You have two new choices as a Delphi developer who wants to build applications for Linux. The first is CrossKylix and the second is Mono 1.0.
Thanks to Danny Thorpe for the tip on CrossKylix, this is something I have wanted for a long time. What CrossKylix allows you to do is call your Kylix compiler from your Delphi IDE. So if you are developing primarialy on Windows and you want to make a build for Linux you just click the menu option and whamo. This is not a new compiler, but a hack that lets you call the Kylix compiler that you already have without needing a Linux install. Granted if you don't have a Linux install then it makes testing your program a lot harder, and we would never ship an application that we didn't test.
For anyone who was paying attention you may have noticed that I mentioned Mono 1.0 release previously. Well, there were some questions as to if you could run a Delphi for .NET application on it. According to Danny Thorpe you can! I would assume this works for Delphi 8 for .NET, Delphi 7's .NET preview compiler and C# Builder. Obviously you need to stay away from anything Win32 related, including VCL.NET, WinForms, and the interestingly the SysUtils unit. I am not so sure the reasoning behind avoiding SysUtils. Maybe when I get a chance I can figure that one out. Or you can keep an eye on Danny's Blog and see if any news breaks there.
As far as Kylix goes, Danny did comment about that in his previous post about Mono support. He said that Kylix was included in the 3 year plan.
Kylix is included in the 3 year outlook. Nothing I can announce as yet.
Danny Thorpe, 27.05.2004, 12:02pm
Please note, Danny has not moved to the new Borland Blog server, so these links may change when he does, and the comments may die (the reason I quoted his Kylix comment). Although I will grant that a 3 year outlook is very forward looking and things are certainly expected to change in that time. It is good to know that Kylix is at least on their minds. Of course it isn't like Borland to abandon their developers. Be sure to read Danny's disclaimer.
1 comment:
You should avoid SysUtils in Mono stuff because SysUtils uses Win32 things that Mono does not implement. SysUtils implements Format, for example, and to Format stuff you have to know what the user's preferences and locale settings are. Mono does not emulate Win32's locale information, so you have to do it the Linux way. SysUtils doesn't do that.
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