Porting VCL Applications

When porting VCL applications from Delphi 7 to RAD Studio, there are issues you need to consider. Along with basic language elements that need to be replaced or modified, there are strategies that you should follow to make sure that you port your applications fully and reliably.

This topic includes

General Language Issues
Renaming Packages
New Language Features
Porting Web Service Client Applications

General Language Issues

Porting Delphi 7 applications to RAD Studio exposes several language issues in the .NET Framework. For instance, the .NET Framework considers pointers to be unsafe and so does not consider applications that use pointers to fall into the category of managed code. To be compliant with the .NET Framework, you need to modify your applications to avoid or circumvent the use of pointers, the pChar type, and other language-specific elements.

In addition, there are critical issues with the Win32 API, using crackers, migrating char types, and other topics.

Renaming Packages

When porting a Delphi 7 package to RAD Studio, you will need to change the old package names in the "Requires" list to the corresponding new package names. The following table shows the old and new names.

Old Package Name	New Package Name
rtl	Borland.Delphi and Borland.VclRtl
vcl	Borland.Vcl
vclx	Borland.VclX
dbrtl	Borland.VclDbRtl
bdertl	Borland.VclBdeRtl
vcldb	Borland.VclDbCtrls
dbexpress	Borland.VclDbExpress
dbxcds	Borland.VclDbxCds
dsnap	Borland.VclDSnap
dsnapcon	Borland.VclDSnapCon
vclactnband	Borland.VclActnBand

Borland.VclActnBand Packages are now installed by using ComponentInstalled .NET Components.NET VCL Components.

New Language Features

Several new features have been added to the Delphi language to support programming concepts and features of the .NET platform and the CLS:

Partitioning code into namespaces
New visibility specifiers for class members
Class static methods, properties, and fields
Class constructors
Nested type declarations within classes
Sealed classes
Final virtual methods
Operator overloads in classes
.NET attributes
Class helper syntax

Programming in the garbage-collected environment of .NET brings a number of new issues related to allocating and disposing of objects. These issues are discussed in Memory Management Issues on the .NET Platform.

Porting Web Service Client Applications

The .NET Framework employs a major architectural shift in how it handles web services and web service clients. Your existing web service client applications need to be modified to operate on the .NET Framework. RAD Studio does not support the RIO components, and uses a more transparent .NET approach to managing web service client applications. You will need to eliminate RIO components and modify the way you access WSDL documents.