Abstract: Are you planning to move from Delphi 7 to Delphi 8? Check this chart to see how easy it will be for you

Introduction

(June 02, 2004) - It has been almost 6 months since Borland Delphi 8 for .Net became available.
It has been a little bit more then 2 years since Visual Studio .Net was released.

Even there are discussions between developers about a future of .Net more then half of Delphi developers are planning to move to the .Net Framework within next year or already did so.

Are you one of them? Do you plan to migrate your code using Delphi 8 for .Net? Did you decide if it is a right choice for you?

Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework provides a pure Delphi solution with support for .NET Framework. It is designed to enable RAD with Microsoft ASP.NET Web Forms and Windows Forms, VCL for .Net, Microsoft ADO.NET, Borland Data Provider and Borland Enterprise Core Objects (ECO).

As a Delphi programmer you are still be able to use Delphi language and VCL and classes which were around since Delphi 1. Same time you have a full access to the .Net Framework and can share code available for .Net developers.

If you are not starting a new project "a legacy" of your code is a biggest concern and this is what we are going to discuss.

Before continue I am strongly recommend to read Migrating Borland Delphi applications to the Microsoft .NET Framework with Delphi 8 by Bob Swart.

This whitepaper discusses the migration of Delphi Win32 applications to the Microsoft .NET Framework using Delphi 8. The difference between Windows Forms and VCL for .NET is covered, as well as several example migrations from existing Delphi Win32 VCL applications to Delphi 8 native .NET applications.

From Delphi 6/7 to Delphi 8. Big step or small step?

Look at your application, look at the chart bellow. Do you see a majority of the component you are using today?
Then it is a time for you to move. Open a door into the .Net world.

Component	Delphi 7 Ent	Delphi 8 Arch	VS.Net	D8 WinForms
Standard
TFrames
TMainMenu
TPopopMenu
TLabel
TLinkLabel
TEdit
TMemo
TButton
TCheckBox
TRadioButton
TListBox
TComboBox
TScrollBar
TGroupBox
TRadioGroup
TPanel
TPropertyGrid
TActionList
Additional
TBitBtn
TSpeedButton
TMaskEdit
TStringGrid
TDrawGrid
TImage
TShape
TBevel
TScrollBox
TCheckListBox
TSplitter
TStaticText
TControlBar
TApplicationEvents
TValueListEditor
TLabeledEdit
TColorBox
TColorListBox
TChart		www.steema.com
TActionManager
TActionMainMenuBar
TActionToolBar
TXPColorMap
TCustomizeDlg
Win32
TTabControl
TPageControl
TImageList
TRichEdit
TTrackBar
TProgressBar
TUpDown
THotKey
TAnimate
TDateTimePicker
TMonthCalendar
TTreeView
TListView
THeaderControl
TStatusBar
TToolBar
TCoolBar
TPageScroller
TComboBoxEx
TXPManifest
HelpProvider
ToolTip
NotifyIcon
ErrorProvider
System
TTimer
TPaintBox
FileSystemWatcher
EventLog
MessageQueue
PerformanceCounter
Process
ServiceController
ReportDocument
TMediaPlayer
TOleContainer
TDDEClientConv
TDDEClientItem
TDDEServerConv
TDDEServerItem
Win 3.1
TDBLookupList
TDBLookupCombo
TTabSet
TOutline
TTabbedNotebook
TNotebook
THeader
TFileListBox
TDirectoryListBox
TDirectorySearcher
TDriveComboBox
TFilterComboBox
Data Access
TDataSource
TClientDataSet
TDataSetProvider
TXMLTransform
TXMLTransformProvider
TXMLTransformClient
TADONetConnector		Borland.VCL.Design.AdoNet.dll
Data Controls
TDBGrid
TDBNavigator
TDBText
TDBEdit
TDBMemo
TDBImage
TDBListBox
TDBComboBox
TDBCheckBox
TDBRadioGroup
TDBLookupListBox
TDBLookupComboBox
TDBRichEdit
TDBCtrlGrid
TDBChart		www.steema.com
DataSnap
TDCOMConnection
TSocketConnection
TSimpleObjectBroker
TWEBConnection
TConnectionBroker		Borland.VCL.Design.Compat.dll
TSharedConnection
TLocalConnection		Borland.VCL.Design.Compat.dll
ADO
TADOConnection
TADOCommand
TADODataSet
TADOTable
TADOQuery
TADOStoredProc
TRDSConnection
BDE
TTable
TQuery
TStoredProc		Borland.VCL.Design.Compat.dll
TDatabase
TSession
TBatchMove
TUpdateSQL		Borland.VCL.Design.Compat.dll
TNestedTable		Borland.VCL.Design.Compat.dll
Interbase
TIBTable
TIBQuery
TIBStoredProc
TIBDatabase
TIBTransaction
TIBUpdateSQL
TIBDataset
TIBSQL
TIBDatabaseInfo
TIBSQLMonitor
TIBEvents
TIBExtract
TIBClientDataset
TIBConnectionBroker
TIBScript
TIBConnectionBroker
TIBSQLParser
TIBDatabaseINI
TIBFilterDialog
Interbase Admin
TIBConfigService
TIBBackupService
TIBRestoreService
TIBValidationService
TIBStatisticalService
TIBLogService
TIBSecurityService
TIBServerProperties
TIBLicensingService
TIBInstall
TIBUnInstall
dbExpress
TSQLConnection
TSQLDataset
TSQLQuery
TSQLStoredProc
TSQLTable
TSQLMonitor
TSimpleDataset
WebServices
THTTPRIO
THTTPReqResp
TOPToSoapDomConvert
TSOAPConnection
THTTPSoapDispatcher
TWSDLHTMLPublish
THTTPSoapPascalInvoker
InternetExpress
TXMLBroker
TInetXPageProducer
Internet
TWebDispatcher
TPageProducer
TDatasetTableProducer
TDatasetPageProducer
TQueryPageProducer
TSQLQueryPageProducer
TTCPClient
TTCPServer
TUDPSocket
TXMLDocument		Borland.VCL.Design.XML.dll
TWebBrowser
WebSnap
TAdapter
TPageAdapter
TDataSetAdapter
TLoginFormAdapter
TStringValuesList
TDataSetValuesList
TWEBAppComponents
>TApplicationAdapter
TEndUserAdapter
TEndUserSessionAdapter
TPageDispatcher
TAdapterDispatcher
TLocateFileService
TSessionsService
TWebUserList
TXSLPageProducer
TAdapterPageProducer
Dialogs
TOpenDialog
TSaveDialog
TOpenPictureDialog
TSavePictureDialog
TFontDialog
TColorDialog
TPrintDialog
TPrinterSetupDialog
TFindDialog
TReplaceDialog
TPageSetupDialog
PrintPreviewControl
PrintPreviewDialog
PrintDocument
CrystalReportViewer
Decision Cube
...
Samples
...		\Program Files\Borland\BDS\2.0\Demos\VCL\Samples
ActiveX
...
Rave
...		Available from CD
Indy
...
COM+
...
IntraWeb
...		www.atozed.com
Servers
...

Notes

Borland.VCL.Design.*.dll are not registered by default, you can do this using Installed .NET VCL Components - "Add..." option in BDS.

About the Author

Serge Dosyukov, M.S., MCP, Borland Delphi Certified Developer, is founder of Dragon Soft, a consulting company located in Fresno, CA. Serge is Delphi/Pascal developer since Turbo Pascal 5.5, author of DS Plugin System for Delphi. Also maintain a library of scripts collection for Wise Installation system.