[Lazarus] Delphi XE2 uses FPC, plus VCL just not portable

Graeme Geldenhuys graemeg.lists at gmail.com
Sun Aug 7 17:46:56 CEST 2011


On 7 August 2011 16:11, Florian Klaempfl wrote:
>> Imagine Mozilla Firefox simply
>> wanted to be a clone of IE.
>
> This would have no advantage

It would have had, just not for the better. If Firefox simply cloned
IE, web designers would only have had to code for ONE broken browser
(ignoring HTML standards while they are at it, but at least all
websites would have worked on all platforms), and they [web designers]
could have reused there broken-HTML syntax knowledge for all
platforms. My point was simply that cloning has very little benefits
at all, and is always two steps behind - never as good as the real
deal.   Think iPad vs XXXX Tablet. 1-2 years later, with hundreds of
clones, and still iPad is better than the rest with no real
competition in sight.


> ...while being VCL compatible allows people to
> reuse a lot of their knowledge when using the LCL.

Yes, Object Pascal knowledge and some VCL knowledge. And
realistically, LCL has many differences between VCL and many
differences between LCL on different platforms (again, look at Mantis
if you don't believe me). Not to mention a different compiler too,
different deployment rules etc etc. No matter how much you clone,
there is still LOTS to learn when moving your products cross platform.
To have truly cross-platform products you have to think cross-platform
from the start. Trying to convert your Windows-ism's to Linux or Mac
simply doesn't work! You will end up with a half-baked product that
will not sell. Embarcadero realized this too.

Anyway, I was simply listing what Embarcadero developers mentioned,
and where they are taking Delphi. I though this information is
pertinent to Lazarus developers - do with that information whatever
you want.


-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -




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