[Lazarus] Help needed for conference...

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 12/10/2009, Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org> wrote:
>
>  Having ported/developed some applications, the main problems when porting
> are IMHO:

Same here for apps, including many Delphi components.


>  b) Third-party components are usually not usable.
>    (unless that company supports FPC, which is unlikely)

If you have the source code for such 3rd party components, and you
really need their features, it is not that hard to port to LCL. I have
successfully ported about 5 such components to fpGUI Toolkit is a lot
more incompatible with VCL compared to LCL. So LCL should be even
easier.


>  c) Cross-platform development means:
>   - No Windows API. (e.g. the registry).
>   - SizeOf(integer)<>SizeOf(Pointer)!
>   - No assembler

+1.  Any not all components behave like Delphi. After all, they target
more than just the Windows platform.


>  And under no circumstances promote '1 source for both Delphi/Lazarus'
>  because that is a recipe for problems :(

Definitely NOT!  That is a nightmare to try and maintain.


Also it is worth mentioning that the RTL and FCL have some really nice
goodies include to make cross-platform development earlier. So you
might have to forgo an API under Delphi for something cross-platform
under FPC's RTL or FCL.

Another HUGE bonus. Support is so much faster than with Delphi. Most
bugs get fixed in hours or days - not years. Plus you don't have to
pay for those fixes later on.

-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -


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fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit
http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/