I just got a new laptop with Windows 7 (32-bit) and I have to install the following things:
SQL Server 2005 (Dev edition)
SQL Server 2008 (Dev edition)
Visual Studio 2008 Prof.
Delphi 2007
Delphi 2010
In addition I need the usual suspects such as Office 2007 etc.
I was thinking of doing it in the order listed above but would like to know if this is the best way.
On my old system I must have done something wrong as I have had lots of problems with broken help files etc. especially in Delphi.
Thanks.
IMHO: You shouldn't!
Instead, install each development enviroment on different virtual machines.
(Eg VMware Workstation)
The disadvantages are minimal. Perhaps some more costs (VMware + additional OS license).
But the advantages are invaluable!
Portability. If you get a new (physical) machine, it is very simple to copy the virtual machines from the old one to the new one. (You can even save the vm's on a USB-stick and run them on different computers).
Snapshots. Before you do any changes in your dev.env. (updating, adding and removing sw) you can take a snapshot of the vm, and roll back to this state at any time! Make sure you've got your documents and source code on the host machine or a server, though. Because everything is rolled back. Every file is restored to the state it had at the time the snapshot were taken.
Forks/branching. If you are working on a new feature, you can create a branch of the dev.env. (via snapshots), and easily switch between the experimantal dev.env and the production dev.env. at any time.
Using snapshots you can maintain multiple (virtual) operating systems without having to buy several OS-licenses. (You can't run these branches of the OS simultaneously, of course).
More testing environments on the same (physical) machine. Different combinations of OS-versions and MS Office-versions etc)
Protection when testing risky code. (Eg deleting files, updating databases, registry changes etc)
Start playing with new sw-versions without messing up the existing dev.env.
Separate customers/projects according to their various needs for different third party tools, database solutions, report solutions etc
I installed Delphi 2010 after Delphi 2007 without any problems.
Just uninstalling gave me some problems (BDE had to be installed again).
My main suggestion would be to download the latest ISO for Delphi 2007 and Delphi 2010.
Don't rely on your installation DVD's if they aren't current. I used to have problems installing Delphi 2007...I bought my copy around the first month it was available...then I downloaded the latest ISO with all the updates and never had problems on Windows 7 Enterprise (32-bit).
Related
Is it possible, that MSSCCI make VFP project loading slow? Project has 1000+ files, workspace is server. Project loads about 120+ seconds. Network traffic is greater during loading, CPU and memory no significant change. How can I optimalize loading project please?
SOLUTION:
NO, it seems that slow loading is consequence of using MSSCCI provider for little large projects source controlled in VFP.
We looked into moving from Visual SourceSafe to TFS a few years ago. When the VFP project was integrated with TFS, opening the project took longer than with VSS. There were also other oddities with the integration, such as not being able to see when a file was already checked out by someone else. We ended up abandoning the idea and stuck with VSS. That said, I wouldn't necessarily blame the MSSCCI provider. It probably has more to do with the way VFP queries source control data.
Note that you are not required to use the VFP project integration. You can use a separate source control client to check files in/out. You'll need a process for generating text versions of binary files (SCX, VCX, etc.).
FWIW, opening projects with VSS can also be slow. Upgrading our VSS server made a big difference. You may find the same if you are running TFS on an older/slower server.
I am not using it so I cannot directly comment on it.
A project is merely a table, and a project with 1000+ files would be roughly mean around 2Mb which is nothing for today's networking (even if it meant to bring down all that data). Normally it should open instantly or with 1-2 seconds delay at most (assuming you are not using an extremely slow network).
Please provide more details about your environment.
Make sure your TFS and MSSCCI are used latest version.
Try on another client machine to see whether your issue would be reproduced.
Create a new workspace to see whether the performance persists.
Back in the days of Delphi 7, remote debugging was mostly ok. You set up a TCP/IP connection, tweaked a few things in the linker and you could (just about) step through code running on another PC whilst keeping your Delphi IDE and its libraries on your development PC.
Today, with Delphi XE2,3,4 you have paserver which, at least at the moment can be flaky and slow. It is essential for iOS (cross platform) development, but here at Applied Relay Testing we often have to debug on embedded PC's that run recent Windows. To do this we have employed a number of strategies but the hardest situation of all is to visit a customer site and wish that one could 'drop in' a Delphi IDE + libraries and roll up ones sleeves to step through and set breakpoints in source code.
It is quite likely - hopefully - that the paserver remote debugging workflow and its incarnations will improve over time but for now I got to wondering how it might be possible to install Delphi + libraries + our source code on a USB key so that with only a minimal, perhaps automated setup, one could plug that key into a PC and be compiling, running and debugging fairly quickly.
I can see that the registry is one of the possible issues however I do remember that Embarcadero once talked about being able to run their apps from a USB key. Knowing how much of a pain it is to install my 20-odd libraries into Delphi though, it is not trivial and needs thinking about.
Has anyone done anything like this or have any ideas of how it might be done?
Delphi does not support what you are asking for. But what you could do is create a virtual machine with your OS, IDE, libraries etc installed in it, then copy the VM onto a USB drive, install the VM software on the customer system, and run your VM as-is. There are plenty of VM systems to choose from.
First, I need to get this out of the way: embedded PCs running Windows?? Sob.
Ok, now for a suggestion: if a full virtual machine isn't an option for this task, application-level virtualization may be. This intercepts registry calls and other application-level information and maps them to a local copy, allowing essentially any application to be turned into a portable version. The good news is that there are free versions of several programs that can turn Windows programs into virtualized apps.
The only one I've personally used is MojoPac, and found it delivered as promised although was very slow running off of a (old, very slow) flash drive.
http://lifehacker.com/309233/make-any-application-portable-with-mojopac-freedom
I haven't used this newer "freedom" version though.
Two other programs I've seen that appear to be popular are Cameyo:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/create-your-own-portable-virtual-version-any-windows-program.htm
and P-Apps,
http://dottech.org/26404/create-a-portable-version-of-any-software-with-p-apps/
but I can't vouch for the quality of either of these two.
Hope this helps.
I have two PCs both with XE2. I thought that I had installed identically on both but have problems installing 3rd party packages on one while the other is just fine.
I want the same on both anyway. The easist would probably just to "migrate" the working set-up by moving in into my Dropbox folder. Can I do that? If so, how?
If not, can I (easilly) backup my registry settings on one machine and then import them on the other?
I suppose I could just sort out the problem on the one PC, but am not having much luck so far. I would rather invest the time in only having one Delphi setup. And since I am moving lots of other stuff to DropBox anyway ...
The tool for this is now built into Delphi XE8 and higher.
It's found here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\20.0\bin\migrationtool.exe
Online documentation:
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Rio/en/Settings_Migration_Tool
Install CnPack wizards from http://www.cnpack.org
From the CnPack toolbar select IDE Config Backup/Restore (image below) and save this file somewhere safe
Copy the components to the second delphi machine . Keep the exact same directory structure.
I store my components as follows this helps backing up, moving etc., but you can use your own structure
D:\components_bds\DCU
D:\components_bds\BPL
D:\components_bds\ComponentsThemselves
Use the restore config file from CnPack to restore your components on the new machine
This is also useful if your testing components that you plan to remove later and keeping a backup of your installation incase something goes wrong you can save time with new delphi installation if hard drive dies. Keep a copy on flashdrive or somewhere safe
You may compare/diff the config file created by cnPack using a tool like Beyond Compare and see what the differences are to find out why third party components give problems on one of the machines. It may be a Delphi registry/installation problem or a problem in the paths of the thirdparty components. Components need to be installed in an order perhaps it did not find the needed dcu or dll it depends on.
I don't know of any way to do so with DropBox. Here's an old post I made (related to Delphi 7, but with correction of registry keys still applicable) in the CodeGear newsgroups; hopefully it will help.
(It probably goes without saying, but back up the existing registry settings on the destination machine before starting by using RegEdit and exporting them, just in case. You'll at least be able to get back to the point you're at now if something goes wrong by deleting the imported entries and then importing the saved ones.)
You can't, without some difficulty anyway. (Especially if you have
third party components installed, as they may have placed files in the
%SYSTEM% folder you may not know about.)
You may be able to (for going from the old computer to the new
computer running the same exact version of Windows!) by exporting the
registry keys under HKCU\Software\Embarcadero and
HKLM\Software\Embarcadero from the old machine, and then after
installing Delphi on the new machine (in the exact same folder
location) importing that registry file.
Many of the compiler, linker, and other settings are configured on a
per-project basis, and should transfer over when you move your source
code to the new machine.
Third-party components are a problem, as I mentioned above. You may be
able to get away with using the registry export/import if you copy
each third-party component set from the old computer into exactly
the same location on the new machine before importing the registry
file. You'll probably have to track down some .BPL files that end up
in the $(BDS)\Bin and possibly other folders under the $(BDS)
tree; the IDE will tell you about missing stuff when you try and start
it. Make sure you answer "Yes " when asked if you want to try and load
it again next time!
Most of my development is hobby stuff or wannabe releases. Instead of dying trying to move my XE2 Pro from my Dell Inspiron N7110 Win 7 machine to my new Win 10 SSD machine, I'm seriously thinking of switching to Lazarus. I've used Lazarus 2.x with Indy 10, ZeosLib, and Firebird and successfully created a working distributed internet system. I also created Lazarus version of my XE2 Blackjack program. When compared to XE2, Lazarus (IMO) has only two weakness and neither are deal breakers for me. BTW, I have successfully duplicated Lazarus (with all installed components) from one machine to another simply by copying and pasting the Lazarus directory and it works. Try that with Delphi.
Sam
We bought Delphi XE to slowly upgrade from Delphi 6.
Delphi 6 is well working in Win7/X64.
I installed two virtual machines to test it (I planned three of them, but Virtual PC is not supports X64 guest OS).
1.) Sun VirtualBox 4.x
2.) VMWARE player latest
The guest OS is Win7/X64. Latest SP's, packs are installed.
I set local "area" settings to "english-usa".
I started the installer as admin.
The phenomenon is:
The InstallAware is starting, the progress bar is access the 100%.
After this a new InstallAware Window is starting, but later it disappeared.
Then nothing happens. Sometimes the Windows say (dialog) that setup is not working, will I reinstall it?
The event log is not containing information about the problem.
I tried to starting "setup.exe" directly with "as admin", but the result is same.
I tried to find the real setup files in "Local Settings/Temp", and starting it directly as admin, but I got same result.
So I'm very disappointment, and puzzled... We bought something that is not installable.
May I can install the XE into VPC/XP Mode; but I'm sure the somebody CAN install this software in Win7/X64... :-(
Can anybody help me, how to continue the installation?
How to "debug"?
Thanks for your help:
dd
It might be a problem with your virtual machine, i have myself issues with VirtualBox.
You also should double check if you dont have a corrupted Iso. Try to download it again to see it works.
I work in a software house that have at least 30 people working with Delphi XE on their Windows 7 machines. None of them ever reported a installation crash.
Another good question: are you executing the setup.exe as administrator?
The solution was if I copy the zip file directly into VM (not download it), and I must set ALL AREA FLAGS to USA.
The language, the area, the format settings - all things!
Then the installer simply working...
Thank you for your help!
Regards:
dd
My computer crashed recently. We have a Delphi app that takes a lot of work to get running.
One of my co-workers has it all installed still. Is there a way to copy the stuff stored in the palette? And the library paths?
I am using Delphi 5 (I know it is very very very old)
That information is stored in the Registry. I don't know exactly how Delphi 5 does it, but try looking for a key called HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi\5 or something like that. You'll find all the registration information under that key, including a list of installed packages. You can export the keys to a registry file, copy it to the new computer and install it.
Standard disclaimer: Mucking around in the registry manually can be risky if you don't know what you're doing. Be very careful, and if this solution causes your computer to crash, your house to burn down, or demons to come flying out your nose, it's not my fault.
Try CNWizards which has an export functionality for your IDE settings. You can use the same tool restore them on the new machine. We use it to get the same settings on every development machine. In that way we can ensure that all builds are the same, regardless of who built it.
Based on my experience of having done this a few times(!), the most important registry keys are:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi\5.0\Known Packages
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi\5.0\Library
and possibly
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi\5.0\Known IDE Packages
and maybe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi\5.0\Palette
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Borland\Delphi\5.0\Palette Defaults
So long as you have done a standard D5 installation first.
It's easier/more reliable to let the IDE fill in the other bits as you start using it and you change options as appropriate. Some component packages, eg madExcept, DevExpress etc are often best re-installed using their own installers anyway.
Unless you're going to have multiple users on the same machine using Delphi then the HKLM stuff isn't really all that important - I don't think.
As a related aside - I have learned that a good way to handle this is to build a FinalBuilder script (or similar) to set up my Delphi environment each time I decide to use a new machine/installation. I copy/download/checkout (which can be done in FB too) all package source then use FB to compile it, copy it, create dirs, and fill in the appropriate registry keys etc. I always get a consistent environment and makes it much easier to rebuild individual components or packages as and when they get upgraded too. The items can also be put into the script in 'dependency order' so that you know to re-compile a dependent package if something else changes. I now have a single FB sciprt that builds D5, D2007, D2009, D2010 environments and packages of all my main components, all depending on which compiler(s) I'm interested in which I indicate by a simple variable. Well worth it.
Seems to have just worked for me on a Win 7, SP1 and Delphi 5
Logged as user with Delphi & 3rd party components installed.
registry export
hkey current user\software\borland
(no other borland products so selected Borland)
rather than Borland\Delphi\5.0)
Logged into pc as new user.
Did not start Delphi5 (i.e. never started for this user).
Regedit File, Import
Started Delphi all components, including lots of 3rd
party, present.
Project compiled as expected under new user.