I have to update a Delphi XE installation for a project to a newer version of Delphi but I don't have much experience with Delphi, the problem is there are plenty of old packages and components in there.
When I install a new version did I have to install all components again (if it possible to install it in this new version) or is it something like an update to my old installation and all installed stuff is now in the new version also?
Updating a Delphi XE application to a newer Delphi is usually quite easy. The only serious issue could be third party components which you must install in the newer Delphi version. Check with each component vendor that a version exists for your target Delphi version.
I always strongly recommand to NOT use any third party component that has no source available. Also don't buy any third party component using a DLL, OCX or other external binary object.
When you buy a third party component, always buy the source code with it. Then throw away any pre-build package or dcu and recompile everything before any serious use. That way you'll be sure to have all required source code and work with that source code.
Once you have the source code, it becomes much easier to port to the next Delphi version. Usually there is just nothing to change (There was only one notable exception in the past between Delphi 2007 and Delphi 2010 when Unicode string were introduced).
When there is something to change, it is usually only the name of a "used" unit. Somtimes Embarcadero move one class from a unit to another one. Sometimes, you have to change a $IFDEF which specify a Delphi version. Look at {$IFDEF VER180} and similar to adapt to you current version (See the online help for such symbol).
And if you still have issues, then ask here...
Upgrading to newer version of Delphi might not be a trivial task.
First problem you will run into are Thid Party Components.
If you don't own the souce code for them it means that they come with precompiled packages and these packages unfortunately arent compatible between different Delphi versions.
If you do have source code for them you might be able to recompile them on newer Delphi versions but this might require you to do some code changes.
So I strongly recomend you first check to see if there are updated versions of these components available that support the Delphi version to which you are planning to upgrade.
For instance if your application relies on BDE (Borland Database Engine) that shipped with older versions of Delphi you Will be forced to do Quite some changes to properly set up the FireDac database framework that ships with newer delphi versions.
I have a big Delphi 2007 project, and the Delphi IDE is slow and unstable even I install DelphiSpeedUP, FixIDE Pack.
The IDE freezes for a few seconds when first loading the project (300K lines of code). The Type Library Editor is very inefficient when I want to add a new method/property because it has around 1000 APIs and it kinda freezes for ten seconds in the Type Library Editor.
But the Delphi Compiler is good and I am happy with that, just the IDE has many issues. The Visual Studio 2010/2012 is very good and stable.
Just wondering if it is possible to code in Delphi in the Visual Studio, a basic syntax highlighting, debugger is OK.
It is not possible.
Visual Studio not work with pascal lang.
You can use np++ for simple syntax highlighting and compile with command lines in DCC32.exe.
and the docs in here.
and for Debug use ollydb.
and I'll not suggest it.
and I think the likely pascal IDE to Delphi is Lazarus but it can't compile your Delphi source code directly.
and I'll not suggest it too.
I think use the Delphi with fix and speedup patches.
I'm quite new to Delphi and I'm helping a team setting up a build server which are using Rad Studio 2005.
They have just bought DevExpress VCL and wants to use these. I would rather not have the component installed on the build server, but instead having them as a part of the source code and making sure that the project is using that version.
How is that done in Delphi?
We compiled all of our 3rd-party stuff into a BPL, then put that .bpl and corresponding .dcp and .dpr/.bdsproje into source control, so it gets delivered to the build server. Works well. In retrospect, it should have been a series of BPLs, divided by vendor, so that we could upgrade individual components/libraries without having to run regression tests on everything else.
During rebuild after a computer crash, I re-installed Delphi 7, then Delphi 2007. We skipped installation of Delphi 2006. However, now I would like to install Delphi 2006 before Embarcadero discontinues allowing for download of the latest version of D2006.
Is it possible to install Delphi 2006 on this computer without having an adverse impact on the other two installations?
My only concern is the potential problem of mixup in the SYSTEM PATH variable, where each version of Delphi uses the system PATH value to remember the location of the BPL files. Then the system PATH statement holds multiple BPL path locations created by each Delphi installation. However, each version Delphi only finds and uses the FIRST BPL path found in the list of paths - which always happens to be the most recent install. (Delphi installs insert - rather than append - the BPL path references at the beginning of the current system PATH value.) If this happens, then it is possible, for example, for Delphi 7 to reference the BPL files of Delphi 2007. Of course, that's not good at all. This is something that I know how to work around - if it is the only issue.
I'm hoping that the answer is not "uninstall Delphi 2007 first." That is painful for me as it takes significant time to re-install all the add-on components.
I have installed Delphi 5, Delphi 2006, Delphi 2007 and Delphi 2009 in various orders on several computers (laptop, work machine, home desktop, etc.) and have been fine.
I believe since 2007 is based on the 2006 version, that installing 2006 after 2007 is installed will most likely cause some problems. If you absolutely have to have a copy of 2006 for testing purposes, I strongly recommend setting up a virtual machine using VMWare or Virtual PC. This will allow you to test against 2006 directly...if you have 2006 and 2007 installed on the same machine, then your not testing 2006... your testing 2006 with 2007 installed.
Is there any conflict?
All new versions of Delphi can always be installed safely /next/ to older version.
Each new version should be installed in its own directory.
If you are going to install multiple versions, always install the oldest version first, and then work your way to the newest.
We work very hard to make sure that all versions of Delphi coexist together. But again, never install one version directly on top of another.
I am running 2007 and 2009 on the same machine (this machine) just fine. The only problem you might have is if you are compiling components to the same directory - you will just need to rebuild all your DCU's and packages each time, or make version specific packages and directories.
Install them in their own directories, and make sure you keep package binaries separate, you should be fine. I've got 2009, 2007, 2006, 7 and 5 all on this machine with no issues.
I have at least 4 Delphi versions on one machine. They do not bite each other.
I always install older versions first because i had once problems if i did this the other way round.
Yes - as Rob said (Robsoft) I have both working here. Delphi has always been very good at co-existing with other versions.
Obviously you can only have one version as the default for opening Delphi files.
Should not conflict.
I did D2007 on the same machine as D2006 with absolutely no problems (I was shocked, actually).
I haven't tried D2009 yet, but it should be ok.
This guy had problems though. Hopefully his issues were due to the custom setup he describes in that article.
A colleague of mine (think he has an account on here as dcraggs now) has got them both running on the same machine just fine, I believe.
Certainly would be a huge own-goal from Embarcadero if installing D2009 broke an already-installed D2007, given the way that the components and DCUs are not compatible - I suspect a fair number of people will need to have both around for a while (some of us still need D5 and D7 too!)
CodeGear stated (don't have a link handy, sorry) that there should be no conflict. I haven't yet installed D2009 on my workhorse PC so I don't know if that is correct.
The settings in registry have different path and packages have different names so there really should be no problems.
I have Delphi 2007 and I have installed 2009 yesterday with no visible problems so far. Both seem to work fine.
Appears to be no problem. Installed D2009 with TurboDelphi and 2007 and 2, 5 and 7 all on the same Vista machine
Both 2007 and 2009 have Jedi JVC and JVCL installed on them. All appear to work fine. Hope that helps.
.. and if you compile existing packages make sure you give them a new name (e.g. suffix with D12) as each version's BPL directories are in the path.
Installed D2009 Enterprise on VMWare instance running Vista Business with an existing D2007 Enterprise installation. Perhaps I did something incorrectly, but I began to experience errors in the D2007 IDE, as well as a very strange error, unknown fieldtype, in exe files compiled with D2007. I uninstalled D2009, and the errors have gone away.
You should always install the older version first. I tried to install 2009 first and then 2007 but the setup of 2007 failed.
Uninstalling 2009, and starting with 2007 first fixed the install problems.
In theory, it's possible, but if you use many third-party (or your own) libraries, it can get hairy pretty fast. I tend toward developing on Virtual machines, for this and other reasons. But, YMMV.
Should be fine. I have Delphi 7, 2006, 2007, 2009 with 3rd party libs Dev Express and Rem Objects for all (except Dev Express for 2009 - is it out yet?) and all work flawlessly. As others pointed out the versions were installed oldest to newest.
The installations won't interfere with each other, although the Delphi 2009 and Delphi 2007 projects are not compatible, and can't be shared.
Moving along with the order of release is a must. Install older first. Uninstalling may get tricky though.
How to fix Delphi 2009 data explorer?