note the lack of Windows and Messages in the list; also the letter Q is added to CLX version of some of the standard units.

Down in the implementation section the {$R *.xfm} line tells us that, on Kylix, form files (.dfm in Delphi) are saved with the .xfm extension.

CLX
Kylix, as Delphi, comes with a class library made up of objects (components and controls), that you use when writing code. This class hierarchy, is called the Borland Component Library for Cross Platform (CLX - pronounced clicks). Actually, both Kylix and the new Delphi 6 share a common component-based framework. Prior to CLX, the Visual Component Library (VCL) was the backbone of Borland's IDE. Like CLX, the VCL handled text, I/O, date and time functions, file management, visual presentation, graphics, data access, networking, and so on. The big difference between CLX and the VCL is that the VCL relied heavily on the Windows API and CLX does not.

Kylix includes BaseCLX, VisualCLX, DataCLX, and NetCLX components.

The visual portion of the CLX is named VisualCLX; it uses the Qt runtime library as its graphics and GUI engine. The Qt runtime is based on a C++ class library developed by a company named Trolltech. Kylix uses the QT toolkit and Object Pascal to provide a full-featured Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment.

   Database development

   Porting issues
The question is: will Delphi applications simply recompile on Kylix? No. Changes will be required if there are direct API calls, or if you are using a third party tool not yet ported to Kylix/Linux.

In the case of migrating VCL code into Kylix, conversion of code may be necessary, but only where code has fundamentally assumed a Windows environment – for instance, direct calls to the Windows API. Code written to CLX is immediately transportable, while code written to VCL requires little modification. In most cases, you can simply load your Delphi applications into the new environment, change a few uses clauses, compile the code and immediately see the Delphi app running on KDE, Gnome, or whatever happens to be your favorite X-window desktop.

When VisualCLX is available to Windows programmers in Delphi 6, all GUI applications written in Kylix can be ported easily to Windows. And if Delphi for Mac, and Delphi for Palm are launched, your applications will port to these platforms as well.

The Windows-specific features that will not port easily from Delphi to Kylix; things like COM, ADO, and ActiveX controls.

For now, Kylix produces only Intel x86 machine code. No commitments for other platforms have been announced to date. Borland has stated that they'll move to another platform when they feel that the market will bear the cost of porting to a new processor.

   This is Kylix 1.0, after all
This article is meant to be just a short trip to new Delphi for Linux, Kylix. If you plan on writing cross-platform applications (and you have some experience with Pascal) than Kylix is simply the best solution you have right now.

Don't forget to post your questions, concerns, views and comments to this article on the Delphi Programming Forum.