Borland has released Kylix, a native Linux version of Delphi and the company's answer to

Visual Basic. Kylix uses the QT tookit and Object Pascal to provide a full-featured Rapid

Application Development (RAD) environment. The astounding quantity of press around Kylix

makes it one of this year's most anticipated Linux products.

Kylix piqued my interest for a variety of reasons. Although I am not a Windows developer,

I've sighed the traditional oohs and aahs over the idea of easy Windows cross-platform

development. The first application I built was a DBase 4 program to handle special orders

for a bookstore. Since that time, I have moved on. The only time I see Microsoft Windows is

when I have to use QuickBooks or give support to a legacy customer. In fact, our office is

100 percent pure Linux. Even the iMac runs YellowDog Linux 2.0Beta. The hype around Kylix

automatically triggered me to conduct a product review.

Getting the goods

Obtaining Kylix was a bit of a chore. Initially, I called Borland several times before

the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo opened in New York in late January. I never received a

return call. While at the show, I was able to corner one of Borland's PR representatives and

get a promise that the company would send me a copy of the product. After the expo I

received a beta release, but I wanted to review the retail package. I wanted to read the

documentation and see how Borland was going to present the product to the public.

I called Borland to obtain a full release of Kylix and was actually able to get hold of a

real, presumably warm-blooded, creature to assist me. She was helpful and sent me the

production version, but the CD arrived alone. I didn't even get the standard press kit that

companies usually send with their promotional software. Once again, I was off to the phones.

A few days later, Kylix Server Developer finally arrived in the mail. The process of

obtaining the product started in mid-January and ended in March.

The blue and white Kylix box was marked very clearly with the information that Kylix is

"Delphi Compatible." That seemed a horrible way to word it. Recently, it seems the word

"compatible" has lent itself to things like emulation layers, which tend to be unstable and

generally do not perform as well as native code. Personally, I would have said, "Delphi for

Linux."

Installation

After cracking the seal, I remembered why I actually liked Borland. It is because of the

documentation. When I wrote my first database application years ago, I programmed it using

just the Borland manuals that came with Dbase. I didn't need any supporting materials. It

appears that Borland

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine