Lester,

> kylixguru wrote:
> > I've been fighting issues that are in C++ Builder 5 and it seems as
> though I may need to drop support for it. Otherwise, it seems I am going
> to have to go throughout the IBO code and IFDEF out all calls to
> iboDecodeA() and iboEncodeA(). For some reason it is unable to handle the
> way I have things coded.
> >
> > But, before I do anything official in this regard, I would like to know
> if anyone is intent upon remaining at this level or if they can bump up to
> at least C++ Builder 6.
> >
> > I suppose it is also possible there could be some compiler options that
> might also allow me to avoid the problems I am facing. Unfortunately, I'm
> not a guru when it comes to what all options are available in C++. Would
> those who do know this please contact me privately so that I can get this
> decision finalized?
> >
> > I am very anxious to reach the milestone of having 4.9.14 finished and
> this is an aspect that is holding me up, along with a few other bugs I
> plan to fix before I call it good for this version.
> >
> > Please keep in mind, I will back-port any critical fixes that go into
> the IBO 5.x code that are also relevant in the IBO 4.9.x code.
>
> I still have Builder5 on the development machine here, but have not run it
> for
> some considerable time. All my remaining windows code is still stuck with
> Builder6, but I AM having trouble even there making even small changes to
> the
> old code using what have been stable builds for many years. I think I've
> messed
> something up with the library set when I had to rebuild that machine :(
>
> I invested in XE as a way forward, but as yet I've not been successful in
> porting some of the B6 code over, although some of the components of the
> system
> are now working stably. The main problem seems to be with Windows7 in
> general
> and many sites are reporting that they can't used the parallel port from
> X64
> builds of W7 ... something which all of my remaining systems rely on for
> control
> of the rest of the hardware. So work on the BuilderXE has been stalled for
> some
> time now.
>
> I'm actually at the point where my customers are a lot happier to take
> Linux
> machines, and moving over to a linux base may make a lot more sense given
> the
> amount of time I am wasting on 'upgrading' on windows. It looks like a
> complete
> rewrite may be needed anyway so why not on Linux instead? But I still have
> a
> couple of critical VCL components that would need to be ported.
>
> I've been given permission to retain W2k on the 'workstation' machines
> despite
> the fact that sites have dropped it from normal use simply because
> replacing the
> hardware infrastructure is an unnecessary expense which the councils do
> not have
> the funds to address ... that and the fact that I simply don't have
> working
> solutions available anyway!
>
> I have got to the point where I need to decide where my time is best spent
> as I
> seem to be wasting a lot of it on unproductive work on the moment. Most of
> the
> new paid work is now web based and replacing those critical VCL components
> with
> a web based alternative is another option, but still leave the black hole
> of the
> hardware that is essential for sites to work at all.

Sounds like an interesting situation.

How confident are you that you can port your BCB 5 code into BCB 6?

I'm not clear on what issues you face in porting to XE. Is there anything
you can see on the IBO side of things that is problematic?

Jason