Is there any information on the project file, source code and *.dfm file compatibility between the different DELPHI versions.
If I do not use the latest features of DELPHi XE3 can I still open the code base and compile using eg. DELPHI 2010 ?
( I Know Unicode Issues, or Component changes like INDY 9 to INDY 10 will block the down grading , but this an other topic for me)
The bad think e.g. not working : use your Delphi 7 project, open and compile using DELPHI 2010, you can not reopen the project with DELPHi 7 because some objects will have extened properties from opening the project with 2010. Manual rework back to DELPHi 7 style in that case is rather time consuming.
Can a developer team work together, were members are using different DELPHI XX versions?
It's possible to do what you want but I cannot imagine why you would want to. When we ported our app from D6 to D2010 we had shared source that would build in both versions.
This was purely a transitional arrangement. As soon as we were confident in the D2010 port, we severed the umbilical cord. And at this point we embraced the new features of D2010 with relish.
In order to make this work we used the following crutches:
Helper functions to mitigate the ANSI/Unicode differences.
Unit aliases to deal with unit renaming. For example the themes units changed names from D6 to D2010 and the unit alias feature hid that.
Oodles of conditional code.
All this was needed because we had a porting task and so had to compile in both versions. The old version for our existing product maintenance, and the new version so that we could test and develop the port.
But I see no reason for you to do any of this., not least because it leads to very complex code. If you want your app to build in D7 then always build it in D7. Since you cannot use features of modern Delphi and retain compatibility with D7, why use anything other than D7? When you buy modern Delphi you also gain access to old Delphi versions.
I am working on a C++/Win32 project, and I have some Delphi code from some other (not mine) project that is relevant, and I want to convert it to C++ and integrate into my project.
Keep in mind I have no experience with Delphi.
What's a good and user-friendly Delphi complier? I don't mind about command line or GUI, as long as it's clear to use.
The only Delphi compiler is the Delphi compiler. It's not free. There is the Free Pascal Compiler, FPC. That is, as its name suggests, free. FPC can compile most Delphi code but be aware that many Delphi libraries, e.g. the VCL, are not available for FPC.
I do not know whether this would be too painful for you you to convert the source code in C++ manually.
But have you tried Lazarus? It is intended to be an open source equivalent of Delphi.
Hope it helped.
The previous responses here were all valid in 2012, but things have changed.
Nowadays there is a free (as in beer) Community Edition:
https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi/starter/free-download
I started occupational programming with Delphi when the Turbos came out , and have licenses for Delphi 2006 Turbo Pro and Delphi 2009 Professional. I have been asked to support another in-house tool, written by another occupational programmer, who has since retired.
It's a Windows program, but it was developed with Delphi 6 using the CLX library rather than the VCL.
From what I gather, the CLX library was QT based and was removed prior to Delphi 2006.The support only consists of a few bug fixes and some minor tweaks, so I would rather not port the code to VCL, if i can avoid it.
Is it possible to install CLX support into either Delphi 2006 or 2009?
Maybe not a direct answer but if you upgrade to Delphi XE, you will also get license keys for some of the older versions of Delphi down to 7, and Delphi 7 included CLX (it was dropped in Borland Delphi 2006).
The short answer is: no. Unfortunately I don't know any long answer which could tell you how to workaround this.
No, you can't add support for CLX to your other Delphi versions.
If it's in-house software, then your company should still have the in-house Delphi installation used to develop it. Multiple Delphi versions can co-exist on the same system; install earlier versions before installing later versions.
If the former employee took that installation with him when he left, can you get it back? I wouldn't expect it really belongs to him anyway. You said he retired; that wasn't a euphemism for died, was it? If not, then you can still contact him.
If there isn't an easy way (and I suspect that there is not), you may need to continue using D7. D2009 is going to introduce the hassle of Unicode, and even going to D2006 is going to cause problems with 3rd-party libraries.
You could run both versions of Delphi on the same machine, but another option would be to use a VM for the legacy development. Either set up a new instance, or you could use the VMWare Converter to convert the other developer's entire machine into a VM image, which you could run on your machine, via the free VMWare Player.
BTW, VMWare Converter is a GREAT way to preserve old environments, to allow maintenance on older software that really needs to use a particular Delphi version, on a particular OS, "just like I left it". If you have a bunch of dusty computers under your desk, consider this option. VMWare Converter is the only tool I know of that will easily convert a physical machine to a useable VM that will run anywhere.
From what I've read from the previous posts, Delphi 7 is stable and has the best help system but is slow, Delphi 2007 is fast but the help system is bad and the IDE is buggy. Delphi 2009 is stable and fast but the help system is bad too. The posts were made when 2010 isn't available yet. I am planning to upgrade from Delphi 7 to 2010. Is Delphi 2010 stable, fast and has a good help system?
Delphi 2010 is one of the best Delphi releases ever. It stabilizes some of the new features introduced in Delphi 2009. The IDE is fast, and in the project I used it was very stable.
The thing there is that the IDE and the help system are build as a RAD Studio for different languages. Especially the help system tries to be everything for everybody. Even having only one personality installed, it has many entires about other languages I do not care about (but I can filter them). Yet there are many entires missing depth that never made it into the new help format.
The help system starts painstakingly slow (especially at first startup). But, to be fair, this is partially do to the MS Help System being a pain in the neck (this, in my opinion, just was the wrong path to chose).
Embarcadero invests quite some effort into the help system, and it had several updates during the 2010 release.
You do know about the varying expense of conversion to Unicode as 2010 is fully Unicode based?
Here are some reasons why I stick to Delphi 7, having Delphi 2010 at hand to recompile and test what I wrote in Delphi 7, in a cross-version manner:
if your source code compiles on Delphi 7, and you make careful usage of Unicode/AnsiString, it will work as well with Delphi 2010;
if your source code compiles on Delphi 7, it will work as well with Free Pascal, so
cross-platform and 64 bits are open to you;
if your source code compiles on Delphi 7, it can be cross-compiled with CrossKylix directly from the Delphi 7 IDE - see Has any one used CrossKylix for real Cross-platform development?
Delphi 7 runs well on my Windows Seven 64 bits system, if you install it not in "C:\Program Files" but in "C:\Progs" for example;
Delphi 7 starts faster than Delphi 2007, and MUCH faster than Delphi 2009/2010 - see http://andy.jgknet.de/dspeedup
generated code is almost the same since Delphi 7 - when I need speed, I use better algorithms, and assembler if it's worth it;
Delphi 7 IDE is as powerful as Delphi 2010 IDE, if you use some IDE enhancements like http://www.cnpack.org;
Delphi 7 help is still the reference - why waiting for 20 seconds on my Core i7 processor waiting for the awful MS help system to launch? and if you want to create an application able to run under XP, its content will be enough for you; if you want to know about newer OS, just use msdn web site directly, or via google: it sounded to me easier than the help integrated with Delphi 2005/2010;
I use the assembler/CPU view a lot: all Delphi IDE have the Alt-F2, but you can close this window by the escape key on Delphi 7 - I was not able to find such a keyboard shortcut under Delphi 2007/2010, and it's very annoying;
Delphi 7 executable size are small, and even smaller with our LVCL libraries (30 KB for a form with buttons);
I didn't have the need for generics and such up to now - I like knowing which code is generated;
Delphi 7 is Unicode ready, whatever you say - its associated VCL was not, but CharSets are not evil, and work well - what I do is develop under Delphi 7, then compile with Delphi 2010 and get all the Unicode benefits if needed;
I use a large screen (at 1920x1280 resolution), and Delphi 7 makes it easy to have multiple edit windows at once - newer IDE locked layout was not a good idea... at such that EMB officially added the "Delphi 7 way undocked IDE" feature to Delphi 2010: and marketing sell it as a new feature;
and so on, and so on...
You can use Delphi 7 help in Delphi 2010, if you want to.
Use this or this addon. See item 5 here for instructions (sorry, it's machine auto-tranlation).
P.S. You can have more than one help installed. Say, a F1 for Delphi 7 help and Ctrl+F1 for Delphi 2010 help.
delphi 2010 is stable and fast and is actually a good delphi compiler after years of half-baked releases, they have improved help system in delphi 2010 but i still think delphi 7 help system is superior(but thats just my opinion).you do know delphi 2010 has a 1 month trial do you? download it and play around and see if you like it
EDIT: forgot to mention if you buy delphi 2010 you'll get marco cantu's Delphi 2010 Handbook for free ,the book covers whats new in D2010 so if you consider book as part of help system than help system is OK :)
Delphi7 was faster, but it was a lot simpler. I wouldn't worry too much about performance of the IDE, especially if you're working on a modern PC. At work I've got an old P4 machine, and it runs just fine.
New language features like methods on records and generics make it well worth it to switch.
For me it's hard to live without TList<T> nowadays.
For a while I've desperately tried to keep code Delphi7-compatible, but I've ported most of the important applications to D2010 already, and whenever I need to start D7, it all feels so low-tech and simple.
I've always hated the crappy component palette in the older Delphi's. Delphi 2010 has a much better interface, and the filter function is a real time-saver.
I've decided to give up on Delphi7 and just make full use of D2010's capabilities. That makes life a lot easier.
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I've been very happy with the Delphi IDE for programming in Delphi.
But I've heard about the Lazarus programming environment, and I've also heard that some Delphi programmers use it instead of the Delphi IDE.
What are the advantages that Lazarus has over the Delphi IDE, and why would, or should a Delphi programmer switch to it?
The answers are leaving me with more questions than I had before. There seems to be some disagreement as to whether Lazarus can or cannot be used as an editor in developing Delphi code. I guess I thought you could leave everything in Delphi and just change IDEs. The Lazarus for Delphi Users section of the Lazarus Wiki says:
The first thing to do when converting
a Delphi project
Having opened
Lazarus, you should go to to Tools and
then Convert Delphi Project to Lazarus
Project. This won't do everything for
you, but nonetheless will take you a
good deal of the way. Note that the
Lazarus IDE's conversion tools are
generally one-way conversions. If you
need to retain Delphi compatibility so
you can compile your project with both
Delphi and Lazarus, consider
converting your files with the XDev
Toolkit instead.
Because Lazarus is free is not a reason to switch, but does not penalize you in physical $'s for switching. (You will still have to invest your time to convert and learn. Time = $).
My as-much-as-I-understand conclusions from your answers as to why someone might switch from Delphi to Lazarus: obviously it must be providing something that Delphi currently can't. Currently that is multiplatform support and possibly 64-bit support. Delphi did have Kylix at one time, but not Mac support.
But with both of those and 64-bit promised soon by Embarcadero, you've answered my question by telling me there's no reason (at least for me) to switch.
Ok. This is an old thread, but could do with some updating. I stopped using Delphi, maybe a decade ago, largely because I had no choice. Having spent 5+ years working as a Delphi coder, I was now a student again and the prices for Delphi were simply outrageous. The problem with Delphi was never Delphi. Delphi was a genius system, but Borland (and later its successors) completely misunderstood the changing computer world. Microsoft was able to deliver a programming environment, that you could download for free, and its .NET environment was comparable with the VCL in all the important ways, meanwhile even a basic version of Delphi would break your bank or be plain out unavailable to student budgets. The end result is that with no new Delphi programmers coming on-line, it became a risky proposition for businesses to continue to use. Finally with the rise of linux, Kylix turned out to be a total trainwreck of an environment, not utilizing available UI toolchains and with a suspicious stench of Wine pervading it, topped off with an insulting attitude to GPL software that treated it as if it was shareware. Finally when Turbo Delphi came out many years later, it was unable to utilize the amazing resources available via sites like tories component sites. It was clear Borland had no respect at all for its coder ecosystem.
So Lazarus seemed to emerge out of all this, taking a very long time to gestate and seemingly aiming at some sort of analogue to Delphi 4, held by many to be one of the cleanest and neatest in the Delphi line. It complied to just about everything, its implementation of Object Pascal was spot-on, and most importantly it was free in all the senses that matter to open source.
However, it has had a long history of bugginess, and incomplete implementations of its controls. And this was bit of a deal breaker for me and many others.
With that said, I recently decided to download it, out of curiosity, and found that it's actually come a hell of a long way. The database components just work, although you might need to follow a few tutorials and chase some leads around to get them all up and running, and serious progress has been made towards iPhone and Android build targets.
I'm not sure I'm ready to deploy this to any of my commercial clients yet, but I'm going to give it another run with a personal project to put it through its paces, and if it does work, I think I'm finally going to be re-united with my first programming love, Pascal, and in a matter that lets me use my Mac to do the heavy lifting, whilst providing Windows and Linux builds.
So basically here are the facts on the comparison;-
Lazarus and Delphi are totally separate entities. Lazarus is NOT a cross compiler for Delphi, but has a certain degree of compatibility. Its more like GCC vs MS C++.
Delphi is more polished and likely more stable.
Lazarus provides a Delphi 4 like environment that old-hand Delphi coders will find very comfortable.
but Lazarus can be temperamental at times, and Delphi programmers need to understand that not everything in the latest and greatest Delphis will be there for them.
Delphi does Windows, and it does it very well (yes I know the new one has some cross compilation targets, but word on the street is, that it's a bit hacky and needs some time in the embacardo cooker before it's really there), whilst Lazarus complies to almost everything. The current target list is;- Darwin, NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Win32, Win64, WinCE go32v2 (I think that's MS-DOS with 32bit extensions!), OS2, Netware(!), BEOS, Haiku(?!), QNX, wdosx(?), emx, netwlibc, Atari, Amiga, Palm-os, Gameboy advance, nds, MacOS, Morphos, Plus, there's experimental support for IOS and Android. On top of this, the thing can use widget sets from QT, GTK, GTK2, Win32/WIn64, Carbon, fpGUI(no idea), Cocoa or no GUI at all, with various degrees of implementation transparency.
Its an exhaustive list!
So Caveat Emptor. I strongly recommend Delphi coders download this and do some personal projects to get a feel for it, not on the boss' dime, but there's a lot of depth and substance to Lazarus, and it's potentially a vital tool in the belt for dealing with life outside the Windows crib.
Plus since Delphi's new masters still haven't learned a !##$%^&* thing about why Delphi fell from grace (Hint, make it affordable or free to hobbyists and students to learn and create custom components) , it's really the only budget option available. If Embarcadero ever wake up, maybe that will change. Until then, viva Lazarus.
The two main reasons for me are
1) Multiplatforms support (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows)
2) The price $0
Well a Delphi programmer cannot use Lazarus to write Delphi code because Lazarus is not Delphi. Lazarus is actually an IDE and a bunch of Delphi-ish class libraries for Free Pascal. But note, things like Delphi's VCL is not there, and to be perfectly blunt the IDE and debugging experiences in Lazarus are pretty spotty, however it is free, so that counts for a lot.
Bottom line, Delphi <> Lazarus. Use Delphi if you want a great IDE and debugger huge 3rd party support and tech suport you are targeting MS Windows, plus you are willing to pay for it. Use Lazarus (free pascal) if you want a Free IDE that supports multiple platforms and has a Delphi-ish syntax.
Maybe I'm just reading this wrong, but you seem to be under the impression that the IDEs are somehow interchangeable. That's not correct. Lazarus is built on top of the FPC compiler and is tied to it in much the same way that Delphi is tied to the DCC compiler. Also, they use different form description file formats. Delphi can't read LFMs, and Lazarus can try to read DFMs but it doesn't do a particularly good job of it.
FPC/Lazarus is very similar to Delphi, but it's a different dialect of Object Pascal and it would be a mistake to think they're equivalent.
I have a sound recognizing algorithm running on Delphi. When my superior asked to run it on WinCE I tried Lazarus. Pascal is Pascal. Lazarus is super. I have done it.
Algorithm is written in Pascal. I tried to convert. C# was prone to decompile and used different logic. Luckily I've found Free Pascal.
I have it running on WinCE on ARM. Thanks to all FPC collaborators.
edit: I have it running on Linux too.
Lazarus is cross-platform and free both as in speech and beer, while Delphi is neither. Lazarus does use a different compiler that compiles a language 99% compatible with Delphi, and provides a different visual component library, similar to but not compatible with Delphi's VCL.
Yes, Linux is installed on 70% of servers. It is powering the Facebook which has 400,000,000+ users. And you tell me to use Windows? You tell me not to use 64 bit?
I will use Lazarus. Until Delphi catches on.
Main reason for me - Delphi cannot currently compile 64bit apps and as such cannot see, read or write certain registry keys.
Well, I am one of those who uses Lazarus IDE to write Delphi source code.
I Like Delphi a lot. But use Delphi's editor is really a painful. I've tried VIM, and always dreamed to have an IDE like visual studio: simple, clean, and can split window horizontaly or vertically...
Finally I found Lazarus editor, way much better than Delphi's. So I use Lazarus write Delphi source, and RAD IDE is just for compile and debug.
For me :
64bit is alive (Delphi... yes may be, not and yes again, and finally no...)
Cross platform (Delphi not) By the way a lot of works still have to be done but it works !
FPC is a very good compiler
Community is cool and active
I don't have that much new to add, but I thought I'd relate my crossplatform experience. As far as putting together a cross platform application sketch fairly quickly, I find Lazarus to work very nicely. I've recently been using MonoDevelop of which there is much to commend, but the gui designer stetic doesn't seem as complete as the Lazarus GUI designer. Or is it the toolkit (GTK#) that seems to lack some bits? Before that, I've used Qt / C++ which also seemed to work out fairly well for crossplatform development, but I'm not real keen on C++, and Qt's signal/slot framework is a bit curious, but works well once you get your head wrapped around it. In sum, I find RAD work, and coding using Lazarus to be mostly joyful, besides, what a cool name for an IDE!
Cheers
Only CodeTyphon/Lazarus/FreePascal supports 4 CPU/OS hosts (Win32, Win64, Linux32, Linux64), and 16 CPU/OS targets (arm-WinCE, arm-Linux, arm-Embedded, arm-gba, arm-nds, i386-Win32, i386-Linux, i386-FreeBSD, i386-Haiku, x86_64-Win64, x86_64-Linux, x86_64-FreeBSD, powerpc-Linux, powerpc64-Linux, sparc-Linux, sparc-Solaris). More platforms are supported in Lazarus/FreePascal, but others are not yet integrated in CodeTyphon. One code to rule them all ;-). CodeTyphon is a powerful one click installation package for cross platform native Delphi like RAD/IDE based on Lazarus/FreePascal that eliminates painful cross platform setup. You can start coding just few minutes after the download, so if cross platform, 64 bits or price are key benefits for you then choose Lazarus over Delphi. Lazarus is highly compatible to Delphi, and I have converted few applications without much problems. It is possible to maintain code that compiles on both.