[Lazarus] I have some custom components, can I convert Delphi -> Lazarus?

[Bo Berglund]

I am investigating if I will have any chance to switch to Lazarus/FPC
from Delphi with our code projects. I have now read a good many wiki
and other pages and it seems like I will have problems getting started
because of the following component related issues:

1) We have created a number of non-visual components that are dropped
on the forms to supply various kinds of functionality. Some of these
are handlers for language dependent texts, software protection
dongles, communications interfaces like RS232 serial components,
logging functions etc.
Seems like non-visual components are not handled by Lazarus according
to wiki texts I have read.

2) We also created children of a few VCL components to enhance their
use, like the TListView which Delphi defaults to states we never use.
So we made a TEasyListView child where we add some properties and set
the defaults of others differently. THis is used in a large number of
forms...

3) We created a custom component package, which we always install into
any new Delphi installation before we go to load the projects. It
seems like component packages do not exist in Lazarus...

4) We use several open source component packages as well:
- Indy 10
- Asynch Pro
- GLScene (an older version 0.8.x is needed)
How can we handle this? Especially the GLScene one would be a killer
if not possible to use in Lazarus at level 0.8.x. When GLScene went
from 0.8 to 1.0 they removed a very important property of the viewer,
which I never could repair. So I had to stick with 0.8.2.

5) We use some VCL features which according to wiki pages I have read
are not supported in Lazarus, like TSplitter (used in many forms).
(http://wiki.freepascal.org/Lazarus_For_Delphi_Users)

6) An important non-visual component on almost all of our applications
is a handler I wrote a long time ago (about 2000) for the Safenet
Sentinel Superpro software protection dongle. It is mostly my own code
but it uses pas and an obj file supplied from Safenet. If Lazarus does
not work with this obj file then I would be dead in the water...
How can I find out?


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden