Hi Melvin!
Welcome aboard!

Pascal, using TurboPascal 3.02a, was my fifth language but my first love, followed by Forth. So my opinions are biased. :)

Kylix is an OUTSTANDING addition to the Linux GUI-RAD toolset, and it's identical twin, Delphi 6, is first rank in the WinXX world too. Kylix is not the first commerical GUI-RAD to be offered for Linux, but it is by far and away the VERY BEST one. (I'm not biased, am I? :)

You should try to upgrade your SuSE to version 7.1. When you install Kylix you will have to add the following line to either your ~/.bashrc or /etc/profile.local script:
source /usr/local/kylix/bin/kylixpath

This line sets up your Kylix environment variables and paths.

Your app will run in Kylix, but after you compile it your binary won't run.
You will get a " ... can't find libqtintf.so...." error when you attempt to run a binary of your app.

This assumes, of course, that you have installed Kylix in that directory so that it can be run by other users besides root. You will also want to copy the demo subdirectory to ~/kylix_demos, or what ever you want to call it.

Also, Kylix doesn't have a "printer setup" or "print" option under the File menu option. To print from your app you add 'Printer' to the USES clause and drop a TPrinter control on your form, then set its properties. To print Pascal source open the *.pas file in your favorite external editor and send it to the printer. XEmacs works good and even has a Pascal auto formatting feature.

I use IBM Java 2 also. I also tried Visual Age for Java 3.0 and found it to be an excellent tool. But, like Forte, it suffers from the common Java complaint - lack of speed when compared to Linux binaries. (Did you know that Kylix generates Linux binaries? But, Kylix cannot compile gcc compatible source because the Kylix compiler is not compatible with gcc.)

To Java's credit, however, I use a Java app called MoneyDance 2.0 to keep my checkbook and do reconcilliations. It works as well as Quicken and the speed is adequate, even on my old Sony VAIO P166 with 64MB RAM running KDE2. On my 1 GHz Athlon with 512MB RAM speed is not an issue any more!

The reason many folks have for trying Java is crossplatform compatibility. Take the same Java source and compile on different platforms. Practically speaking, there are two principal platforms: Linux (Unix) and WinXX. (The Mac is covered because PCC Linux runs on the Mac and Borland may create a version of Kylix for it later, if demand warrants. I don't know if Delphi runs on the Mac.) Even IBM's mainframes are using Linux as their primary OS!

Cross platform is where Kylix stands out. On a WinXX platform one can use Delphi 6+ source with CLX Qt based widgets. (X stands for crossplatform, not X-server) Take that same Pascal source code over to Linux and compile it unchanged in Kylix to generate a native Linux binary that is very fast, because CLX on Linux is the same! And, Borland includes the source for CLX widgets. "Code once, compile everywhere" is a reality with Kylix, if everywhere is Unix and WinXX.

You should also know that Kylix doesn't include a 'report writer'. Early versions of Delphi had a piece of trash called "Report Smith" but it was unbundled in later releases. In a previous posting here I gave several links to Klyix compatable report writers, several of them are free or free for non-commerical use.

There are several Kylix newsgroups on "newsgroups.borland.com", but the moderators and volunteers have egos and attitudes that make the most fanatic Linux supporter seem mild by comparison. The flame to help ratio is at least 10 to 1, unfortunately.

Nice lap top!
Have fun...
JLK




>Hi to all, I now that this forum is great about VFP, I really hope that this forum will be so great for linux too.
>
>Well, the point, recently I've red a thread here about Kylix. I don´t have kylix yet but I'm working to get one (the reduced price is very good). Meanwhile I would like to know, what do you thing about use Java under Linux?, I have SuSE 7.0 and I'm using IBM Java 2 VM on this machine and its work very well. I´m using Forte CE too for build de GUI and I think is very helpful with all the objects needed to do the work. The only thing is the well kown loss of speed caracteristic of the java platform, but is a good platform to make the jobs.
>
>So I would appeciate your opinion.
>
>Thanks in advanced.
>
>Melvin
>
>P.D.: By the way I have an IBM Thinkpad PIII 750 with 128 MB RAM, if this helps in any way.