Hi John,

I have not ported any large applications to Kylix since I haven't written any large applications to Kylix. As long as you stick with using the CLX components it is not that difficult to have cross platform porting. However, you do not have a RICH TEXT control built into Kylix for Linux and you must be careful not to be using a lot of the Windows Specific API calls as well. However, for you basic Object Pascal Algorithms, those port just like writing ANSI C code does as well. Porting to .NET I have not played with Octane hands on. However, from the documentation and the .NET Preview what has been done is adding in a lot of new keywords that allow for inclusion and use of the .NET framework and Delphi has written many wrappers around the VCL to help in the use of the Delphi Classes that we already have.

As far as what's missing in Delphi compared to VFP is that as VFP developers we are used to having many functions and commands already built into the VFP/XBASE language that Delphi does not have built in. Although, many commands do not take that long to write but others can take hours and hours. A simple BROWSE command does not exist in Delphi and how many of us use that on a daily basis. Delphi does not have a native database built in. It is more like VB or C++ or C#. You must use components to attach to and talk to databases in Delphi. So, writing a simple Desktop database app in Delphi will take a lot more time by far than it ever will with VFP.

I personally like to use both VFP and Delphi combined to create more robust applications. I have spent thousands of hours trying to build very graphic intensive components in VFP such as an Outlook like Scheduler component and the Report Preview control only to find out that performance becomes a major issue when trying to add hundreds of objects much less container objects to a VFP Form or VFP Container. So, I switch to Delphi to create very graphics intensive components because it is very good for building these types of components. I build them as ActiveX controls and then use VFP to control them.


> But have you ported anything to Kylix (Linux) from Delphi?
> And what about porting older Delphi to .Net?
> I like Delphi and it's true that you can write what's missing.
> The problem is a lot is missing - at least when you match up VFP.
> John