Re: Kylix (delphi for Linux), a good Ada alternative for GUI application on Linux.

[Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>]

mark@nospam <mark_member@newsguy.com> writes:

> I found Kylix (delphi for linux) to be very similar to Ada. It has units
> (like ada packages),

It completely ignores all elaboration issues, IIRC.  Handling them is
up to the programmer, and there isn't any help from the language
implementation.

> threads,

Well, I haven't seen this recently.  I worked once with a rather old
version of the run-time system on Windows, and the library wasn't safe
for threading in some places.

> very similar syntax (after all, Delphi is based on Pascal),

Na, the explicit begin/end is quite a difference (and can easily lead
to errors).

> strong typing.

AFAIK the type system of Object Pascal is based on structural
equivalence (except for classes), so it's not as strongly typed as it
could be.

> fully OO langauge, All objects in kylix are rooted in one base
> object (like Java).

I don't think this is true.

> Support single inhertance (like Ada and Java).

There are some obscure things like properties and stuff.

> But it is very easy to develop GUI and database applications with it, very
> good RAD env too. They have done a good job with the libC unit that allows
> direct call to all the C library functions.
> 
> I think Kylix could be a good alternative to Ada on Linux.

Hmm, I don't use Ada as a RAD tool, quite the contrary. ;-)