Chapter 25: Delphi for .NET Preview: The Language and the RTL

Overview

The last chapter introduced Microsoft's .NET architecture. Now it is time to focus on the Delphi for .NET Preview that ships with Delphi 7. This chapter will cover specific changes that were made to the Delphi language to make it compatible with the Common Language Runtime. There have been some important additions to the language, such as namespaces and new visibility specifiers. Other long-standing features of the language had to be dropped because they are not supported in a type-safe environment.

This chapter discusses areas of the new compiler including the use of some of Microsoft's own class libraries for .NET and ASP support.

Bear in mind that the Delphi for .NET compiler is still being crafted as I write this. Borland's plan was to release the Preview compiler with Delphi 7 and to provide periodic updates to registered Delphi customers throughout the remainder of 2002 and in the early 2003 (before the Galileo project is completed). Some of the language features discussed here may not be implemented, or may be in varying states of completeness, depending on which version of the compiler you are working with. At the end of this chapter I list web resources you can monitor to keep abreast of the changes and latest news regarding Borland's Delphi for .NET compiler.