET 3.0 applications. The scope of NetXP will also be enlarged, to include rich web controls.

The primary focus of "Palmetto" will be to provide a paradigm through which developers can easily create data-driven applications, both Windows based and web based. The paradigm can be best described as model-driven UI. In other words, the UI is not created statically in the way of fixed forms where the fields are then data-bound. Instead, it is created dynamically from a set of generic controls assembled like puzzle pieces onto the form based on the data model. An example of this paradigm is the DataGrid control or the PropertyGrid control. In "Palmetto", the controls enabling this paradigm will be infinitely extensible in layout, appearance, and behavior.

Although no dates are fixed at this point, the in-house development on "Palmetto" has already begun, and the project will be made public by the end of June. After that, releases will probably be made every 2 to 3 months, starting with an alpha release in early October.

For existing customers of NetXP, this means that there will be no more new versions of NetXP for .NET 2.0 / Windows Forms and NetXP 4.0 will effectively be treated as a separate product. NetXP 4.0 will continue to be fully supported and available for purchase/download long after the release of "Palmetto". However, there will be no new features added to it.

For users of "Palmetto", support will be provided on a pay-per-incident or subscription basis. An online support center will be set up at dacris.com to handle paid support requests for "Palmetto". There will be no dedicated free support for "Palmetto". Instead, users who don't wish to purchase support must rely on community forums.

In terms of licensing, "Palmetto" will use a modified form of the GPL called DPL (Dacris Public License), more similar to the MPL, allowing redistribution and unlimited modification of the source code, for any use, as long as the DPL is retained for all of the modifications. Any new code built on top of NetXP will not be subject to the DPL. This means that application developers using NetXP will be able to distribute their applications commercially as long as the source code for the version of NetXP that they're distributing with their application is available under the DPL.

Dacris Software will not put any marketing efforts into "Palmetto", but will host the source code, binaries, and a community forum / wiki for the project. Also, donations will be accepted to help with the cost of hosting and maintaining the website. "Palmetto" will be of great importance to ActiSetup, which is why Dacris Software will be a major contributor to the project.