[quote user="clever_anthony"]next year all of the API would be changed[/quote]
No, I didn't tell such thing ... but it's partially true. But I am not Bentley employee and not an authority to say / promise anything. As John Framtpon wrote in another discussion, there is an idea to start Early Access Programs for the new MicroStation this summer, so we all will see what's comming ;-)
Impacts of the next version of MicroStation to API and consequently to 3rd party developers were discussed at BDN conference during Bentley LEARNing conference. Openly - if you are serious about the development, you should think about to become BDN member and to receive access to these preliminary information.
[quote user="clever_anthony"]So you are to say next year all of the API would be changed. and then those *.ma made with PureMDL for sure no longer be able to be loaded. Right?[/quote]
As far as I understand the current information, MDL will be not supported anymore and MDL application will have to be recompiled and before it, their source code will have to be adjusted to be compatible with the new version. The situation is similar to migration from V7 to V8 and also to situation when you want to use pure MDL application written e.g. for 8.0 in V8i environment - you will have to modify the source codes and recompile the application also.
[quote user="clever_anthony"]What would be the change to the NativeCode? Or just change to be compiled by VS2010?! Would it bring a big impact on the compatibility?[/quote]
As I wrote, MicroStationAPI (which means native C++ API) is the primary now and will stay primary for next version also. It will be not changed, but substantially extended. What you learn about MicroStationAPI now will remain valid for next few years at least.
[quote user="clever_anthony"]But compared to Addins and NativeCode, VBA seems to have the best compatibility because those "APIs" would not be changed but to add some objects on it.[/quote]
It cannot be compared in such way. MicroStation VBA API has not changed because it has quite low priority comparing to long term effort to create rich object native code MicroStationAPI.
[quote user="clever_anthony"]And as you said Bentley invested that much effort, it is to say Bentley has no ways back to the virtual machine mode for multi-platform.
Compatibility problems will raise up again while Apple beats down MicroSoft lol.[/quote]
Sorry, I think it's too far from the original question, so I will not comment it. And frankly I don't care about it at all. If my decision is to develop applications for Bentley users, I don't think about other platforms and what will be if something will happen...
With regards,
Jan