One of the great things about using tools and databases such as Borland Delphi 7 Studio and IBM DB2 Universal Database is that moving between platforms is only a matter of a few changes and a recompile. This article shows how to move a functional application from a Delphi 7 application running on Microsoft Windows to a Linux application using Borland Kylix 3. This article also goes over DB2 on Linux and minor source code changes.
Moving from Windows to Linux with Kylix 3
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I don’t understand what Borland – a good company with famous products – is trying to do with Kylix.
A paying product running under w32 and Linux. Fine. But C, C++, PHP, Tcl/Tk, Python, Perl, Java, Lisp, to name few… and available and free.
So, why ?
Erm… AFAIK, with Kylix you can create GUI applications that compile (almost) seemlessly under Win32 and Linux. The only other (professional) way to do that is only with (C++) QT or (C) Motif. But the point here is people to be able to port Delphi GUI code over to Linux, so for these developers and products, Kylix _is_ needed.
This is a very clear answer. Even, as far as i know, every other languages allow you to code graphical interface running under w32 and Linux.
Just to go on more technical stuff, do you mean that Kylix use it’s own graphical library, or some kind of GTK derivation ?
I think it uses Qt.
Kylix use QT. I had a spamlog GUI (for mailfilter logs) I made in Delphi 6 for Windows, it just did basic text analyzing of the logformat and built a nice easy to read report from it, it compiled without any complaint under Kylix, that’s IMO portability worth paying for.
“But C, C++, PHP, Tcl/Tk, Python, Perl, Java, Lisp, to name few… and available and free.”
First of all, most of what you list are merely scripting languages, AFAIK. The only three that aren’t are C, C++, and Java. Personally, I have never been impressed Java in the desktop (GUI), so if you want your apps to run slower than snot on a doorknob, then have at it.
Also, I’d rather have my &#!%@ crushed by a wooden mallot than program ANYTHING in C/C++. (BTW: Kylix also does C++).
I’m not saying that Kylix is a end-all solution for everyone, but I think it makes a fine choice for anyone who programs in VB, Delphi, or Borland C++ Builder. It probably does most (if not all) of what you need when programming GUI apps, and I would imagine that it has a much shorter learning curve for these people, especially relative to QT/GTK/etc.
BTW: Who in their right mind would want to build a fully functional GUI app in perl anyway ?
The open editation is free (but you cannot create commercial application with this). And IMHO the Kylix is the best development environment under linux. Yes, the professional and the enterprise version is not free. But if you a professional developer it doesn’t matter because your time is more expensive.
Borland developed a more crossplatform version of VCL called CLX which uses QT on the Linux side. When they were developing Linux support QT was initially chosen because it was a lot easier to integrate into CLX and in their opinion technically superior (IIRC BORL was impressed enough that they even ended up investing in Trolltech.) GTK was tried but it proved infeasible.
As I recall, after the Kylix announcement a lot of GNOME/GTK wankers jumped all over their ass and they explained the whole issue of being a technical problem, but I still see people bad mouthing it anyway.
I had high hopes for using C++ for Kylix but I’ve since abandoned the idea. One reason being that when a problem in my code pops up and I want to dive into some library internals to verify if what I’m doing is correct, I’ve got to wade through piles of Delphi. For Delphi programmers it’s probably Utopia. Even if I knew it much better it would still be a problem working with two separate languages simultaneously (for me anyway.) The other is that their C++ support has been pretty much dead as a doornail since about BCB5 which was eons ago (<sarcasm>surprisingly, now that MS has done a complete turnaround with their C++ support, so is Borland now</sarcasm>.)
(Judging from the looks of the latest Everett beta from MS, they’ve also now finally got some real competition now that VS.NET has a RAD WinForms toolset for C++ like C# and VB do. )
The great thing with Delphi is when you do a work/assigned coding project. The stunned face of the peoples when you give them a working program, complete with installer that looks good and is done in 5% of the time it woudld take to do it in C/C++ is priceless
Kylix use VCL as it’s GUI toolkit. VCL on Linux is implemented with Qt2.
Kylix 3 is a really powerful tool, and it has an open edition for free to develop GPL software. You can see a sample here:
http://www.xpde.com
I’m working with Delphi in Windows for a long time, and all who are femiliar with it know as much as I do how much easier is it to build applications rapidly with Delphi than with C++.
I won’t port my GUI applcations to Kylix before it will use Qt *3* (because of various essential features), but the non-GUI programs (such as a game with SDL/OpenGL) compiles and runs perfectly in both Windows and Linux!
Oh, and BTW, Borland is not only going for Linux with Delphi for Linux (=Kylix), but also Microsoft’s ground – with Delphi.NET.
> The other is that their C++ support has been pretty much
> dead as a doornail since about BCB5
Borland C++ for Windows was released up to version 5.0 (possibly 5.02, I don’t remember exactly). Borland C++ Builder then revised the compiler with each release (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 .. yes, there was no 2.) The *free* version of Borland C++ is at version 5.5.1 with all patches. How is this no progress?? LOL!! Delphi 7’s language is no more an improvement than Delphi 4, which was released in 1997. Most of the changes have been cosmetic. And Delphi 5 – Delphi 7 is hardly any difference. Realisticly, what did VB add between v3 and v6? How has the *core* of C++ canged in the last 3-5 years? Don’t use VC++6 as a model, it uses just as much non standard stuff as it does standard (how many times have I seen a project that ha ifdefs everywhere for VC++??) and gcc is another place you shouldn’t look for complete and exact compiance with the published standards (try doing some of the more extreme multiple inheritence examples in the Stroustroup C++ Language book, e.g. Page 393, section 15.2.2 figure 8.2.2, in a gcc 2.9x line compiler.)
I just hope Galileo the upcoming Borland’s development studio is as good as their past delphi IDEs. If they can make such a good RAD tool for .NET, I for one will switch from VS.NET right away. Love Borland’s RAD. Hope their ASP.NET support is good too.
Let’s not forget that with Kylix you can also easily connect to Interbase,Firebird,Postgresql,Mysql,not to mention Oracle.
And you can do this in minutes, with a nice GUI
“Kylix is the best development environment under linux.”
Yes I agree with this. I don’t think anyone out there in the Linux community has a RAD that can even remotely compete with what Kylix offers (or at least from what I’ve seen and used).
Thank you Borland!
Just curious. If you don’t like Java, and you don’t like C/C++, and think Python, Perl, and LISP are just scripting languages, what *do* you program in?
PS> BTW, if Python is a scripting language, then so is Java. Python is one heck of a cool high-level language, IMO what Java should have been. Once the new Parrot VM comes out and Python get’s a performance boost, it should be one heck of a nice platform for building GUI apps.