In this Dr. Bob Examines column I'll show how you can move BDE data such as dBASE and Paradox tables from Windows to Linux -- from Delphi to Kylix -- by transforming them into XML using TClientDataSet and TDataSetProvider components.

The article includes source code for a little console application called BDE2XML (for Delphi 5 Enterprise) that can turn BDE tables into XML. Usage is simple. Make sure BDE2XML is in your path and move to the directory where your database tables reside. Then, to convert the country.db table from Paradox to XML for example, execute:

BDE2XML country.db

The result is a 2,298-byte country.xml file that can be moved from Windows to Linux (by using a network, ftp or even a floppy disk) and then loaded in Kylix by a TClientDataSet component using the LoadFromFile method or the FileName property.