After waiting so long… Today I boldly installed Delphi Community edition 2024. The last Delphi version I deployed a solution from to a customer was Delphi 7 C/S. The installation is done in a breeze. Then start Delphi and what do I see?
The first thing I want to try is a new Windows VCL application. Just for testing purposes, of course.
The Object Inspector has a different place, it also has some hoover behavior. I think the new Delphi layout resembles Visual Studio, with Project Group/Project information on the right and properties on the left. This change streamlines the workflow. Familiar hotkeys like F12 (UI to Code) and F9 (run/debug) still work, which is great for productivity.
The layout of a form can be defined by using “Quick-Design Form” template.
Save the project, Delphi doesn’t allow spaces in the Delphi Project file name.
The VCL tab pages are replaced inside a component palet, just underneath the Project information Window. Adding components to the app is basically the same process as in older Delphi versions. Select the component and drag & drop it onto the user interface. When selecting a component in the design view, pressing F1 takes the user directly to the specific help for that component. I think this feature is great and facilitates quick reference.
Now add a datamodule to the project. Just like Visual Studio I can add new files to a project via the File menu (new, other), or right-click on the project and choose “Add new” > “Other”.
-> Now build and run.
There are three build errors, I can’t click on the error message in the status dialog.
I can however, click on the error itself in the build-output-window.
There I can see that my ShowMessage(“Hello World”); is typed wrongly. Instead of using double quote, I should have used single quotes for a string value. Corrected the mistake and go again.
-> Run (Succesfully)
With the basics covered, we are ready to create Windows, Android, and Web apps using Delphi.
Happy coding!