Neue Delphi-Features - RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney
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Important Improvements for Delphi Code Insight
RAD Studio 10.4 provides Code Insight through a Delphi implementation of the Language Server Protocol (LSP), delivering the most comprehensive and optimized code tools for Delphi in years.
LSP is a technique for calculating results for programming assistance, navigation, or similar tasks in a separate process. This ensures that the IDE is never blocked during processing, and Code Insight delivers accurate results.
Version 10.4 significantly improves developer productivity when working with large projects containing millions of lines of code.
New Language Features for Delphi: Custom Managed Records
A major addition to the Delphi language is the ability for the Record type to support custom initialization, finalization, and copy operations.
Developers can now customize how records are created, copied, and released by defining specific code for these steps.
Records, which are often more efficient than classes, become even more powerful in Delphi with this enhancement.
Unified Memory Management
Delphi now offers consistent memory management across all supported platforms – mobile, desktop, and server – thanks to the classic implementation of object memory management.
Compared to Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), this approach provides:
Better compatibility with existing code.
Easier programming of components, libraries, and end-user applications.
ARC remains used for string management and interface-type references across all platforms.
For C++, this change ensures that creating and releasing classes in Delphi style in C++ follows the standard memory management process, just like a C++ class allocated on the heap. This significantly reduces complexity.
New C++Builder Features
Enhanced Support for C++ Libraries
Version 10.4 includes optimized support for several popular C++ libraries, ported to C++Builder:
ZeroMQ
SDL2
SOCI
libSIMDpp
Nematode
Eigen (already supported and available via the GetIt Package Manager).
Win64 Debugging and Linker for C++
Version 10.4 includes a new debugger for Windows 64-bit applications, based on LLDB, offering:
Improved stability when debugging 64-bit applications.
A new feature for evaluating and inspecting types, including C++ and Delphi strings, STL collections like std::vector and std::map, and more.
A different debug format for generated debugging information, allowing for more stable, feature-rich debugging and powerful inspection during debugging.
Performance and Quality Improvements to the Toolchain
Extensive STL improvements from Dinkumware.
Enhanced compatibility with popular C++ libraries.
Improved CMake support.
Numerous quality and stability improvements.
New VCL Windows Features
High DPI Style Changes
Version 10.4 significantly enhanced the architecture of VCL styles to support High DPI and 4K monitors.
All UI controls on a VCL form are now automatically scaled for the correct resolution of the monitor where the form is displayed.
The Style API has been completely redesigned to support High DPI styles.
New High DPI Styles
A large number of built-in and premium VCL styles have been updated to support the new High DPI style mode, enabling developers to create visually stunning applications for any monitor.
Assigning VCL Styles Per Control
Developers can now apply multiple VCL styles to different forms within a single application.
Individual visual controls on the same form can use different styles.
This flexibility also supports non-styled third-party controls within a styled VCL application.
New VCL Component: Edge Browser Control
Version 10.4 introduces the TEdgeBrowser component, which uses the new Chromium-based Edge WebView2 from Microsoft.
This provides a much more modern and secure HTML engine compared to the older TWebBrowser, which relied on Internet Explorer.
The classic TWebBrowser component has also been enhanced, allowing controls to use either Internet Explorer or Edge Browser depending on availability.
New VCL Component: TTitleBarPanel and Custom Title Bars
With the new TTitleBarPanel control and the TForm.CustomTitleBar property, developers can customize the native Windows title bar of a VCL form.
Add VCL controls to the Windows title bar, control the rendering of elements like the window icon and caption, or even fully customize the title bar drawing.
New VCL Component: Multi-Resolution Image Control
The new TVirtualImage component supports multiple resolutions and DPI scaling, allowing for high-quality image scaling and display as a replacement for the classic TImage component.
Windows API Updates
Many API declarations have been improved, with additional declarations added to further enhance RAD Studio's excellent platform integration.
Important FireMonkey Platform Enhancements
GPU support for the Metal driver on macOS and iOS.
Better performance and smooth migration with Metal API support instead of Quartz API and OpenGL (deprecated by Apple).
New FMX implementation of TMemo for Windows platform with improved IME support.
Enhanced HTTP and REST client libraries with extended HTTPS support.
Expanded support for Amazon AWS services.
Runtime Library Enhancements
Extended support for the Parallel Programming Library (PPL), enabling parallel execution of tasks on modern multi-core CPUs.
Improved FireDAC library for database access, with updated drivers for FireBird, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
Option to choose between static or dynamic linking for embedded SQLite database.
IDE Enhancements
Improved GetIt Package Manager with new sorting and filtering options.
Unified Installer for Online and Offline Installations, allowing easy selection of RAD Studio features during installation.
Numerous productivity improvements in the source code editor and IDE dialogs.
RAD Studio 10.4 introduces significant improvements across Delphi, C++Builder, VCL, and FireMonkey, providing powerful new features, enhanced productivity, and better integration with modern platforms.
