How to upgrade from Delphi 2007 to XE2?

Question

We are currently using D2007, but are considering upgrading to XE2. I can think of two "big" problems here: the Unicode step from 2007 to 2009 and all the platform material from XE to XE2 (32/64 bit, VCL / Firemonkey with pointer sizes, namespace, and much more).

AFAIK we also get D2009, D2010 and XE if we buy XE2, so my idea was to upgrade in two steps:

• First deal with Unicode. I think the best way to do this is to switch to XE: we would have working generics, etc., but no additional problems compared to the 2007-> 2009 update.

• If step 1 is done and shows that it works for our customers, then XE-> XE2.

What do you think? Should we do the update in just one step? Or two steps, but with a different intermediate version?

Edit: I know that XE2 does not make us go cross-platform (FireMonkey will probably never be an option for us). I just want to avoid the problems associated with this, such as "XE2 values ​​mrAll, mrNoToAll, mrYesToAll and mrClose" while dealing with any Unicode related issues. And the namespace name sounds like a hindrance if we have to make our devices compatible with D2007 and XE2 during the transition (or is this a bad idea?).

Answer 1

I would just jump right on XE2. Just because it supports 64-bit and FireMonkey does not mean that you should use them immediately. Just write the 32-bit code first and update your Unicode updates if necessary, but be careful about 64-bit ones when dealing with pointers, memory usage, etc., to minimize the need for future migrations when you are ready to tackle 64-bit version. Don’t even worry about FireMonkey, as this is a completely new structure, so you still start from scratch when you make this jump.