Delphi Versions

Delphi Versions - 2005

Some comments on using Delphi 2005 (trial) - the .NET version. Delphi ASP.NET is ok and the IDE has a few improvements, but I still prefer Delphi 5.

Most of these comments are based on using the Delphi 2005 trial (free) version.

If you are not doing web development, do not buy this product - stick with Delphi 5 - it is much faster.

General

When testing a new version of a compiler, I usually try to convert an existing program that I have written. These comments apply to a 3D Viewer I use to see Mars images. The same machine was used for both versions (512 MB RAM).

	Delphi 5.0	Delphi 2005
IDE start time	2 seconds	40 seconds
Runtime memory Neither version loaded	334 MB available, 210 MB commit
Runtime memory Only the IDE loaded	320 MB available, 219 MB commit	268 MB available, 305 MB commit
Runtime memory Viewer.exe running	300 MB available, 238 MB commit	253 MB available, 334 MB commit
Runtime memory Viewer.exe running with debug dcu's included	320 MB available, 219 MB commit	260 MB available, 334 MB commit
Disk space (bin directory)	20 MB, 92 files	101 MB, 485 files
Viewer.exe size	624 KB	907 KB
Speed	A little slow Images jerk a little when scrolled	Unusably slow Images flash when scrolled

ASP.NET

The main reason I am interested in upgrading Delphi is to develop web based applications with a "thin" (browser only) client.

Of course, I have issues with the ASP.Net development, (there will be a separate page on this), but in general, it works and there is an adequate amount of on-line help.

Note: The built-in help is less than useful.

Missing functionality

In the trial version, it is fair to expect some missing functionality.

No component source code
No debug DCU's

Basically, having these would have made debug much easier - but for a free trial version ...

New web units - Indy

Delphi 2005 has replaced the FastNet (TNMHTTP) components

Click on a component, Press F1, get very good help
Help has very good examples (actually, only one for everything, but it is very good)
Simple to use

with Indy (TIdHTTP) components

Click on a component, Press F1, help not found
Must manually type the class name to find the help
Help has no examples
Very difficult to figure out how to use this stuff

These units are not found

Psock, NMHttp, NMURL I tryied replacing

  TMNHTTP -> TIdHTTP

The Indy component has 4 overloaded "get" methods However, none of them allow data to be written the the hard drive Had to use trial and error (including discovering an Indy design error) to figure out how to save an image to a file.

Using the Indy components, F1 help does not work at all ... it is totally worthless. Instead, you have to manually type the class name (don't forget the initial 'T').

There is an overloaded Get method ... but they don't link to each other. To read all 4 pages, you have to go back to the previous page, do a lot of scrolling, and then click on another overloaded method. (What a hassel.)

Delphi 5 code

procedure TViewer_UIForm.DisplayImagePair;
var
  L_File, R_File : string;
begin

  L_File := 'L2.jpg';
  R_File := 'R2.jpg';
  NMHTTP1.Body := R_File;
  NMHTTP1.Get(R_Image);   // R_Image is a fully qualified URL
  NMHTTP1.Body := L_File;
  NMHTTP1.Get(L_Image);

Delphi 2005 code

procedure TViewer_UIForm.DisplayImagePair;
var
 L_File, R_File : string;
 Image_Stream : TFileStream;

 stream_2 : TMemoryStream ;
begin

  L_File := 'L2.jpg';
  R_File := 'R2.jpg';
  stream_2 := TMemoryStream.Create;
  IdHTTP1.Get(R_Image, stream_2);
  stream_2.SaveToFile(R_File);
  IdHTTP1.Get(L_Image, stream_2);
  stream_2.SaveToFile(L_File);
  stream_2.Free;

Delphi 2005 code using FileStream

Attempts to use a FileStream failed - apparently my error - not an Indy design problem.

procedure TViewer_UIForm.DisplayImagePair;
var
 L_File, R_File : string;
 Image_Stream : TFileStream;

 stream_2 : TMemoryStream ;
begin

  L_File := 'L2.jpg';
  R_File := 'R2.jpg';

  Image_Stream.Create('r3.jpg',fmCreate or fmShareDenyNone); // bad code

  Image_Stream := TFileStream.Create('r3.jpg',fmCreate or fmShareDenyNone); // try this
  IdHTTP1.Get(R_Image, Image_Stream);
  Image_Stream.Free;

  Image_Stream := TFileStream.Create(L_File,fmCreate or fmShareDenyNone); // try this
  IdHTTP1.Get(L_Image, Image_Stream);
  Image_Stream.Free;

Built-In Help

Delphi 5 - super
Delphi 6 - What happend??
Delphi 2005 - this is crap!

Even though Delphi 2005 now uses html help (displayed in the required IE 6 browser) instead of the old Windows help, it appears that the help uses the same rtf files as before - but the instructions for creating a help file are pretty worthless.

Specifically, "Adding component Help files" is missing in the trial version and the other 2 pages are worthless (contain no data).

Using the Indy components, F1 help does not work at all ... it is totally worthless. Instead, you have to manually type the class name (don't forget the initial 'T').

No longer has a separate display window for properties and methods - they display in the same window as the normal help. On the plus side, there is one line of help next to each entry (this is pretty cool).

(But, overall, html help really sucks.)

Windows SDK:

In Delphi 5, help on the Windows commands is provided via Help / Windows SDK
This is not available with Delphi 6, instead you must manually navigate to

  C:\Program Files\Common Files\Borland Shared\MSHelp

Since I use this all the time, this is a major issue

Component Help

This is the help you get when you click a property in the Object Inspector and press F1

In Delphi 5, it works perfectly

In Delphi 6, it is totally unreliable

In Delphi 2005, you have to select which Delphi help you want - Win32 or .NET

Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org