Name 

Description 

Compiling, Building, and Running Applications 

As you develop your application in the IDE, you can compile (or make), build, and run the application in the IDE. All three operations can produce an executable (such as .exe, .dll, .obj, or .bpl). However, the three operations differ slightly in behavior:

• Compile (ProjectCompile) or, for C++, Make ( ProjectMake) compiles only those files that have changed since the last build as well as any files that depend on them. Compiling or making does not execute the application (see Run).
• Build (ProjectBuild) compiles all of the... more 

MSBuild Overview 

To build projects, the IDE now uses MSBuild instead of the previous internal build system. The build, compile, and make commands available in the IDE call the new build engine from Microsoft: MSBuild, which provides thorough dependency checking. MSBuild project files are XML-based, and contain sections that describe specific Items, Properties, Tasks, and Targets for the project.
For more information about MSBuild, see the Microsoft documentation at http://msdn.microsoft.com. 

Build Configurations Overview 

Build configurations consist of options that you can set on all the build-related pages of the ProjectOptions dialog box. Build configurations are saved in the project file (such as .dproj or .cbproj ). 

Option Sets Overview 

Both C++Builder 2009 and Delphi for Win32 2009 support the use of option set files for managing build configurations. Previously, only C++Builder 2007 supported option sets. Also new for 2009 is the ability to apply an option set to a build configuration by reference, as described in this topic.
Option sets are disk files that contain the values you have set for build-related project options. Option sets are saved in files with the extension .optset, in your project folder. You can an apply option set to the current build configuration either by reference or by value. After you apply... more 

Targets files 

A .targets file is an MSBuild-compliant XML file you can add to a project to allow customizing the build process. A .targets file can have <Target> nodes containing MSBuild scripts.
You can also add or modify project property values with a .targets file. You can leverage the large variety of MSBuild tasks available in the .NET Framework SDK and on the internet, such as "Zip", "SVNCheckout", and "Mail", or write custom tasks yourself.
In summary:

• A .targets file is an XML file with <Target> nodes that contain MSBuild scripts with lists of tasks to perform.
• You can create, add, enable,... more 

Precompiled Headers Overview 

There are advantages to using precompiled headers for your C++ projects, but there are also pitfalls to avoid when creating and using precompiled headers. 

Unicode in RAD Studio 

RAD Studio for 2009 has changed from ANSI-based strings to Unicode-based strings: the type string is now a Unicode string. This topic describes what you need to know to handle strings properly.
RAD Studio is fully Unicode-compliant, and some changes are required to those parts of your code that involve string handling. However, every effort has been made to keep these changes to a minimum. Although new data types are introduced, existing data types remain and function as they always have. Based on the in house experience of Unicode conversion, existing developer applications should migrate fairly smoothly.