Jacob,

> I'm migrating my application and database from BDE/Paradox to
> IBO/Firebird. I use Delphi 2007.
>
> Jason recommends me to create the Firebird database and tables with UTF8
> charset to ease a future upgrade to Delphi XE and full Unicode support.
>
> But when I do that, string fields appear as TWideStringField and blob
> fields TWideMemoField when I connect to the database using TIBOTable.
>
> That breaks my code because those fields are declared as TStringField and
> TMemoField.
>
> So now I don't really know if I should push forward and change all
> TStringField and TMemoField to Wide. I fear that I'll be forced into a lot
> of trouble that I could avoid.

Going directly to XE should avoid that.

> The other option is to use NONE as character set when creating the
> database. I guess that would give me problems if I want to change that to
> UTF8 later. Then I'd have to recreate all string and memo columns and copy
> data over, right?

Agreed, that would be awkward.

> I don't need Unicode support now but it would be nice to have later, when
> I'm ready to convert to Delphi XE+.

If you are using D2007 then don't go to UTF8.

Regards,
Jason LeRoy Wharton