[Lazarus] delphi conversions (was: Re: Help needed for conference...)

[waldo kitty]

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk wrote:
> Geoffray wrote:
>> Le lundi 12 octobre 2009 21:23:50, Graeme Geldenhuys a écrit :
>>>>  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.
>>>
>> Ok I was nearly sure of that, but if someone ask me for coordination 
>> method... In an other word, is there any simple way to coordonate 
>> Delphi and Lazarus version of the same source ?
>>
>> Maybe a tool using diff api or something like that.
> 
> 
> 
> When a source is compiled for console application , with respect to my 
> experiences there is no much difference between Free Pascal and Delphi .

with the few very minor ones i've done, i pretty much agree on this...

> The important difficulty is caused by GUI parts of the programs .

yes...

> The following idea may be tested for applicability ( I did not applied 
> it myself yet , but this is the my next step to try ) .
> 
> Assume you have a BIG Delphi program and you want to compile it with 
> Lazarus due to its GUI structure .
> 
> By using Lazarus , re-generate forms as much as possible .

there is, in the menu at the top of the screen, a dfm->lfm converter... in fact, 
there are several delphi->laz converters up there... one converts forms, another 
converts units and there is a third one, too... these may help in conversion 
from delphi to lazarus...

the problem(s) i've found and not yet posted about are

1. which converter to use when...
2. is there a special order they need to be run in?
3. according to the wiki, there are some lines to add and others to change... 
does one of these converters do this?
4. it would be very nice for these converters to give a list of unknown 
procedures that they cannot rename or convert to laz style (if they even do that 
at all)...


what i'd really like to see, since i don't have delphi that i can work with and 
no delphi manuals available, would be an "app" converter... this way, one might 
point to the app file (dpi??) and have the converter walk thru all the dfms and 
units for the application and convert it all to lazarus...

another nice thing would be for the converters to move the delphi files to a 
subdirectory like laz does with the backup directory... maybe call it delphi~... 
in this way, someone like myself, who is flounder along trying to get things 
converted and working won't get confused if they have already converted 
something and possibly edited it and then loose those edits by converting 
again... it is a bit of a trouble to have laz open and also a window of the 
directory and manually move the files after they've been converted... especially 
when converting a lot of them and having to do one at the time, compile, try to 
test, start again or try converting another one...