.NET remoting and Delphi win32

Question

Hi,

Is it possible (and feasible) to use .NET Remoting interface with Delphi win32 application?

I need communication between .NET application and Delphi win32 application, so .NET remoting would be native for other end of the pipe.

Any other solutions, as close to native as possible, for both ends without 3rd party libraries? Applications will be running each on a separate Windows machine.

Answer 1

Both Delphi win23 and .Net have good support for COM objects. It's an option worth checking out.

Answer 2

Using remoting from a non-.NET Delphi exe would be very painful. If the .NET app isn't known to be running, then COM interop would be the easiest answer, since there are processes for COM activation etc. The fact that there are different machines complicates things, but DCOM exists and works (I haven't tested it with .NET and Delphi endpoints, though).

If the .NET app is known to be running (perhaps as a service), you could consider a range of alternatives:

• sockets
• http (perhaps POX over http, using HttpListener at the .NET server)
• SOAP (perhaps using WCF via ServiceHost at the .NET end)
• file based (network share, presumably)

Answer 3

Because they are running on different machines, you should use a network communication. SOAP is a general communication format, which can be easely made for both .Net and Delphi win32. But SOAP = XML = slow.

For my company we use the RemObjects SDK remoting framework: http://www.remobjectssdk.com/

Very easy to make an interface, generate code for .Net/Delphi/Php/c++/whatever, also supports SOAP but we use the binary format for speed (!).

Answer 4

You can also see Crosstalk