It's looking like cf2020 will be cf2021, if I'm reading things right
Note: This blog post is from 2020. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.As much as many have been referring to the new release (known for now as "Project Stratus") as "CF2020", it's looking like it may be instead "CF2021", if I'm reading the tea leaves right. And maybe it's only the name, not the actual release year. Let me explain (Hey, the bright side is that "2020" as a year is one many want to forget.)
The "clues"
A first clue was when an engineer wrote a blog post on the CF portal a couple of weeks ago, describing it as an "overview of the SAML feature available in ColdFusion 2021." That last reference caught the attention of some of us (as I commented there, wondering if it was a slip or a foreshadowing).
Beyond that, though, I think we may have pretty clear evidence/confirmation now, from the prerelease itself: I happened to notice for the first time today in working with the prerelease that the CF Admin page for "System info" reported the version as 2021.0.0.321466.
Same with the "settings summary" (on the first "Settings" menu on the left"), reporting: Version: 2021,0,0,321466.
FWIW, this is from the download that's been on the prerelease site since August, not some new download. I just hadn't noticed and hadn't heard of anyone else noticing it yet.
On Adobe's referring to it as "Project Stratus"
Of course, Adobe has tended to refer to the prerelease either euphemistically as "CFNext", or more often by its code-name, "Project Stratus". That's not unusual, of course. They've always given code-names to new CF releases--as far back as at least CF6 ("Neo")--and then used that name during the prerelease timeframe, only using the formal name once it's officially released.
I just wish they would drop the "stiff" formal product naming as in recent releases, "Adobe ColdFusion (2018 release)" and "Adobe ColdFusion (2016 release)". I suppose they have their Adobe-corporate legal reasons for that, but "Adobe ColdFusion (2021 release)" would be such an ungainly mouthful--which virtually no one else will use, opting for the simpler ColdFusion 2021 or CF2021, etc.
Breaking the "every two years" naming pattern?
But I think it seems safe to say that the next release will not be following the pattern of a name change "every 2 years" like we had with CF2018 and CF2016 (and before that CF11 in 2014 and CF10 in 2012). That's a bit of a bummer, though if it's only the name it will just look odd, but if it does come out in 2021 somehow still, then the "pattern" of time between releases is "kept".
Should be well worth the wait
Whenever it comes out, I'm sure most would rather see it "come out only when it's ready".
And this next release is indeed quite a substantial one, as I hope to talk about in upcoming blog posts, or which you can find out about yourself at prerelease.adobe.com.
Confusion finding current resources in the future
There is at least one negative ramification to this, though a rather minor one. There are various resources already written (blog posts, presentations, tweets, etc.) where folks (especially non-Adobe folks) have referred to this "next" release as CF2020.
If it does turn out to be CF2021 instead, then folks won't readily find those current/original resources. They'll have to think to search for cf2020 as well (or of course, "cf 2020", "ColdFusion 2020" , "coldfusion2020", etc.) Oh well.
Or are they just throwing us off the trail?
All that said, I'd love to find out that this is instead a bit of a shell game, "throwing us off the trail", to keep us guessing. :-)
Or again maybe it's another way to "put any references to 2020 in the rearview mirror". :-)
But I thought I'd share especially this screenshot since I'd not yet seen anyone else mention it.
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And yep, on your observation there. Just to be clear, that's indeed why I had said, among the other things:
"I'm sure most would rather see it "come out only when it's ready". And this next release is indeed quite a substantial one, as I hope to talk about in upcoming blog posts, or which you can find out about yourself at prerelease.adobe.com."
And for those who have not heard, Adobe has mentioned in recent presentations that they DO plan to rewrite CF Builder from Eclipse to VSCode. They admitted that it would not likely make it out with Project Stratus.
So yes, perhaps if things with Stratus are delayed beyond that timeline they had in mind for the VSCode-based builder when they said that, maybe they could come out at the same time. They also said they foresaw it coming out in stages, with more features to come later.
Finally, to head off the inevitable (off-topic) question: yes, they said that their PLAN is to create BOTH an extension (for people already using VSCode) AND a complete white-labelled version of VSCode (for those who do not)--just like they did with CFBuilder as built on Eclipse, which offered both ways of implementing it.
And I'm sure some will have more questions or want to make comments (for or against their plan), but this isn't the right place for that. (I don't mind that John brought it up, but I'm just saying I have shared here all I know.) It would be better to raise a question about this on the prerelease.adobe.com site (in the Project Stratus site for now, or later when perhaps they create a prerelease for the VSCode version of CFB.)
Or maybe someone will come out with a post on it before then (whether someone at Adobe, or someone else, or I). My point is that either of those would be the place to discuss this tool further, rather than this post.
And if anyone DOES create a blog post or a discussion thread in the Stratus prerelease, feel free to share the link here. (Yes, after the prerelease such a discussion thread will no longer be accessible, but by then there should be new more official word from Adobe.)