Kylix Newsletter #1
INDEX
1. A FEW WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
2. KYLIX
What is Kylix?
Why Linux? Why Kylix?
How much will it cost?
3. PREPARE FOR KYLIX: THE COMPILER AND RTL
4. INPRISE/BORLAND CALLS OFF PROPOSED MERGER WITH COREL
5. LINKS
6. WHAT'S NEXT?
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1. A FEW WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Since last September, when Borland announced they will release a high
performance Linux application development environment codenamed Kylix,
demand and excitement for any news about this has been increasing, and
this is one of the reasons we decided to write this nonofficial
newsletter, expecting it could satisfy all your information needs about
this programming tool.
This newsletter is copyrighted, but it is very important for us to keep
it growing in audience and contents to keep it going, so please feel
free to forward it to friends, acquaintances and colleagues that you
know might be interested in this publication as long as you send it in
full and without modifications.
We are very happy with this first issue and we anxiously expect all your
feedback. We would like to know your comments and opinions about this
newsletter so we can improve it. Please stay in touch!
Regards,
Ernesto De Spirito
eds2004 @ latiumsoftware.com
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More than 40 integrated and customizable components. Impressive GUI.
Centralized resources administration. Multiple programming problems
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2. KYLIX
What is Kylix?
==============
It's an ancient Greek vase with twin handles for sure grip used for
drinking wine. It has a broad shallow bowl, and a foot (so that it won't
tip over when set on a table!), and it is usually decorated, being
mythical scenes of wars, heroes, heroines, gods and goddesses the
preferred themes...
Well, that's what you'll get if you look for Kylix in the net using a
search engine, if you want to search for Kylix I suggest you try with
Kylix Linux Borland or something of the sort to refine the search.
Now, what is Kylix? Borland Software claims it will be among the first
commercial rapid application development (RAD) tools for the Linux
platform. The Kylix project encompasses Borland's Delphi, C++ Builder
and JBuilder development tools for C, C++ and Object Pascal programming
languages, so it is not just "Delphi for Linux" as many people think,
although the plan is that Delphi for the Linux platform will be the
first product produced by the Kylix project. It will be a component-
based visual-application-development environment. A Linux version of
the Visual Component Library (VCL) currently used in Delphi and C++
Builder will be included.
Why Linux? Why Kylix?
=====================
Among all the "UNIX-like" operating systems, Linux is the fastest
growing one in the Intel-PC market. This free, open source, studied in
colleges and universities, stable, scalable, multi-user and multi-
process network operating system has achieved a good positioning in the
internet-servers market and it is also being used in mission-critical
and business-critical systems. This explains why Linux...
However, it is yet far from being the number one OS in the world,
specially because it is not making a big hit in the desktop. Why not?
For many reasons, that in the end can get traduced in a matter of costs.
Yes, costs! Linux is free, but licensing is not the only cost to be
considered. What are the other costs? We can name tech support and
training for instance, but surely it is the cost of applications (either
bought or tailor-made) the one which prevents most companies and
individuals from shifting to Linux since not only it would mean the loss
of all the time and money spent in applications, but also that so much
more time and money should be spent to have tailor-made applications of
similar quality, plus the fact that there won't be adequate
replacements for most commercial applications (and most freeware/
shareware/adware/postcardware/beerware/etc-ware...).
Why tailor-made applications for Linux would take more time and money to
develop? Why aren't there many commercial applications? If you ask me,
it is because there is no Delphi for Linux!!! If you programmed with
Delphi, there's no need to explain how easy it is to develop and
maintain (from system to database, from client to server and from
console to graphics interface) high-performance applications... And
there is more. It is object-oriented and comes with a hierarchy of
components you can use in your applications as they come, or you can
easily subclass them to derive your own custom components. Plus there
is an important developers community, the solid support of Inprise/
Borland, forums, users groups, newsletters... Does this explain why
Kylix?
How much will it cost?
======================
We have no information about when it will be available and how much it
will cost. We would like to see at least a free version of Kylix for
universities and for open-source, non-commercial development, but as
far as we know it won't be free. We expect the prices of Delphi for
Linux match the prices of Delphi for Windows. In the USA, Delphi costs
about U$S 100 for the Standard Edition, U$S 800 for the Professional
Edition and U$S 2,500 for the Enterprise Edition.
Will people buy it? It is known that many Linux users are used to free
applications, even open source whenever possible, but in the case of a
RAD tool like this one, some expect it will become a "best-seller".
There are many programmers waiting for a tool like this one to appear
before considering Linux and real alternative and it is expected many
Delphi/C++ Builder programmers, and many software companies will buy
Kylix to enter the Linux market.
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3. PREPARE FOR KYLIX: THE COMPILER AND RTL
You can find this article written by Danny Thorpe, Delphi R&D, at
http://community.borland.com/article/0,1410,21301,00.html It is destined
to Delphi programmers who want to start preparing their applications for
migration. I took the liberty of extracting a few things (we'll treat
them in more depth in the next issues of this newsletter).
Command-line tools:
* DCC (the Delphi Command-line Compiler) is a native Linux executable
and produces native Linux x86 executables.
* All-new built-in assembler, written in portable code.
* Tasm, make and brcc won't exist in Linux.
* Command line switches: use '-' instead of '/'.
* Semicolons (';') aren't path separators in Linux. To specify many
directories use many switches.
* There will be some resource restrictions not found in Windows.
* Resource introspection will not be supported.
* Resource editing tool opportunities will be limited or more
difficult.
* Position Independent Code (PIC). Shared object libraries (DLL
equivalents) require that all code be relocateable in memory without
modification. This will affect your assembler code.
Language Syntax:
* Delphi's interface and GUID types will exist in Kylix
* Expression evaluation in conditional defines, including access to
declared constants.
* The conditional symbol WIN32 is not defined in Kylix.
* Variables on absolute addresses won't be supported.
* Stdcall calling convention will be mapped to cdecl. This will only
affect assembler code.
* Safecall calling convention will be mapped to cdecl losing all its
special runtime semantics. You'll get a compiler warning.
Run-time library (RTL):
* Portable Variant implementation. Only the variant data types listed as
Ole Automation compatible on the Windows side have been implemented on
the Linux side. Windows 12 byte VT_DECIMAL will not be supported.
* WideStrings will be reference counted (like AnsiStrings).
* Units such as ComObj, ComServ, Activex, Windows, etc; won't exist in
Kylix.
* There won't be Safecall exceptions.
* RaiseLastWin32Error, OleCheck, Win32Check won't exist.
* ExpandUNCFilename won't exist since Linux doesn't support UNC
(serverdirectory).
* Filename case sensitivity: applications must be aware of this.
* WideChar is (still) 2 byte Unicode. Linux widechar type, wchar_t, is
actually 4 bytes per character.
* AnsiStrings will be encoded as UTF-8, a multibyte encoding of the 4
bytes per char UCS character standard.
* Multibyte character sequences can be more than 2 bytes long.
* Resource string efficiencies. Resource strings will be encoded in
UTF-8 (1 byte per char, usually) in the executable file.
* File times (32 bit integers) will be in Linux format.
* DiskFree, DiskSize, and ExtractFileDrive will be modified or disappear
since there are no drives in Linux.
* Path separator issues. A new constant, PathSeparator, will contain the
appropriate character for the platform.
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4. INPRISE/BORLAND CALLS OFF PROPOSED MERGER WITH COREL
INPRISE/BORLAND AND COREL TERMINATE PROPOSED MERGER
Inprise/Borland to Continue to Pursue Increasingly Successful Internet
Strategy
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., --May 16, 2000-- Inprise/Borland Corporation
(Nasdaq: INPR) today announced that its merger agreement with Corel
Corporation (Nasdaq: CORL, TSE: COR) has been terminated by mutual
agreement of the two companies without payment of any termination fees.
The reciprocal stock option agreements have also been terminated.
Dale Fuller, Inprise/Borland interim president and CEO said, "Much has
changed since the merger was agreed to more than three months ago, and
our board concluded that it would be best to cancel the merger on an
amicable basis."
Commenting on Inprise/Borland's future, Fuller said, "Inprise/Borland is
well positioned today with improving operating results and substantial
liquid assets. Future operations will continue to follow our
increasingly successful strategy of creating solutions that enable
companies to move their businesses to the Internet. We will create the
tools necessary to leverage new platforms for Linux, Solaris, and
Windows 2000, and provide superior services to Application Service
Providers. In addition, Inprise/Borland will continue to invest in
companies and technologies that complement this strategy."
In January of 2000, Inprise/Borland and Corel entered into a
confidentiality agreement that included a standard three-year standstill
covenant. That agreement remains in effect.
© 2000 Borland Software Corporation
Extracted from Borland/Inprise web site:
http://www.borland.com/about/press/2000/mergerterminated.html
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5. LINKS
* Inprise/Borland
http://www.borland.com
* Borland Community
http://community.borland.com
* Linux Community
http://community.borland.com/linux/
* Delphi Community
http://community.borland.com/delphi/
* Project Jedi (open source component library)
http://www.delphi-jedi.org
* Project Jedi - Jedix Page
http://www.delphi-jedi.org/Jedi:VOYJEDIX:578166667
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6. WHAT'S NEXT?
In the following editions of this newsletter we will start a quick
introduction to Object Pascal and we will review Lazarus and FreePascal,
two open source implementations of the Object Pascal language for Linux.
We will also begin discussing some of the differences between Delphi for
Windows and Delphi for Linux in more detail, as well as some aspects
specific to programming for the Linux environment. See you then!
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Latium Software http://www.latiumsoftware.com/en/index.php
Copyright (c) 2000 by Ernesto De Spirito. All rights reserved.
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