Kylix Anyone?

[Niloc]

I am about to install Linux on my machine . I am a Delphi programmer (Win 2K) and I will want to use Kylix, the Linux version of Delphi and recompile all my precious Delphi code.

I searched this forum for Kylix but got a nil result.

Does anyone out there use Kylix and if not, why not, poor results or problems?

[Wallalai]

Hi,

I made a search for Kylix on Distrowatch.com and didn't find any trace of it. Then I googled and found a Kylix german forum: http://www.kylixforum.de.vu/ and this post in the forum where it is written:

Kylix ist seitens Borland, genau wie auch z.B. der C++ Builder X, komplett ausgestorben. Das sieht man z.B. auch daran, dass das aktuelle Delphi 2006 das Wort "CLX" nicht mehr kennt Confused

that means Kylix is complitely dead and no more maintened.

To be sure I went on the Borland web site where i saw that the last release is from....2002.

Kylix is not free and not GPL, and very Delphi programmer oriented, so not interesting for who doesn't need it.

Edited March 31, 2006 by Wallalai

[kdvsn]

I am about to install Linux on my machine . I am a Delphi programmer (Win 2K) and I will want to use Kylix, the Linux version of Delphi and recompile all my precious Delphi code.

I searched this forum for Kylix but got a nil result.

Does anyone out there use Kylix and if not, why not, poor results or problems?

I use Kylix for software I write for the company that I work for, in fact that's pretty much that's pretty much the only thing that I use Linux for. Borland has ceased supporting it, since Kylix 3 came out in 2002 I don't think that Borland has done anything at all to support Kylix. For that reason you may have trouble getting the IDE to run on the latest Linux distrubtions. I've have an old laptop with Mandrake 9.1 on it, specifically for the purpose of compiling Kylix apps and a destop at home with Mandrake 10.0 that works with Kylix though the IDE has a couple of minor idiosyncrazies. though some people have reported success getting Kylix 3 to run on the latest versions of Suse and Mandriva after certain patches have been applied. An extra unit needs to be added to you project to make the exe's generated by Kylix run on distribututions that have execshield enabled.

Despite the above, Kylix is still seems to be the best way to get Delphi apps to run on Linux. After a lot of work, I've been able to get a 200,000+ line CAD application to run just about the same on Linux as on Windows. Depending upon what's in your code though it might not always be straight-forward to port over to Linux, some of the VCL component don't have the same properties and procedures as their CLX counterparts, some VCL components just don't have a CLX equivalent, and any direct calls that you might have made to the Windows API would obvious have to go. I found ways to work around these things in my projects, but I was quite motivated to do so.

Be aware too that the pascal in Kylix 3 is compatible with Delphi 7. Code contianing any language extensions that were intoduced in Delphi 8, Delphi 2005, or Delhpi 2006 will not compile under Kylix 3.

some good sources of Kylix info:

http://www.kylix-patch.de.vu/

http://crosskylix.untergrund.net/execshield.shtml

http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=...scoring=d&hl=en

[kdvsn]

Kylix is not free and not GPL, and very Delphi programmer oriented, so not interesting for who doesn't need it.

At one time Borland did have a GPL version of Kylix 3 on there web site (it might still be there, I haven't checked). A non-GPL verions of it was included with Delphi 6 Professional.

You're right that Kylix would primarily be for people who have a specific need to use Delphi on Windows. In my case it was a godsend despite it's flaws as it probably extended the commericial usefulness of my Delphi code base by at least 5 years because much of my company is Unix/Linux centric and the availbality of a Linux port of my apps brought a whole new group of users into the fold. Delphi might seem oddball but at the time I started my work the other logical choice of a tool would have been VB, which wouldn't have ported to Linux at all. Now there might be better choices, though Delphi is still pretty slick IMO.

[Niloc]

Thanks for the help. I have a copy of Kylix (Kylix 2) I collected a couple of years ago in Bangkok, I have not tried it yet but I will give it a go and see how it works.

If I can't have Delphi (or Kylix) I will have to rewrite everything in C++ or maybe even vanilla C, too much trouble!! I will probably stick with Win2K which I am currently using and put up with Micro$oft.

First I have to get Linux working!!

Colin

[kdvsn]

Thanks for the help. I have a copy of Kylix (Kylix 2) I collected a couple of years ago in Bangkok, I have not tried it yet but I will give it a go and see how it works.

If I can't have Delphi (or Kylix) I will have to rewrite everything in C++ or maybe even vanilla C, too much trouble!! I will probably stick with Win2K which I am currently using and put up with Micro$oft.

First I have to get Linux working!!

Colin

I started out with Kylix 2, I think that I was running it on Red Hat 7.1. I supsect that you may have difficulty getting Kylix 2 to run on the 2.6.xx Linux kernels since even with Kylix 3 it takes some playing around. The issue is mostly that while Kylix compiles native Linux execuatables, the IDE runs on an ancient version of WINE. If you happen to vist any discount software shops, you might want to upgrade to Kylix 3.