Name 

Description 

What Was New in Past Releases 

The “What's New” topics from previous releases are available here as a reference. These topics enable you to review the features that were new in past releases. 

What's New in Delphi and C++Builder 2009 

This release provides key new features for developing applications using both Delphi and C++Builder.
Please note that this release is a breaking change in both Delphi and C++Builder. The main focus and feature of this release is the change from using ANSI-based strings to using a Unicode-based string type, appropriately named UnicodeString. This means that to use Delphi or C++Builder 2009 to work on pre-existing applications, you need to make some modifications in your code, largely related to string handling, and you need to successfully recompile your code.
About Unicode: The Unicode Standard has been adopted by many computer... more 

What is RAD Studio? 

RAD Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) for building Delphi Win32 applications. The RAD Studio IDE provides a comprehensive set of tools that streamline and simplify the development life cycle. The tools available in the IDE depend on the version of RAD Studio you are using. The following sections briefly describe these tools. 

Tour of the IDE 

When you start RAD Studio, the integrated development environment (IDE) launches and displays several tools and menus. The IDE helps you visually design user interfaces, set object properties, write code, and view and manage your application in various ways.
The default IDE desktop layout includes some of the most commonly used tools. You can use the View menu to display or hide certain tools. You can also customize your desktop by moving or deleting elements, and you can save the desktop layouts that work best for you.
The tools available in the IDE depend on the edition of RAD Studio... more 

IDE on Windows Vista 

The IDE includes support for many new Vista user interface features including:

• Vista-style Open File, Save File, and Task dialog boxes.
• Vista theming.
• AERO glass effects in controls.

 

Tools Overview 

RAD Studio provides several developer tools that are available in the IDE and as standalone executables, as described in the following table.  

Code Editor 

The Code Editor occupies the center pane of the IDE window. The Code Editor is a full-featured, customizable, UTF8 editor that provides syntax highlighting, multiple undo capability, and context-sensitive Help for language elements.
As you design the user interface for your application, RAD Studio generates the underlying code. When you modify object properties, your changes are automatically reflected in the source files.
Because all of your programs share common characteristics, RAD Studio auto-generates code to get you started. You can think of the auto-generated code as an outline that you can examine to create your program.
The Code Editor provides... more 

Form Designer 

The Form Designer or Designer, is displayed automatically when you are creating or editing a form. To access the Designer, click the Design tab at the bottom of the main editing window.
The appearance and functionality of the Designer depends on the type of form you are creating or editing. For example, if you are using an HTML Element, you can display the HTML Tag Editor in the Designer by selecting ViewTag Editor. 

Starting a Project 

A project is a collection of files that is used to create a target application. This collection consists of the files you include and modify directly, such as source code files and resources, and other files that RAD Studio maintains to store project settings, such as the .dproj project file. Projects are created at design time, and they produce the project target files (.exe, .dll, .bpl, etc.) when you compile the project.To assist in the development process, the Object Repository offers many pre-designed templates, forms, files, and other items that you can use to create applications.
To create a project,... more 

Template Libraries Overview 

RAD Studio allows you to create multiple custom template libraries to use as the basis for creating future projects. Template libraries let you declare how a project can look, and enable you to add new types of projects to the New Items dialog box.
Creating a template library is a two-step process.

1. First, you create a RAD Studio project to use as the basis for the template, and an XML file with a .bdstemplatelib extension that describes the project. This project can be any kind of project that RAD Studio supports.
2. Next, you add the project to the list of... more 

Overview of Virtual Folders 

For C++ only, the Project Manager allows any file entry in the project to be arranged and displayed in an arbitrary grouping of your choice called a virtual folder. These folders persist in the project file and make no reference to the file's actual location on disk.
Virtual folders can only contain file system entries or other virtual folders. Virtual folders can be reordered within the project, be renamed, and be deleted. Deleting a virtual folder does not delete the contained files--they simply resume their normal Project Manager location prior to their inclusion in the virtual folder.
Note that... more 

Help on Help 

This section includes information about the:

• RAD Studio Help
• CodeGear Developer Support Services and Web Sites
• RAD Studio Quick Start Guide
• Typographic Conventions Used in the Help

 

Code Completion 

Code Completion is a Code Insight feature available in the Code Editor. Code Completion displays a resizable “hint” window that lists valid elements that you can select to add to your code. You can control the sorting of items in the Code Completion hint window by right-clicking the box and choosing Sort by Name or Sort by Scope.
Different items appear in different colors in the list. For example, by default, procedures are teal, functions are dark blue, and abstract methods are shown in red.
Automatic code completion is on by default. Options for enabling and disabling Code Completion... more 

Class Explorer Overview