The new face of Delphi
Borland releases Delphi 5. Do the changes make the
grade?
The most common question people ask me about Delphi 5.0,
the latest release of Borland's integrated development
environment, is about its stability. After a rather buggy
Delphi 4.0 release, Borland has likely done enough bug-fixing
this time around to ensure a solid product.
Sure, I've crashed Delphi 5, particularly when debugging in
Windows 98. Of course, you never know if it's the fault of the
OS or the debugger. I've bumped into a few other difficulties
with the IDE as well, but I've always been able to save my
source code files. In such cases I rebooted Delphi more as a
precaution than a necessity. I've been able to run heavy-duty
Delphi tasks for an entire day without a glitch, despite the
presence of some clunky wizards and tools that I had installed
in the IDE. I've heard reports of angry users who have
experienced frequent crashes with the new Delphi, but I
haven't run into many problems.
The IDE facelift
The user-interface of the Delphi 5 IDE has many new
features, but, as with any UI element, you might not like them
all. I don't care for Delphi 5's new desktop icon, but I do
like the more professional splash screen and the about box
image.
I can't get accustomed to viewing the properties in the
"new" Object Inspector by category; I prefer standard
alphabetical order. To me, categories are useful only for
filtering out the Legacy properties (basically Ctrl3D and the
OldCreationOrder). I'd also like to filter out the Locale
properties, but since they also show up under the Localizable
category, this filter has little value. The Object Inspector's
owner-draw drop-down combo box is worthwhile, but is useful
only when you have to select an image out of an ImageList.
When setting the ImageIndex of an object, you can now see and
select the actual image instead of just a number. I hope third
party writers will find new and creative uses for this
feature.
 I like
Delphi 5's capacity to save the status of the desktop windows.
I've developed three basic configurations: visual programming,
writing plain code (with no form designer on view), and
debugging. The system's ability to toggle on the debugging
windows as soon as I hit the Run button is one of the greatest
time savers in this version of Delphi.
Among the other changes in the IDE is that the old Object
Browser has now been partially transformed into the Project
Explorer (I say "partially" because the menu item used to
invoke it still has the old name.) This tool can now list the
classes of your source code and show their details even before
compiling the project.
The Integrated Translation Environment is very useful for
localizing your Delphi applications and deploying them in
different languages. The ToDo List is a great tool for
tracking the progress of a single person or an entire team in
developing and debugging a project. The ToDo Items window
automatically scans the source code of the entire project,
looking for ToDo comments and the project's special ToDo file.
Its visual support is outstanding. I'm using the list
frequently with my projects.
Debetter debugging
There are tons of other new features in the IDE --
including the ability to disable the automatic form creation
and to save DFM files as text -- but the area in which I've
seen the most improvements is the debugger. I like being able
to define a breakpoint action other than breaking the
execution. You can now send a message to the Events view
(similar to the OutputDebugString call) and can also log the
result of an expression. You can even call a function that
generates a side effect. Breakpoints can enable and disable
other breakpoints, so you can write complex breakpoint
sequences. In other words, you program the breakpoints.
There are several other valuable new features of the Delphi
5 integrated debugger: the new FPU view, dragging variables to
the watch list or the evaluate/modify window, running a method
until it returns, and integrating the VCL debugging DCUs into
your project more easily.
What's doin' in the data module
Another area of the Delphi 5 IDE that has been greatly
improved is the data module. You can now visually arrange the
components in a tree, dragging a table from one database alias
to another. You reach the persistent fields much faster than
when using the fields editor and immediately see the
incomplete elements. The tree view is a powerful tool that is
very handy for navigating among the non-visual components of a
data module.
The diagram view provides you with a limited graphical tool
for creating and displaying the relationships among the
components of the data module. You can drag a property
connector from one component to another to hook them up. Drag
a master-detail connector between tables to join them. And you
can even add your own comments, change the colors, and alter
the line paths and the label's position. The only snag is that
if you want to connect the components of a large data module,
you'll probably need a large monitor and a good printer.
The data module designer relates to data in terms of
non-visual components, but is not limited in any way to
database data. For example, you can add a menu, an image list,
and an action list to a data module, connect them, add
specific actions and menu items, and move them all to the
diagram view. In the case of web data modules, you can connect
producer components to web actions and data sets.
IDE say there's more to it
The IDE isn't all that's new in Delphi 5. There have been
extensive changes in the VCL, Web support, MIDAS, and database
access areas and there are countless new, more minor
features.
The IDE, though, is what counts to programmers. It's our
everyday tool, and the more powerful it is, the faster and
smoother the coding process becomes. Delphi 5 IDE has much to
offer. It's a great leap forward for the many Delphi
developers who have used version 3.
If you find, however, that Delphi 5 still doesn't meet your
needs, you can super charge it using third party tools. I've
written a few simple ones, you can refer to the free
GExperts
collection, or try the all-encompassing CodeRush from Mark Miller. And as soon as
you get your copy of Delphi 5, try out the new 3D developer's
list by opening the about box and typing the usual combination
(Alt+Team) or the new one (Alt+Jedi).
Happy coding.
Originally written for InPublishing LLC for publication by Inprise Corp. Copyright 1999 Inprise Corp.
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