Welcome

Charlie Calvert

Agenda

• Kylix project overview
• Compiler & RTL
• CLX
• dbExpress and MIDAS (DataCLX)
• NetCLX

Kylix Project Overview

• What is the Kylix project?
• What are the goals for Kylix?
• How compatible will Kylix be with Delphi?
• What is new?
• What will be missing?

What is Kylix?

Kylix is a high-performance native Linux rapid application development tool that radically speeds and simplifies development through component based visual programming

Kylix is about Applications

• GCC, Emacs, CodeFusion, etc are about:
• Kernel and Device Drivers
• Linux Infrastructure
• Kylix is about
• Desktop Applications
• Client/Server and multi-tier Database Applications
• Web Server Applications

Kylix Overview

• Native Code Generation (ELF Object Format)
• Native Delphi Linux Compiler and Debugger
• Two-way Visual Development
• Delphi IDE
• Cross-platform GUI, Database, and Web Development
• CLX (Component Library for Cross-Platform)

Kylix Products

Windows / Linux Delphi Comparison

Windows / Linux Compatibility

Windows / Linux Compatibility

CLX Cross-platform Technologies

• VisualCLX
• Native Cross-platform GUI Components and graphics
• DataCLX – Client Data Access Components
• Local, C/S, and n-tier based on today’s MIDAS Client Datasets
• SOAP/XML Distributed MIDAS Data Remoting
• dbExpress Crossplatform Database API
• MySQL, InterBase, and other major SQL Database Servers
• NetCLX
• Apache DSO and CGI WebBroker
• XML / DHTML (in Enterprise Studio)
• TCP/IP Sockets

Kylix Developer Benefits

• Fast time to market
• component based visual development
• leverage existing Delphi skills and code
• Lower barrier to entry
• simplifies complex Linux development technologies
• Leverage existing Delphi and Visual Basic knowledge
• High performance native applications
• no byte code, virtual machines, or interpreted scripts (Perl, Python)

What Kylix brings to Linux

• An "Instant Army" of skilled application developers for Linux
• Millions of Delphi, C++Builder, and Visual Basic developers world wide
• Hundreds of thousands of applications built in Delphi today
• Desktop, Database, and Web applications
• Over 500 third party tool and component vendors
• Third party development for Kylix began March 20th, 2000

Kylix Philosophies

• Open Source Development
• Kylix will support both Open Source development and proprietary development depending on which model the developer chooses
• It is our goal to enable and fully support GNU General Public licensed application development
• Desktop Support
• Kylix applications and IDE will operate perfectly well in both KDE and GNOME desktop environments
• Kylix aims ultimately to support both KDE and GNOME themes (KDE themes in 1st release)
• Kernel Development
• Kylix is about applications
• GCC and Emacs are for Kernel and device driver development

How Compatible Will Kylix Be With Delphi 5?

• Application developers will see a great deal that is familiar.
• Goal: large application moved to Linux < 1 month.
• Most component names will be the same.
• Unit names have been changed.
• Most property names will be the same.
• Some new properties as well as some missing properties.
• Component developers will see substantial differences.
• Classes.Pas is substantially the same.
• Lots of new RTL routines
• Non-visual components very similar
• Different - controls, graphics, menus, etc.

Problems Porting to Linux for Applications?

• Changes to the API
• Components and properties
• Subtle assumption about the file system
• No drive letters
• Case sensitivity
• Missing 3rd party components
• Need components ported to Linux

What Is New to Kylix?

• CLX, a cross platform component library
• BaseCLX – classes, SysUtils, …
• VisualCLX on top of Qt from Troll Tech
• DataCLX on top of dbExpress and MIDAS
• NetCLX – WebBroker, InternetExpress, …
• CLX will also run on Windows
• CLX will be included in future Delphi versions
• Windows VCL will continue to be developed

What Will Be Missing From Borland?

• BDE and the associated components
• No TTable, TQuery, etc. – Ancestors will be there, similar components available
• dbExpress is a cross platform alternative
• Compatibility for Windows 3.1
• Any ActiveX components or OLE/ActiveX support (Typelibrary editor)
• We’re working with Red Hat, Trolltech, Helix Code and others to define a component spec for Linux
• Various other components

Preparing Components & Applications

• Examine your code for windows-isms.
• File name assumptions, etc.
• Examine how many windows messages you handle directly.
• Look for a VCL equivalent. If it’s not there, let us know.
• Examine how many windows calls you make directly.
• TCanvas will be almost the same on Windows / Linux.
• Graphics Context is similar to Device Context
• Examine how reliant you are on Microsoft APIs or extensions.
• ODBC, ADO, Mapi, …

When Can I Get it?

Facts

• There is no Bitmap depth in QGraphics of pf24bit, its either 16 or 32.
• To change what keys will get trhrough: InputKeys := InputKeys + [ikArrows];

Questions and (Hopefully) Answers