In article <✉forums.codegear.com>, Luigi Sandon wrote:

> over 64 bit came out. Going 64 would have required some adjustements,
> but not a whole new VCL ...

It seems to me that (unless I've missed something) you probably haven't 
understood what's actually been said.


As I understand it the thing that is going to be done before producing 
64-bit Delphi is the work on the new compiler architecture -- so that 
the D64 compiler can be built with the new architecture, which should 
(we all hope) make it quicker to develop and more reliable to maintain.


The new compiler design will of course support X-platform work -- or 
any work targeting a platform other than Win32 (and that would include 
Win64) -- but that doesn't mean that the technology won't be first used 
for D64 and CB64. I haven't seen any statement to lead me to believe 
that those products won't be the first to use it.


There will eventually have to be a replacement for VCL -- or at least a 
massive upgrade to it -- if a Delphi-like product is to be released on 
non-Windows platforms, but that doesn't have to be done before the 
first release of Delphi for Win64.

> ... targeting Linux and Mac *properly* needs two whole new
> frameworks ...

I disagree. The value of cross-platform tools is that the SAME codebase 
targets all platforms. The idea is that it should be possible to write 
application code that can be built -- without change -- for any 
(supported) platform. The framework itself will contain code specific 
to the particular platform being targeted, but it hides that from the 
client app.


I develop mostly for Windows and linux. If I can build my applications 
for Mac just by throwing a switch I may be moved to do so, but if I 
have to learn a new framework to target the Mac I'm not going to bother 
-- it's not that I don't like the Mac, just that I don't have time to 
support three different targets unless the app code is very similar for 
them all.

> ... the Mac is all about the GUI - and if you target the Mac you
> don't target the average data-entry guy, nobody buys him a Mac.

That's true ... but a good cross-platform framework can support the Mac 
well enough -- and "well enough" is certainly better than "not at all", 
if the application itself has any value. I don't target "the average 
data entry guy" whatever platform I'm writing for.


Cheers,
 Daniel.