Press Releases

RAD Studio 12.3 Released

2025-03-13T10:00:00-05:00

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

March 13, 2025

Austin, Texas - Embarcadero Technologies Announces Release of RAD Studio 12.3 Athens, including Delphi 12.3 and C++Builder 12.3.

Embarcadero announces the official release of RAD Studio 12.3, including Delphi 12.3 and C++Builder 12.3.

RAD Studio 12.3 builds on the milestone features introduced by RAD Studio 12, which represents a new benchmark and a significant departure from all previous versions in terms of both quality and capability.

RAD Studio 12.x users enjoy unprecedented productivity with AI-powered Smart CodeInsight, quick product development and iteration with fast 64-bit compilers, and a superior working environment with high-dpi screens, focus mode and side-by-side code editor displays.

Smart CodeInsight Improvements for RAD Studio (both personalities)

To help customers leverage AI LLMs for coding, RAD Studio 12.2 introduced an open architecture for AI plugins, offering ready-to-use support for three online solutions (OpenAI, Gemini by Google, and Claude by Anthropic) and one offline solution (Ollama). A locally installed offline solution was included to provide maximum privacy.

RAD Studio 12.3 further improves Smart CodeInsight, adding a few notable extensions to the UI, focused on an enhanced chat experience, more integrated with the AI-related editor commands. In 12.3, the Chat window now supports Markdown, offering a properly formatted and much more readable output, and it allows reading editor content, using special in-text commands or additional buttons.

At the same time, the commands issued in the editor offer the option to send the results to the MarkDown-enabled Chat window rather than the editor itself, providing a better formatting of the response. In addition, the Smart CodeInsight configuration dialog offers a list of available models retrieved from the AI engine and there is a new Find Unit / Find Header command based on AI.

Marco Cantù, Product Lead for IDE & Tooling, points out that:

in RAD Studio 12.3, we are taking Smart CodeInsight (our AI tooling integration in the IDE) to a new level, offering a more readable MarkDown-based chat window and interoperability between the chat windows and the AI commands in the editor. In the chat, you can use information from the current unit or selected text, or from the edit, you can now send the output of the AI commands to the MarkDown chat. On top of this, our optional AI integration allows you to choose among different vendors, use an offline solution for maximum privacy, and even plug in an additional AI engine to keep up with a rapidly changing landscape.

Embarcadero Developer Advocate Ian Barker to the attention paid to safety and privacy concerns in the AI-powered functionality of Smart CodeInsight.

Ever find yourself knowing the function or class," he asks, "but not the unit or header it belongs to? Smart CodeInsight 'find unit' will tell you where that function can be found, what to include or add to a uses clause - all while keeping your data confidential and safe.

64-bit IDE "Initial Release" for RAD Studio (both personalities)

RAD Studio 12.3 introduces the Initial Release of a 64-bit IDE. While this Initial Release is limited in terms of available features, offering support only for the 64-bit Windows target platforms, it's a very important milestone for the product.

A 64-bit IDE offers almost unlimited memory space for the IDE itself, including the components installed and the designers open in the editor, and for the integrated compiler when building very large projects. In addition, a 64-bit IDE allows design time access to databases offering only a 64-bit client driver.

Finally, a new native Delphi debugger experience is being built for the 64-bit IDE based on LLDB, which, over time, will offer much better features than the current remote debugging of 64-bit applications from the 32-bit IDE.

The Initial Release of the 64-bit IDE is installed side by side with the 32-bit IDE, which is still the default version. Developers can use either or both at once.

Delphi 12.3, Marco Cantù notes:

offers another big step in our transition towards 64-bit versions of our compilers and tools. Not only we have the 64-bit version of the Delphi windows compiler and a 64-bit version of the Delphi LSP engine for Code Completion available in the 32-bit IDE (and available to all of our customers), but with the Initial Release of the 64-bit RAD Studio IDE we are starting to build a new experience for Delphi and C++Builder developers -- no more memory limits, integration with 64-bit database client drivers, and a step towards the future.

Senior Product Manager David Millington notes that:

as an Initial Release, the new 64-bit IDE opens up new possibilities for our developers. Whether it's massive memory space for ultra-large Delphi projects, or using 64-bit database drivers, everyone targeting 64-bit Windows will benefit. It's a 64-bit world, and so are we. This Initial Release is a wonderful step forward, and demonstrates our commitment to modernity, and we're very excited to share it.

As the Initial Release, the 64-bit build of the IDE also does not yet feature-match the 32-bit build of the IDE. The vast majority of features are present and it can be used as a 'daily driver' for Win64 development, with VCL and FMX design, coding, and debugging, including database support. However, in the initial release, developers can target Win64 but not other platforms (the 32-bit IDE of course continues to support all platforms); Visual Assist for C++ is not present; Type Library support (i.e. ActiveX and COM libraries) are not yet supported; and Delphi Refactorings and Metrics are not supported.

Separately, RAD Studio 12.3 includes also in the Professional edition the 64-bit binary version of the Delphi Win32 and Win64 compilers, offering the ability to build extremely large applications as a single executable from the 32-bit IDE. They were introduced in 12.2 in the Enterprise and Architects editions only, but are now available in all paid editions.

The new 64-bit IDE, Ian Barker adds:

is an initial release, but our beta testers LOVE it. Paving the way for huge projects plus cool things such as being able to view MySQL 8.x data LIVE AT DESIGN TIME; it's very nice to have." RAD Studio 12.3 "12.3 unveils our first look at the new 64bit IDE, another step in the right direction, another tick on people's wish lists.

C++Builder Modern Toolchain

Following the release of the new Clang-based C++ compiler for Win64 in RAD Studio 12.1 and its significant improvements in 12.2 (including consumption and production of runtime packages; CMake support; and parallelized CPU-saturating batch compilation, giving incredible compile performance), the new 12.3 release offers additional quality improvements and some enhancements, including the official support for modern instruction sets up to AVX2 and even better compiler performance. C++Builder 12.3 also helps developers improve their C++ code safety and quality by integrating Clang "sanitizers", specifically the Address sanitizer and the Undefined Behavior sanitizer, which help catch problems in C++ code. These are highly useful for safe C++.

The C++ Modern toolchain, David Millington notes:

which we first shipped just one release ago, keeps growing in leaps and bounds. Now in C++Builder and RAD Studio 12.3, we've enabled ultra-fast optimized code on a wide range of CPUs via support for six new CPU instruction sets, plus runtime safety analysis enabling customers to feel confident in their software's safety and stability. Every one of these opens up new possibilities to our customers, whether in confidence or performance or both and demonstrates yet again just how much every C++ developer should be using the new Modern compiler.

Android Target API Level 35 for Delphi

RAD Studio version 12.3 is updating to level 35 in the target API level for Delphi for Android, a requirement for Google Play Store apps by August 2025. While the primary goal is to target the new API level, the changes encompass multiple technologies and include a new NDK target, support 16 KB page sizes, new provisioning options and permissions. Overall, these improvements enable Delphi developers to continue building state-of-the-art Android apps targeting the most recent version of the Android OS.

"We updated the Android SDK ahead of time," Ian Barker points out, "so you're more than ready for Google Play's mandatory changes in August 2025 to ensure we offer state of the art Android development."

FireDAC and Database for RAD Studio

In terms of FireDAC and database access in general, the 12.3 release adds improvement to the filtering of SQL query from the TFDTable component and support for migrating from IBX to FireDAC with the Refind utility. It also adds specific support for 64-bit drivers access in the 64-bit IDE.

In terms of specific database drivers, RAD Studio now officially supports:

Microsoft SQL Server 2022 (plus support for sequences and stored procedures in MSSQL with multiple TVP parameters)
MongoDB up to version 8.0 (also with new connection parameters for MongoDB Atlas)
MySQL 8.4
Oracle DRCP (Database Resident Connection Pooling)

WebStencils Improvements for RAD Studio

RAD Studio version 12.2 introduced WebStencils, a server-side script-based integration and processing of HTML files to the WebBroker and RAD Server technologies. This flexible feature empowers you to develop modern websites based on any JavaScript library, powered by the data extracted and processed by a RAD Studio server-side application.

WebStencils' main goal is to help with navigational websites based on RAD Studio web technologies (WebBroker, DataSnap, RAD Server) and providing server-side scripting: You can use WebStencils to generate HTML pages adopting any CSS and JavaScript libraries while retaining the generate the actual data in the pages (like the result of a database query) using Delphi or C++Builder. In addition, WebStencils can be a good foundation for HTMX as a web development solution.

In RAD Studio 12.3, WebStencils has been extended with access to nested objects and sub-tables in nested datasets, with a more flexible processing of the "@" symbol when unrelated to a WebStencils directive, and improvements in handling UTF8 characters.

BLE and Bluetooth for RAD Studio

The 12.3 release improves the quality of Bluetooth and BLE support across all RAD Studio target platforms. The changes include also a new event, called when the BLE transmission configuration changes.

Delphi LSP

The Delphi Language Server Protocol engine powering CodeInsight has been further expanded in terms of quality and stability, improving the handling by the compiler when parsing code for LSP. In addition, both the 32-bit and the 64-bit IDE offer the ability to use the 64-bit version of the DelphiLSP engine for Windows targets, which offers better support for large codebases, having no memory limits. In 12.3, this 64-bit version is now available in all paid editions, including the Professional edition.

According to Ian Barker, the Embarcadero team "continued to address as many issues as possible, particularly for LSP, where we worked directly with customers with large codebases to help us squash bugs and improve the quality."

Delphi RTL, VCL, and FireMonkey Quality for RAD Studio

RAD Studio 12.3 has dozens of improvements to the core Delphi RTL (beside the Bluetooth changes mentioned earlier) and to both the VCL and FireMonkey UI libraries. Worth calling out are the VCL quality work around VCL styles, HighDPI and other general UI quality improvements in VCL controls, and enhancements to the TImageCollection editor.

For FireMonkey, the new release adds a new tool to generate FireMonkey styles from VCL styles, an upgraded Skia4Delphi version, additional improvements to TMemo, to the dynamic style loading on non-Windows platforms, and to the Z-Order Manager on Windows.

With 12.3, RAD Studio continues to deliver significant quality improvements to both of the UI libraries included in RAD Studio, addressing customer reports and proactively reworking the internal implementation of core and commonly used components to offer better performance and stability overall.

RAD Server Improvements for RAD Studio

Since 12.2, RAD Server offers WebStencils integration, which adds Web development to the Web Service development capabilities of RAD Server. In addition, in 12.3, RAD Server improves the date and time formatting in JSON responses, includes an option to obfuscate the values for MasterSecret and Appsecret in emsserver.ini, adds the concept of instance-wide custom variables and a new EndpointHide attribute to hide endpoints.

With 12.3, Ian Barker concludes:

we've continued to target improved quality, better performance, solid stability, rather than pile on features for the sake of a glossier brochure. It's what you wanted - and we want what you want. Will 12.3 be the last version we release? No. Is it the best version we have released so far? Yes.

For a detailed list of new and enhanced features in RAD Studio 12.3, including Delphi 12.3 and C++Builder 12.3, view the Feature Matrix here.

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through info@embarcadero.com. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio page on the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

Embarcadero builds tools that solve productivity problems for application developers. The company's products allow users to design, build, and run applications from a single code base across all platforms. Ninety of the Fortune 100 companies and a community of more than three million C++ and Delphi users worldwide rely on Embarcadero's award-winning products to deliver critical enterprise applications. Embarcadero is a division of Idera, Inc.

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

RAD Studio 12.2 Released

2024-09-12T08:14:44-05:00

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

September 12, 2024

Austin, Texas - Embarcadero Technologies Announces Release of RAD Studio 12.2 Athens, including Delphi 12.2 and C++Builder 12.2.

Embarcadero announces the official release of RAD Studio 12.2, including Delphi 12.2 and C++Builder 12.2.

The 12.2 release comes five months after the 12.1 release and 10 months after the release of RAD Studio 12, which set a new historic benchmark for the popular IDE.

Subsequent releases 12.1 and now 12.2 have built on the foundational new capabilities of the RAD Studio and have taken application development to new heights using core feature improvements, customer feedback and feature requests, and new technological milestones like Generative AI as a springboard for product development.

According to Delphi Product Manager Marco Cantù, the 12.2 release is packed with benefits that position the release far beyond an incremental improvement on RAD Studio 12.

From Web development with the new WebStencils template library to building extra large Delphi applications with 64-bit versions of the compilers, from the new feature complete and high speed Clang-based C++ compiler and toolchain to LLMs integration offering online and offline options for using AI in the IDE, RAD Studio 12.2 is not just a regular update, it's a massive new release. And along with these new features, it comes with a very large focus on quality, addressing many top voted customers requests.

Here are the most important features Delphi 12.2, C++Builder 12.2 and RAD Studio 12.2 are making available to users.

Smart CodeInsight: AI Powered Coding

Leveraging AI LLMs for coding is becoming increasingly popular and the quality of these tools is getting better. For this reason, RAD Studio 12.2 introduces an open architecture for AI plugins, offering ready-to-use support for three online solutions (OpenAI, Gemini by Google, and Claude by Anthropic) and one offline solution (Ollama).

This architecture offers multiple goals: everything is optional and disabled by default; RAD Studio makes available multiple providers and lets users choose which to enable, including a locally installed, offline solution for maximum privacy. With Smart CodeInsight, users decide whether and how to use AI, and can even create additional plugins for their preferred solution, as long as it offers a public REST API to invoke.

64-bit Version of Delphi Windows compilers (Delphi)

RAD Studio 12.2 includes the 64-bit binary version of the Delphi Win32 and Win64 compilers, offering the ability to build extremely large applications as a single executable, given the 64-bit memory space of the new compilers. These new compilers are currently available from the command line and from the IDE when using external compilation.

Given the focus on customers with very large codebases, the 64-bit binary version of the Delphi Win32 and Win64 compilers are only included as part of the Enterprise and Architect editions.

Notably, the new C++ Clang compiler has been a 64-bit binary since its release in RAD Studio 12.0.

In fact, C++Builder Product Manager David Millington is very excited about the improvements to the toolset in 12.2.

C++Builder 12.2 is the pinnacle to date of our ongoing focus on C++, with world-class parallel compilation speeds. The new Windows 64-bit toolchain is a full replacement for the legacy toolchain, and joins modern C++, world-leading technology, and the benefits of C++Builder's fast UI and app development practices.

Runtime Packages, Compile Speed and More for the Modernized C++ Compiler and Toolchain (C++Builder only)

Following the release of the new Clang-based C++ compiler for Win64 in RAD Studio 12.1, the new update adds significant features to the new C++ toolchain, including consumption and production of runtime packages, support for all RAD Studio component packages, parallelized CPU-saturating batch compilation (with support for the --jobs parameter) giving incredible compile performance, and an extensive focus on quality for the compiler and RTL libraries. As in previous 12 releases, the older C++ Win64 toolchain remains available alongside the new one.

C++Builder Visual Assist Integration (C++Builder only)

Visual Assist integration in the IDE has been expanded with new features including three new refactorings: Introduce Variable, Create From Usage and Extract Method. In addition, there are significant quality and stability improvements.

Editor Enhancements: Focus Mode and Scrollbar Annotations (RAD Studio)

There are times when developers don't want to be distracted by many IDE panes and features when writing code. The new RAD Studio Focus Mode accomplishes that: it leaves the IDE with the editor panel(s) only, so users can avoid interruptions. Another very useful feature is the new scrollbar annotations: the editor scrollbar shows at a glance the sections of the code that have been modified, have bookmarks, have errors or warnings, and much more.

The product team has also focused quality improvements on the recently introduced Split Views, plus the IDE Toolbar and HighDPI.

This is what Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate Ian Barker has to say about Focus Mode:

Pro user power-ups like focus mode tidy away every distraction so you can focus on what matters most: your code. Combine that with the new, much-requested split views function, toolbar thumbnails and code completion, which displays in whatever editor theme you have created make RAD Studio look, feel, and work your way

WebStencils Template Library (RAD Studio)

RAD Studio version 12.2 introduces WebStencils, a server-side script-based integration and processing of HTML files to the WebBroker and RAD Server technologies. This flexible feature empowers you to develop modern websites based on any JavaScript library, powered by the data extracted and processed by a RAD Studio server-side application. It gives users the freedom to create websites that suit your unique needs.

Looking to build a navigational or an interactive website? With a brand new integrated template library called WebStencils, powerful database access, easy integration of Bootstrap but also HTMX (or any other CSS and JavaScript library of your choice) the new RAD Studio includes a great solution for high performance data-driven web development.

Delphi Product Manager, Marco Cantù asks

WebStencils' main goal is to help with navigational websites by adopting web technologies (WebBroker, DataSnap, RAD Server) and providing server-side scripting. For instance, you can use WebStencils to generate HTML pages with standard tools and adopt any CSS and JavaScript libraries while retaining the ability to add data from the generated pages coming from the Delphi or C++Builder application, like the result of a database query.

Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate Ian Barker is confident RAD Studio users interested in web development will find the new template library an impressive and welcome addition:

When you see WebStencils being used by someone who really knows all the features to create jaw-dropping, modern, responsive, gorgeous web content, you will want to try it out for yourself too.

In addition, WebStencils can be a good foundation for HTMX as a web development solution. HTMX pages benefit from server-side code generation and hook into REST servers for content updates. Delphi web technologies offer page generation and REST APIs at a very high quality level.

Improved Mobile Development and External Libraries Linking (Delphi-only)

RAD Studio 12.2 has significant improvements for Delphi mobile development, for both iOS and Android. To better support Apple platforms, we have updated the linker to the most recent version, so that it's now possible to link iOS static libraries written in Xcode, like for example Firebase iOS SDK.

In terms of Android support, to give our customers more control over the packaging and deployment, we added options to Compress Dex files and Compress native library files in the toolchain in the Android Project options. In addition, for Android, the targetSdkVersion of the Android manifest file can now be configured in the Project Options dialog. We have also added the ability to import Android libraries ('.aar' files), which works, for example, with the Facebook SDK for Android and Firebase Analytics.

Quality Improvements: Debugger (RAD Studio)

We have several improvements in the various RAD Studio debuggers. Most notably, the Delphi debugger will now correctly handle repeated inline variables with the same name. We've also improved the debugger error handling and the remote debuggers communication timeouts.

Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate Ian Barker draws attention to just how much quality work is done with every release, including 12.2.

In this release we have addressed hundreds of areas of improvement in quality and performance. Increasing quality, including those little improvements I think of as "quality of life" items is as essential as any new feature. We know RAD Studio is a tool that shapes your working day and makes your code come to life. Improving on quality improves your day, that's why it's important to you and us too.

Quality Improvements: Delphi LSP (Delphi-only)

The Delphi Language Serve Protocol engine powering CodeInsight has been expanded with core groundwork and a focus on better resolving and navigating symbols, including symbols in the class interface, including fields, local constants and variables, and forward type declarations. We addressed many requests including some related to Delphi multiline strings. In addition, RAD Studio 12.2 includes a 64-bit version of the DelphiLSP engine, which offers better support for large codebases, having no memory limits. As with the 64-bit versions of the Delphi compilers, this feature is only available in the Enterprise and Architects editions.

Quality Improvements: Delphi RTL, VCL, and FireMonkey (RAD Studio)

RAD Studio 12.2 has dozens of improvements to the core Delphi RTL and to both the VCL and FireMonkey UI libraries. Worth calling out are the new TParallelArray and TOrderedDictionary classes of the RTL; VCL quality work around frames scaling, FormsTabBar, styling issues, and High DPI issues; FMX intensive quality work for many areas, with additional focus on edit controls on mobile.

Quality Improvements: RAD Server (RAD Studio)

Besides the WebStencils integration, which adds Web development to the Web Service development capabilities of RAD Server, in 12.2 RAD Server extends the Swagger Documentation support with custom metadata, API filtering, YAML format, and Delphi multiline string literals.

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through info@embarcadero.com. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio page on the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

Delphi 12 and C++Builder 12 Community Editions Released

2024-07-30T08:14:44-05:00

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

July 30, 2024

Austin, Texas - Embarcadero Releases Delphi 12 and C++Builder 12 Community Editions - Release of Community Editions of Latest Version Marks New Milestone in History of Popular Rapid App Development IDE.

Embarcadero is delighted to announce the launch of Delphi 12 Community Edition and C++Builder 12 Community Edition. Delphi 12 CE and C++Builder 12 CE are the full-featured free version of the renowned Delphi and C++Builder IDE's.

Delphi Senior Product Manager Marco Cantù, is "very happy we are making the Delphi 12 and C++Builder 12 available as a free Community Edition, as I'm certain a lot of developers will leverage the opportunity to learn about our technology, both in terms of programming languages and libraries. If you are new to it, Delphi is a lot of fun to learn and a very powerful natively compiled language for Windows and mobile, worth a deep look."

David Millington, Senior Product Manager for C++Builder, agrees: "C++Builder 12 is creating a renaissance for the product, and we are glad to nourish that by updating the Community Edition so that so many more people can benefit from the wholly revised C++Builder toolchain."

What Are The Community Editions of Delphi and C++Builder?

The Community Editions of Delphi and C++Builder are full-featured free versions of their respective commercial IDE's, and are designed to empower startups, students, and hobbyists to create robust and scalable Delphi applications across multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, as well as powerful C++ applications for Windows.

Delphi 12 CE and C++Builder 12 CE Available Today!

Although updating Community Editions to the new editions is often delayed, Embarcadero has decided to release the Community Editions earlier to offer all of the great new features of Delphi 12 and C++Builder 12 to the developer community at large.

This means Delphi and C++Builder fans get access to the following:

Full-Featured IDE: Enjoy a comprehensive development environment with a powerful code editor, debugging tools, and built-in access to popular local databases.

For Delphi, Multi-Platform Development: Build applications from a single Delphi codebase that run natively on multiple platforms.

For both Delphi and C++Builder, Visual Frameworks and Components: Utilize RAD Studio renowned visual frameworks and components to deliver great, styled UIs for your applications.

With the new release, Community Edition users can now enjoy the milestone innovations of the 12 Athens and 12.1 Athens releases, including:

The new Clang toolchain in C++Builder
Support for the latest versions of Android for Delphi
Skia FireMonkey support
New features in the RAD Studio IDE for both products

Who is the Community Edition for?

The Community Editions are perfect for:

Freelance Developers: Create and sell apps until your revenue reaches $5,000 per year
Startups: Use the Community Edition if your annual revenue is less than $5,000 and if your team has up to 5 developers
Students: Learn and experiment with professional-level tools to kickstart your development career

Community Edition Rules

Community Editions are available free of charge to developers, and organizations with fewer than five developers. You or your company must have revenues less than US$5,000. They come with a one-year term license and a limited commercial license. If you aren't sure if you qualify for the CE license then start with the Free Trial or consult the Community Edition License FAQs.

Once you outgrow Community Edition, upgrade to a perpetual license with an unrestricted commercial license and choose between the Professional, Enterprise, and Architect Editions of Delphi, C++Builder, and RAD Studio.

Please note that the Community Edition should not be used as an extended trial, as the licenses are different. Also, CE should not be used by companies with other regular licenses.

Download Now!

Download the Delphi Community Edition or C++Builder Community Edition and join a vibrant community of developers. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting, these Community Editions provide the tools you need to bring your ideas to life:

Download Delphi 12 CE: Download Now

Download C++Builder 12 CE: Download Now

About Embarcadero Technologies

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

RAD Studio 12 Athens Released

2023-11-07T10:00:00-06:00

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

November 07, 2023

Austin, Texas - Embarcadero Technologies announces the General Availability of RAD Studio 12 Athens, including Delphi 12 and C++Builder 12.

The 12 version of RAD Studio packs in an impressively large set of new features that go above and beyond what RAD Studio 11.3 provides today. Key features include:

A Preview of a significantly updated Clang-based C++ compiler for Win64, to support the most recent C++ standard language features and offer a better integration with external libraries and C++ code
Visual Assist integration in the IDE for C++Builder, providing best-in-class productivity tooling with code completion, code navigations and refactorings for the C++ language
Delphi language additions including multiline string literals, to address a popular customer feature request
Extensive Skia support throughout as the new foundation for FireMonkey resulting in new capabilities as well as noticeably higher performance and quality for rendering graphics and UI controls across all desktop and mobile target platforms
A reworked MDI and a new tabbed UI architecture for VCL to help our customers modernize their existing applications, adding support for HighDPI and styling to existing programs with minimal effort on their side
A new FireDAC QBE for easier data filtering and a new JSON wizard for Delphi to add a mapping of the data in the popular JSON format to objects, like we have for XML
Many IDE productivity and quality improvements, to make it easier and faster to use RAD Studio for every day tasks
Support for smart IDs in RAD Server, to make customer's hosted REST APIs more powerful and flexible, while maintaining RAD Server easy-of-use

"RAD Studio 12," Delphi Product Manager Cantù points out, "is a milestone release of the product. We have new compilers, including the preview of our new C++ Clang-based toolchain for Win64, and Delphi support for long and multiline string literals, huge changes in our libraries with the new FireMonkey Skia rendering engine and the VCL MDI redesign, a much more productive IDE for C++Builder with the initial integration of Visual Assist (truly a game changer), and the much improved Delphi LSP based code tooling, in additional to countless improvements from the installer to the RTL, from RAD Server to FireDAC and in all other subsystems -- all along with a significant focus on quality to address an incredible amount of customer reported issues."

Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate Ian Barker agrees.

"Our biggest problem with RAD Studio 12 is being able to tell you all the good things we've packed into it with just a few words," he points out.

Delphi Additions

On the Delphi compiler side, 12 adds support for long string literals, multiline string literals, limited by triple quotes, to allow easier embedding of SQL, HTML, JSON, XML and similar multi line text within an application source code, a weak type alias definition for NativeInt for enhanced Win32/Win64 compatibility, better support for NaN floating point number comparisons, and the disabling of floating-point exceptions on all platforms.

Delphi 12 offers compatibility for Android API level 33, a Google requirement for the Play Store app submission.

FireMonkey and Skia

In terms of UI libraries the biggest improvements in RAD Studio 12 for both Delphi and C++Builder come from the integration of the very popular cross-platform rendering engine Skia, within FireMonkey. This is done by integrating the Skia4Delphi open source project, but also extending it with Vulkan support, support for effects and filters with the Skia Shading Language, a WebP Encoder, printer support, and printing to PDF.

RAD Studio Skia support includes direct APIs, specific UI controls (TSkAnimatedImage, TSkLabel, TSkPaintBox, and TSkSvg), and the automatic mapping of FireMonkey UI controls UI rendering via Skia. In general terms, Skia improves the quality of the rendering and the performance. The same Skia UI controls are also available in the VCL windows library.

"By building Skia into the very heart of RAD Studio 12," Ian Barker notes, "developers get a speed boost for cross-platform Firemonkey FMX and an immediate free injection of cool new features for all app types."

Outside of Skia support, which offers a new solid foundation for the future of the library, there is improved Android support matching many recent platform enhancements, new split screen support to allow FireMonkey application to work in a side-by-side pane on both iOS and Android, and extensive reworking of the text input capabilities of the single-line TEdit and multi-line TMemo controls.

Another significant improvement to the IDE for FireMonkey development is the introduction of a wizard to generate icons and splash screens at all of the resolutions, required by Apple and Google, starting from a single SVG image and the support for Android's adaptive icons.

Wonderful Things for C++

A significant focus of the new release is on C++Builder and the C++ toolchain (available also in RAD Studio). The team focused on two key C++ improvements: modernizing the C++ compilers and toolchain, and providing amazing productivity with code completion as well as adding refactorings and navigations by integrating Visual Assist.

The C++ toolchain upgrade is an wholesale overhaul of our C++ support. It includes not just a new version of Clang, but also the C and C++ runtime libraries and the STL (the C++ Standard Template Library) plus the linker and debugger. The goal of this major effort is to offer modern C++ standards, with the ability to run C++ code you find in recent libraries and projects, easily use third party libraries, leverage modern safe coding standards, have more performant apps and excellent debugging. It also aims to directly improve areas like linking and the STL, and moves to Windows platform standards such as using the COFF and PDB object and debug formats, potentially allowing you much wider compatibility with other tools.

Version 12 ships with a preview of this new C++ toolchain, available as a command line compiler. Another significant innovation comes from the integration of the Visual Assist technology to offer better Code Insight including code completion, code navigation and refactoring.

These are key productivity tools that assist in common development tasks, from code completion to navigation which allows developers to easily find relevant parts of their code instead of manually searching a codebase, to refactorings which help code organization and safety. A significant initial subset of the VA features are available within RAD Studio, including finding symbols and references, navigating from implementation to declaration and back, navigation to any related symbol or method, and rename refactoring.

Meanwhile, Embarcadero Product Manager for C++Builder David Millington is quick to highlight how much has been done to improve C++Builder in version 12.

"We anticipate a lot of excitement about the technical changes and the quality and level of C++ support," he says.

According to David Millington, "RAD Studio 12 is a major step forward, providing unparalleled productivity tooling for C++ developers through the initial integration of Visual Assist. RAD Studio 12," he notes, "is the culmination of almost a year of development effort focused solely on the benefit to developers Embarcadero can provide."

VCL Modernization with MDI and Tabbed UI Architecture

We have been working hard on VCL modernization to help our customers migrate their existing applications (often very large and well established in their target industry). In 12 the focus is on keeping alive the old fashioned, but still popular, MDI (Windows' Multi Document Interface) model. With the new release customers will be able to adopt full HighDPI support for MDI applications and also adopt VCL styles. This work allows our customers to bypass platform issues caused by Microsoft neglecting support for MDI in recent years.

In addition, RAD Studio 12 introduced a new tab-based UI (like the one from Google Chrome and many other popular apps) as an easy migration from MDI to a brand new model, with the new TFormTabsBar control. The VCL library has improvements for High DPI screens.

As part of the VCL improvements, the new release introduces a number of new designers to help simplify the work: There is a new string list editor, a multiline string editor, and quick configuration dialogs for buttons, radio groups and panels. Some of these handy tools were originally part of KSVC (Konopka Signature VCL Controls) and are now available to anyone, even without installing this add-on control pack.

Beside the core RTL definitions, a new set of units has been created with the complete Windows API headers converted to Object Pascal, to make it easier for Delphi developers to call any Windows platform API not exposed in the component libraries. This API conversion includes 311 Delphi header files with 41 MB of code, covering the entire platform API provided by Microsoft.

Additionally, Edge browser integration is improved with new interfaces, properties and events, matching the improvements to the platform WebView 2 control since our last release. Further improvements in the VCL are an extremely flexible TControl enumerator, Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) enhancements, and changes to Double Buffering mode.

"RAD Studio 12," Embarcadero General Manager Kyle Wheeler notes, "represents countless hours in planning and developing to bring you the foundation of our future at Embarcadero. This investment in both time and resources will propel our tooling, our customers, and their customers forward. As we continue to iterate on the work that has been done, we look forward to providing more updates and tooling, to make the lives of our users significantly better."

New In Delphi RTL, Data, and Other Areas

There are many improvements in other Delphi core runtime libraries, leveraged also by C++ Builder. The FireDAC flagship database access library now supports the classic QBE mode (Query-By-Example) paradigm which allows the rapid development of a UI for entering simple data filtering criteria.

In addition, FireDAC components offer some additional functionality to help developers improve their application security, by limiting the type of SQL commands for a specific query control, forbidding multiple commands, and blocking further SQL changes. These improvements offer developers the ability to improve the application security, if used alongside other industry best practices.

RAD Studio 12 also introduces a powerful new JSON mapping wizard, which automates and greatly simplifies the generation of classes matching a JSON data structure and proper reading and writing code to read the JSON in a set of objects and stream it out to a new file.

RAD Studio IDE Improvements

There are many areas of improvements and updates in the IDE. The first is a gorgeous new, clearer, UX for the feature installer, used for the initial product installation or to add features and platforms later on. The IDE has better syntax highlighting in many secondary windows, like the call stack and structure view. There are also improvements in source code searches, in the way the navigation toolbar works, and in the use of multiple edit windows, plus many other small tweaks.

Besides the introduction of Visual Assist integration for C++Builder, further improvements have been made to DelphiLSP support used for Code Insight. For example, code completion now includes language keywords, and code templates are shown in contextually correct areas of code during completion, as well as having better support for generics and completing arrays or array types.

RAD Server

There are notable improvements for RAD Server, Embarcadero's REST server API hosting platform. The most significant change is the ability to easily support a smart ID model, using a standard library to define better identifiers for resources exposed by the server. RAD Server also offers better performance, data paging improvements, better session authentication and overall quality.

Quality, Quality, Quality

Thousands of internal and customer reports were addressed in 12 make the release more robust, more stable, and with more quality compared to the past. Issues addressed encompass all of the product subsystems in active development.

According to Ian Barker, "Embarcadero has applied concentrated and significant thought to the feedback of users. We're listening. We're here to help you create your apps in the most optimal way. The RAD in RAD Studio stands for Rapid Application Development and RAD Studio 12 lives up to this."

"RAD Studio 12," Barker notes, "is an enormous growling monster of a release with just the 'brief' release notes alone coming in at a whopping 231 pages. Try it yourself, harness this beast to make your applications roar."

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through info@embarcadero.com. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio 11.2 page on the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

InterBase Python Driver, IBLite and Subscripton for IBToGo Editions Released

2023-06-23T00:00:00-05:00

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

June 23, 2023

Austin, Texas - Embarcadero Introduces New InterBase Driver for Python, Free InterBase IBLite Edition, Subscription License for InterBase IBToGo Edition

Embarcadero is pleased to announce the release of three InterBase-related products to improve the flagship database product's connectivity and accessibility for developers.

The first release is a driver for Python. The second is a free IBLite version for all developers, and the third is a Subscription License for IBToGo.

Python Driver

Embarcadero has released for the first time an official InterBase database driver for the Python programming language. The new InterBase Driver for Python is technically a Python 3 library package that implements the Python Database API 2.0-compliant support (as specified in https://peps.python.org/pep-0249/) for the Embarcadero InterBase Database.

The driver offers support for running applications on Windows and Linux, after installing the InterBase client library, but also works on macOS. It can be used from those operating systems to work with a regular InterBase server instance running on Windows or Linux. However, it can also be used locally with the InterBase Desktop edition and with the embedded editions of the database, IBToGo and IBLite.

The new driver by Embarcadero adds support for all configurations of InterBase and it also adds specific support for many recent features of the database, like change views and encryption.

Getting the InterBase Driver for Python

The driver is available at https://github.com/Embarcadero/InterBasePython under an open source license. It is derived from an existing InterBase Python open source driver, which in turn was based on a Firebird database driver.

Besides in the GitHub project linked above, the driver will be made available on the pip Python package manager.

Free IBLite for All Developers

Embarcadero has also announced the availability of the lightweight embedded version of InterBase, called IBLite, for free distribution with customer applications. IBLite was already available for free, but only to RAD Studio developers. Developers who don't use RAD Studio, Delphi or C++Builder can find the free IBLite download here.

IBLite lacks a few features of the full embedded version, IBToGo, in particular the support for database encryption, but also a more generous database size and ChangeViewsTM. The server edition adds even more, but it is highly compatible, so moving your application from one edition to the other is very smooth.

The new IB Lite edition can be found here: https://www.embarcadero.com/products/interbase/lite/free-download

For a comparison of the different editions you can refer to: https://www.embarcadero.com/products/interbase/product-editions

InterBase IBToGo Subscription Edition

InterBase IBToGo is the embedded version of the InterBase database, with high-grade encryption, larger database size, ChangeViews^™, and other extended features compared to the IBLite free version. InterBase IBToGo is a multi platform solution available for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS. A comparison between IBToGo, IBLite and the server editions is available at https://www.embarcadero.com/products/interbase/product-editions

The InterBase 2020 ToGo Subscription Edition can be downloaded here:

https://store.embarcadero.com/542/purl-buy-interbase-2020-togo-term

The InterBase 2020 ToGo Subscription Edition is essentially the same product with a new licensing plan: a yearly subscription with unlimited distribution, and a very competitive price. This subscription can be renewed in the following years to maintain the right to distribute new copies of desktop applications and mobile apps embedding IBToGo.

In the past, the only option to license IBToGo was a per-seat license or a VAR Agreement, with the exception of the mobile versions available in RAD Studio Enterprise. In all other cases the license was based on the user's count. The new subscription license, instead, is for unlimited users and unlimited installations. The new plan will allow, for example, to have an application on a mobile app store, which uses IBToGo , without worrying about additional costs in case the app is successful. Similarly, you can deploy apps to desktop stores (like those from Apple for macOS and Microsoft for Windows).

The IBToGo Subscription License offers a 1-year distribution term, not a limited license term. In other words, the subscription allows a customer to freely deploy his solution to any number of end users for a year. After the expiration, if the customer does not renew the subscription, the copies of IBToGo already distributed to end users will keep working and remain legal, but the developer cannot distribute any further copies of the software with IBToGo embedded.

Additionally, the license is focused on small and medium businesses, and not available for companies with revenues exceeding US$20 million or equivalent. Larger corporations are encouraged to reach out to the Embarcadero sales team and discuss a VAR distribution agreement on specific terms.

Distributing InterBase as a VAR

Any business interested in building a software solution based on InterBase can also benefit from Embarcadero's VAR distribution agreements, which can be adapted to the needs of each software development company.

Other InterBase Connectivity Options

InterBase, in addition to this Python driver, provides excellent connectivity and integrated drivers for Embarcadero RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder using the FireDAC and IBX database connectivity libraries, plus additional third party solutions. Embarcadero also offers an ADO.NET driver for .NET and Visual Studio developers.

InterBase also includes a JDBC driver for Java applications as well as an ODBC driver for the majority of other development environments and programming languages.

What is InterBase

InterBase is an ultrafast, scalable, embeddable SQL database with commercial grade data security, disaster recovery, and change synchronization. With a long history as a powerful and reliable database system, InterBase has a very small footprint and can be deployed on a server, but even embedded in a mobile application. For more information on InterBase please visit https://www.embarcadero.com/products/interbase/.

Delphi & C++Builder 11 Community Edition Released

2023-04-26T00:00:00-05:00

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

April 26, 2023

Embarcadero Releases Delphi 11 and C++Builder 11 Community Edition - Free Edition Brings Latest Features and Innovations to Students, Hobbyists and Startups

Austin, Texas - April 26, 2023 - Embarcadero is pleased to announce the release of the Community Edition (CE) of Delphi 11 and C++Builder 11.

Delphi 11 CE and C++Builder 11 CE are the free revenue-limited license editions of Embarcadero's flagship IDEs, and are intended for students, hobbyists and startups that want to get started building apps with Delphi and C++Builder.

Delphi 11 CE and C++Builder CE 11 create the opportunity for developers around the world who work with Delphi or C++ or are interested in learning to apply the powerful features and innovations of the landmark 11 Alexandria release to their applications and projects.

According to Delphi Product Manager Marco Cantu, Embarcadero is “really excited to release a much-improved version of our free Delphi and C++Builder Community Editions, and are looking forward to having students and startups adopt it and get to learn the power that our IDE, compilers and libraries offer for Windows desktop and muti-device development alike".

Community Editions are available free of charge to anyone who wants to get started programming, and to organizations with fewer than five developers. They are full-featured, and come with a one-year term license and a limited commercial license for organizations with revenues not exceeding $5,000. Users can check if they qualify for the CE license and then start with the Free Trial or consult the Community Edition License FAQ.

Delphi CE

Robust and easy-to-learn Delphi is the fastest and most cost-effective way to build powerful native applications for Windows, iOS, macOS and Android from a single codebase. This makes it the ideal choice for students or anyone who just wants to get things done.

C++Builder CE

C++Builder unlocks a colossal set of C++ standard libraries while also giving users access to the powerful runtime and visual libraries included in Delphi. This makes it a winning combination for C++ development.

CE Has All Features of Pro Edition

Community Edition makes all the features of the Professional Edition of Delphi and C++Builder available at no cost to the developer and student community, including features for mobile platforms and desktop databases. With the new Delphi & C++Builder CE release, the very latest features and updated platform support of 11 Alexandria CE edition are made freely available.

C++Builder Product Manager David Millington notes: “We value our community and are glad to have a free but Pro-level product available for such a wide audience. C++Builder 11.3 Community Edition,” Millington adds, “includes a wide variety of improvements since the last Community Edition, across code completion, C++ and library compatibility and more. It also provides exciting new features in libraries like the VCL. We're very happy to make it available."

Risk-Free Prelude to Unrestricted Licenses

Community Edition is the ideal risk-free stepping-stone for an upgrade to a perpetual license with an unrestricted commercial license and choose between the Professional, Enterprise, and Architect Editions of Delphi, C++Builder, and RAD Studio.

The Community Edition should not be used as an extended trial, as the licenses are different. CE should also not be used by companies with other regular licenses.

RAD Studio 11.3 Released

2023-02-27T05:12:40-06:00

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

February 27, 2023

Embarcadero Technologies announces the General Availability of RAD Studio 11.3 Alexandria, including Delphi 11.3 and C++Builder 11.3.

RAD Studio 11 Alexandria Release 3 (also known as RAD Studio 11.3) is focused on quality and improvements in terms of usability, performance and stability, as requested by customers. The release builds on the landmark new features in RAD Studio 11 Alexandria's three previous releases.

According to Product Manager Marco Cantu, "RAD Studio 11.3 offers all the great new features of the 11 Alexandria series, starting with our High DPI IDE and support for styles in the form designer, and includes a much improved version of Delphi LSP, along with many small features making developers work easier."

RAD Studio 11.3 includes support for newer versions of several operating systems, adds a new ToolsAPI to the RAD Studio IDE to customize the way source code is painted in the code editor, introduces a new Biometric Authentication component for mobile platforms, and a number of other features and enhancements.

Updated Target Platform Support

RAD Studio 11.3 offers official support for new versions of many operating systems for which it can build native applications. Specifically, RAD Studio now supports iOS 16 (Delphi only), Android 13, and macOS Ventura, all of which were released after RAD Studio 11.2 GA, in addition to Ubuntu 22 and Windows Server 2022.

Evolved VCL Form Designer and High DPI

RAD Studio 11.3 offers improvements to the High DPI IDE and in particular the VCL Form Designer quality under High DPI, with specific improvements in the scaling of non-visual components, including in frames.

Smarter Code Editor

The IDE code editor now has the ability to highlight matching words. This feature allows you to see instances of the same word you have selected, or the cursor is currently in, highlighted on the screen.

This release also brings a new ToolsAPI for painting in the code editor, which allows developers to customize the editor without affecting its stability. According to C++Builder Product Manager David Milliongton, "a powerful tool is one which can be customized to your needs and workflow, and Delphi and C++Builder have always had a strong community providing plugins and enhancement within the IDE. The new ToolsAPI for the code editor," Milliongton adds, "provides extraordinarily flexible and powerful access to a key area of interaction and productivity within the IDE, and emphasizes our desire to support our customers' innovations and productivity tooling. We can't wait to see what you build with it!"

Improved Code Insight and DelphiLSP

Delphi Code Insight through DelphiLSP sees very significant quality improvements, to further improve our Code Insight features and make them faster and more reliable, including with large applications. These improvements include code completion, Help Insight, and navigation, with a strong focus on overall reliability, as well as providing completion and navigation results and HelpInsight in areas where they were not previously provided.

Better Toolchain

RAD Studio 11.3 ships with a new LLDB-based debugger for macOS Intel and Android 32-bit, which means all non-Windows platform debuggers across Delphi and C++ are now LLDB-based.

"Moving our tools to leverage the power of open source," David Milliongton notes, "such as 11.3 now using the LLDB debugger for all non-Windows platforms, helps us deliver excellent quality to our customers while empowering customers with our productive technology, such as our UI, database, or web libraries, our powerful extensions to C++ and our own Delphi language. All these are well-known for their readability and speed from idea to production."

RAD Studio 11.3 now also offers a new notarization process for macOS, which Apple introduced with XCode 14. The Windows signing support in the IDE now includes the timestamping of MSIX files, while using a library suffix of $(Auto) now also works for C++ projects.

Embedded InterBase Editions & Database Support

RAD Studio now also ships with the recently-released InterBase 2020 Update 4 Developer edition and the IBLite/ToGo edition.

Meanwhile, FireDAC now offers improvements for PostgreSQL database performance and full compatibility with version 14 and version 15.1 of the database. For Oracle and other databases, it offers better treatment of column names with square brackets. For Linux, the database layer offers preliminary support for UTF8 in the database RTL (like for TStringField) and in FireDAC's DataSets.

Biometric Authentication

For FireMonkey mobile applications, RAD Studio 11.3 offers a new Mobile Biometric Authentication component. This component (called TBiometricAuth) provides a means of authorization to use an application or some specific features via Biometrics (e.g., Face ID on iOS devices or Fingerprint on Android devices).

FMX Mobile Device Integration

Another new FireMonkey feature for better mobile device integration is the new IFMXPhoneDialerListenerService interface, which was implemented for Android. The service is intended for tracking changes in the state of the phone system service (Calls, Carrier, CallState).

The FireMonkey library has undergone extensive fixes and improvements, beside the support for newer versions of target operating systems.

Web Technologies

The new release brings improvements to TMultipartContentParser, automatic token refresh to TOAuth2Authenticator, better support for NestedElements in TRESTResponseDataSetAdapter, and fixes in RAD Server, SOAP and other related subsystems.

Enhanced Security

For security reasons, Embarcadero no longer ships the Subversion DLLs, but recommends that users install and maintain their own Subversion client side DLLs.

Quality Improvements

The quality improvements encompass all product areas, with a specific focus on Delphi Code Insight using Delphi LSP, the High DPI IDE introduced in 11.0, and VCL styles. There are notable enhancements in the compilers and toolchains, the Delphi and C++ RTL, VCL, FireMonkey, FireDAC and other database libraries, Internet access and services, including both the Delphi and the C++Builder personalities.

According to Marco Cantu, "RAD Studio 11.3 is a quality focused release delivering increased stability and additional productivity to Delphi and C++ developers relying on our best-in-class VCL Windows 11 UI library and our award-winning FireMonkey single-source multi-device solution targeting the latest Apple and Google operating systems."

"RAD Studio 11.3 demonstrates our commitment to quality, with attention paid to every area of the product, from the debuggers to web to code tooling," David Milliongton adds.

Overall, RAD Studio 11.3 Alexandria implements over 25 feature requests from Quality Portal and fixes over 365 bugs reported by customers on that site, encompassing all areas of the product.

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through info@embarcadero.com. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio 11.3 page on the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

RAD Studio 11.2 Release Introduces New Tools, Quality Improvements

2022-09-07T04:01:13-05:00

September 7, 2022

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

RAD Studio 11.2 Release Introduces New Tools, Quality Improvements

Embarcadero Technologies announces the General Availability of RAD Studio 11.2 Alexandria, including Delphi 11.2 and C++Builder 11.2.

The RAD Studio 11 Alexandria Release 2 (also known as RAD Studio 11.2) is focused on quality and improvements, continuing to build on the milestone innovations introduced in RAD Studio 11 Alexandria.

RAD Studio 11.2 includes support for the iOS Simulator platform on macOS ARM 64 for the Delphi language, migrates the Delphi Linux debugger to the LLDB technology, and adds some significant new features to the RAD Studio IDE, including Markdown support and a popular customer request to visually indicate inactive code in the code editor.

"RAD Studio 11.2," Embarcadero Pre-Sales Director Stephen Ball points out, "introduces a collection of usability updates that add up to save every developers seconds, minutes and hours in their week, without changing the way they work"

"We have added several important new features", Embarcadero Product Manager Marco Cantù adds, "but the core focus of this release has been on quality, in terms of usability, performance and stability, as requested by our customers. The quality focus encompasses all product areas, the IDE, the compilers and toolchains, the UX, RTL, database and Internet libraries and includes both the Delphi and the C++ sides of the product."

Delphi iOS Simulator

RAD Studio 11.2 offers iOS Simulator support for the Delphi language, with the ability to generate iOS Simulator binaries for macOS devices running on ARM-64 (M1 or M2 CPUs). This enables developers to test their Delphi applications on different Apple devices and on multiple form factors using the iOS Simulator, without the need to buy the specific hardware.

According to Marco Cantù, "the availability of specific support for the iOS Simulator in Delphi makes RAD Studio single-source multi-device development tooling complete and the iOS development experience much smoother and faster."

Android API Level 32

In this release, the IDE lets you target Android API Level 32 (up from API level 30 in 11.1), which will be required by Google Play in November 2022. We have also updated our installer to offer the Eclipse Temurin JDK 11, required by the latest Android SDK tools.

LLDB for Delphi for Linux

Delphi's Linux toolchain previously used GDB for debugging; in this release, we are switching to LLDB, which provides a strong quality improvement both in features and in Delphi language syntax support. We have also upgraded to version 12 of LLDB and adopted it for the iOS Simulator, along with existing use of LLDB for C++ Win64, and Delphi macOS, iOS, and Android 64 platforms.

IDE Support for Markdown Documents and a VCL-Based HTML Preview

You can open and edit Markdown (.md) files and see a rich text rendered view of it in the Preview tab. The Markdown rendering includes support for tables and other special tags.

Similarly, HTML files are rendered as formatted HTML within the IDE with a new native VCL-based viewer. Like Markdown, you cannot edit HTML in the formatted preview, but users can edit both HTML and Markdown in the code editor.

Furthermore, the Project Page Options dialog now allows users to specify a Markdown file in alternative to an HTML file as the "project page" or readme that automatically shows when users open a project in RAD Studio.

Embarcadero Product Manager David Millington points out that "the Help Insight and Markdown views, which use HTML, really show the power of native Delphi implementations. By moving away from using heavyweight embedded web browsers and replacing them with a HTML renderer implemented in Delphi itself, the RAD Studio IDE has benefited with high quality and performance."

Hundreds of Quality Improvements

"We have implemented over 30 feature requests from Quality Portal," Marco Cantù notes, "and fixed over 420 bugs reported by customers on that site, encompassing all areas of the product."

"RAD Studio 11.2," David Millington adds, "focuses on the details that matter. Together, these many small details add up to big leaps in quality and developer productivity."

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through info@embarcadero.com. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio 11.2 page on the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

RAD Studio 11.1 Release Builds on Milestone Innovations Introduced in 11 Alexandria

2022-03-15T04:01:13-05:00

March 15, 2022

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

RAD Studio 11.1 Release Builds on Milestone Innovations Introduced in 11 Alexandria

Embarcadero Technologies announces the General Availability of RAD Studio 11.1 Alexandria, including Delphi 11.1 and C++Builder 11.1.

The RAD Studio 11.1 Alexandria release is highly quality-focused, including a concentrationon customer-reported issues and support escalations. 11.1 provides fixes for 632 bugs reported on the Quality Portal site and delivers 30 feature requests from customers.

Improved IDE And User Experience

RAD Studio 11.1 builds on the milestone innovations introduced in version 11 Alexandria of RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++Builder. The RAD Studio IDE is the primary focus of the 11.1 release, with the goal of further improving features introduced in recent versions.

RAD Studio 11.1 combines high-DPI support with improvements to remote desktop access for closer and more effective team collaboration. The high-DPI designers for VCL and FireMonkey and the styled VCL form designer have undergone improvements.

The GetIt Library Manager is enhanced with cached images and a reworked UI implementation. The Messages view now uses customized colors, while the new Welcome Page now offers background images, and supports custom frames with a new Open Tools API.

According to Embarcadero Product Manager Marco Cantù, "The RAD Studio 11.1 release improves the performance and stability of the great features in 11.0, starting with the new High-DPI enabled IDE. On top of this, it delivers official support to operating systems released after 11.0 shipped: Windows 11, macOS 12 Monterey, iOS 15, and Android 12!"

Improved Code Insight

Code Insight for both languages, Delphi and C++, are now improved. The C++ implementation has improved significantly in terms of quality and performance, while the Delphi LSP engine is also between 5 times and 30 times faster. Furthermore, when completing a declaration, type parameters are now visible.

More Powerful Compilers And Debuggers

The stability and performance of Delphi and C++ compilers is improved. The Delphi macOS 64-bit ARM and Android 64-bit debuggers are now based on the LLDB debugger architecture, as already in use for the Delphi iOS 64-bit debugger. As a result, Delphi debuggers for supported platforms are unified on this technology as part of the continuous commitment to quality improvement.

Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate and Engineer Jim McKeeth says he is "the kind of person who gets really excited about new features and big changes, but I also understand that the biggest impact in my daily productivity comes from quality improvements and performance enhancements. RAD Studio 11.1 takes all the new and exciting features of my favorite development tools and adds the quality and performance that makes each day I use it a little better than the one before".

Richer RTL, UI and Database Libraries

Optimizations and quality improvements have been introduced to the core Delphi RTL in the 11.1 Release. There is also a new TURLStream class, a TStream descendant with support for async operations. Support for Windows 11 and Server 2022 in the TOSVersion data structure. FireMonkey has added quality improvements to TListView, along with improved Android SDK integration, TWebBrowser, Windows HighDPI-related issues, and performance. FireDAC has added Structure View integration and offers support for MariaDB 10.6, SQLite Encryption Extension (SEE), and new data types for Firebird 4. RAD Studio 11.1 also improves DataSnap quality and adds the ability to deploy a WebBroker application on Android.

Superior Integration With AWS And Python

Since the 11 Alexandria release, Enterprise and Architect customers get a preview of the new AWS SDK for Delphi (licensed from Appercept). Embarcadero also extends the reach of theirDelphi UI libraries to Python developers with new free libraries, and also improves integration of Python libraries in RAD Studio applications.

With all these improvements to a landmark core release, Embarcadero General Manager Kyle Wheeler says the company is "excited to bring this release to market as a continuing focus on quality improvements that build on the major work done for version 11. 2022 is shaping up to be another great year for Embarcadero and RAD Studio and our amazing community".

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through info@embarcadero.com. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio 11.1 page on the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

New Free VCL And FMX GUI Development Modules for Python Released

2022-01-10T08:55:09-06:00

January 10, 2022

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: info@embarcadero.com

New Free VCL And FMX Python Modules Bring The Power And Flexibility of Delphi's GUI Frameworks to Python Developers

Embarcadero Technologies has released a compilation of free VCL and FMX libraries for Python. The DelphiVCL and DelphiFMX libraries for Python are a set of Python modules that put the robust and mature VCL and FireMonkey (FMX) GUI libraries in the hands of Python developers.

DelphiVCL for Python is focused on native Windows development and employs the Windows-only VCL framework, while DelphiFMX for Python employs the cross-platform FireMonkey framework and brings a powerful flexible GUI framework to Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android.

Although knowledge of Delphi is a big advantage when working with these libraries, using the VCL and FMX libraries for Python development does not require previous knowledge of Delphi.

VCL and FireMonkey(FMX) are mature GUI libraries used by thousands of Delphi and C++Builder developers around the world. GUI development is one area where Delphi’s quarter-century of experience brings tremendous benefits to Python developers.

The libraries are built with the same open-source Python4Delphi library that powers the popular PyScripter Python IDE.

Where To Find The Libraries

DelphiVCL Python Module

The Visual Component Library (VCL) is a key part of Delphi’s state-of-the-art user interface support. It contains most native Windows controls, and controls with additional features and functionality. The DelphiVCL Python module supports Windows application development with Python.

DelphiFMX Python Module

FireMonkey (FMX) is Delphi’s cross-platform GUI library. It takes advantage of GPU hardware acceleration using OpenGL or DirectX to create slick, modern, and high-performance user interfaces. The DelphiFMX Python module supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android development with Python.

Both modules are freely available via GitHub or the PIP Python Package Manager

DelphiVCL.pyd

https://github.com/Embarcadero/DelphiVCL4Python

pip install delphivcl

DelphiFMX.pyd

https://github.com/Embarcadero/DelphiFMX4Python

pip install delphifmx

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through info@embarcadero.com. You can explore the Python Tools page in the New Tools section of the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com