Is WideString identical to String in Delphi 2009

Question

I\'m getting some weird behaviour recompiling some applications in 2009 that used widestrings at various points.

In a Delphi 2009 App is Widestring identical to Str

Answer 1

One other important thing to note is the performance difference.

In Marco Cantu's White Paper (referred to in moodforaday's answer) says:

"WideString was (and still is) not reference counted and is extremely poor in terms of performance and flexibility (for example, it uses the Windows global memory allocator rather than the native FastMM4)."

Almost every upgrade guide for Delphi 2009 I've seen recommends you convert all WideStrings to Strings.