-2

I'm starting a new project, and I want to use Delphi for the desktop GUI. I'll be doing mainly typical client/server stuff with it (probably with Firebird). I have Delphi XE6 pro, and the older versions that came with it. And these are some of my somewhat flexible requirements:

  1. The app should work on Linux and OSX, by running on top of Wine. (This was confusing, so I reworded it)
  2. The app should work on Windows XP.
  3. I'm thinking I'll use the open source VirtualTreeView and Turbopower GUI components. Or I may consider an older version of Devex that I have, that officially works with XE, but may (I don't know) unofficially work on a later version?

This project won't generate income right away, so I'd rather not buy a newer version of Devex (I'm currently waiting for some new work to start up, but there's no guarantee it actually will). Also, I read that XE6 will work with XP, even though it's not officially supported: http://blog.marcocantu.com/blog/2014_april_xe6avaialble.html But I'm still not comfortable with the idea, since Embarcadero didn't actually test it. And 3rd party support could also be a problem.

Dan
  • 168
  • 7
  • Can someone tell me why my question was downvoted? If there's a problem I'll try to avoid it in the future, but I have to know what it is first. Thanks. – Dan Feb 22 '15 at 06:41
  • Short answer: Anywhere from XE2 up to XE7. Long answer, hard to answer without knowing a whole lot more about what your intentions are. – Jerry Dodge Feb 22 '15 at 08:00
  • @jerry I'm mainly planning to use Delphi for basic data editing, so I need some good data aware controls, and data access components. The DB will be on the same machine or LAN, so it shouldn't be complicated. Everything else will be in other languages that are cross-platform. And I may eventually add a browser-based interface. I'm basically using Delphi, since it's the fastest way for me to build a GUI. But I don't want to be locked into it long-term. – Dan Feb 22 '15 at 10:07

1 Answers1

0

What your question boils down to is whether or not the latest versions create executables that run on XP, and then on your targeted Wine versions.

Mostly that depends on what functions you call. If you call functions that aren't present in XP, then your program won't run on XP.

A plain vanilla VCL app from XE7 will run on XP. It's what you do then that counts. Simply, you'll have to take care, and test plenty.

My large app still runs on XP and is built with XE7. So it's perfectly possible. As Marco said in his comment, Embarcadero are not yet actively changing the VCL so that it breaks on XP. But they no longer test on XP.

Personally I'd sooner use the later versions so that I had access to generics. I know XE had generics, but the implementation was still a little buggy.

David Heffernan
  • 601,492
  • 42
  • 1,072
  • 1,490
  • OP mentioned OSX, so I naturally assume Firemonkey is the target... Unless it was meant to strictly rely on Wine... – Jerry Dodge Feb 22 '15 at 08:11
  • @Jerry He means to write a VCL app and run it under Wine. – David Heffernan Feb 22 '15 at 08:12
  • @Jerry David's correct. I'm using the VCL, and treating Wine like it's just another version of Windows. But I've never written anything for Wine before, so I don't know how well it'll work yet. – Dan Feb 22 '15 at 09:23
  • I'm not too concerned about new language features, since I'm just using Delphi for stuff it did really well a long time ago. So I'm thinking XE5 might be the best version for me, since it's the latest one that officially supports XP (XP is still used a lot around here). Both of you seem to be recommending against XE. So I'm thinking XE2 thru XE5, unless there's a real compelling reason to use XE6 or XE7. I know there were a bunch of bug fixes, but I scanned through the lists a while back, and I don't remember seeing anything that looked like a big problem for me. – Dan Feb 22 '15 at 11:43
  • It probably makes little difference which version you go for then. There's not that much new for VCL apps in XE7. Main thing is dyn array enhancements but they are still a bit buggy. – David Heffernan Feb 22 '15 at 12:41
  • Thanks. I think I'll go with XE5 then, unless I find something important in the XE6 bug fixes. – Dan Feb 22 '15 at 12:48