Migrating to Delphi 8 for .NET

This Developers Group Masterclass was held on 27th April, 2004 in Hammersmith, England.

Why Should I Attend?

Like it or not, .NET is not going away. If you are unclear as to the significance of .NET then you should know that it is the heir apparent to the Win32 API. Just as developers were obliged to move from DOS programming to Win16, and then from Win16 programming to Win32, developers will need to move from Win32 programming to .NET. The next major version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, will expose all new features using only .NET APIs (currently referred to as WinFx) and Win32 will be supported for legacy applications only.

Delphi 8 for .NET is Borland's first version of Delphi to target the Microsoft .NET Framework, capable of generating safe, verifiable, secure managed code that runs on the .NET platform. Delphi 8 only creates .NET applications and does not support generating regular Win32 applications (though it comes with a copy of Delphi 7 in the box that does). This platform shift takes a bit of adjustment in the same way that moving from Delphi 1 (for Win16) to Delphi 2 (for Win32) did.

This Masterclass looks at what issues you might bump into when trying to port your current Win32 applications over to .NET using Delphi 8 and, where possible, how to overcome them.

What Will I See?

This is an outline of the planned agenda (not necessarily in the order listed):

What Will I Know When I Leave?

Attendees will leave this Masterclass aware of what efforts the Borland R&D team put into Delphi 8 for .NET to help move as much legacy code onto the .NET platform as possible. You will also have a good idea of what will and won't work without taking too much time and trouble, and in the cases of things that will not readily port over, what alternatives are required/available to get the job done in a .NET system.

And you might see a couple of tricks that help make the new "Galileo" IDE a little more welcoming.


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