I have been travelling the world and on the web over the past three weeks showing developers our new 2010 developer tools for Delphi and C++Builder - Two weeks in Asia and last week on the Internet for CodeRage 4. Based on the face-to-face and Internet feedback, attendees have had great things to say about the work that the R&D team accomplished over the past year. Delphi 2010, C++Builder 2010, and RAD Studio 2010 have added important application development and database development features while continuing to make the IDE more productive than ever before. Here is a list of some of my favorite new IDE features (many of which you can see in action on the CodeRage 4 session replays).
IDE Insight - hit F6 or Control-Period anywhere in the IDE, start typing a command, component name, code template, function, menu item, etc and up pops a list of likely choices. Anywhere, anytime!
The Code Editor Gutter while debugging- you can drag and drop gutter icons used by the debugger. Want to move a breakpoint? Just drag it to a new line. Want to clone a breakpoint? Hold down the Control key and drag (copy) the breakpoint to another line. Want to change the instruction point, just drag the current execution pointer to another line.
C++ class explorer - fastest way to traverse through your classes, see the code, see references to a class, function, property, etc. Best way to view the graph hierarchy (you can save it to a SVG file). You can organize the tree view of classes and members by group (you can create your own), by namespace, and by file. You can make changes in the source code or in the C++ class explorer.
Delphi Refactorings are now supported for generics, attributes (new in the Delphi 2010 compiler), and parameters.
File | Reopen - you can now set and maintain the lists of the most recently opened projects and files. If any of the recent project and files were moved or don’t exist anymore, you can click a button to remove them from the lists.
Component Palette - you can have it your way! If you like the right hand side category panel of components you can leave the default palette settings. If you like the older Delphi/C++Builder palette that appears as a toolbar, you can right mouse click on the toolbar area and select the component toolbar. And you get the incremental search for components in the "old" component toolbar.
Code Formatting - use the Tools | Options new item to set code formatting options for Delphi and C++ editing. Once you’ve chosen the way you want your code to look, the code editor will follow your choices for statement and block completion.
Debug Visualizers - tired of having to look at references to data types, having to inspect the contents? The 2010 IDE now supports debug visualizers that show you selected data types in their "natural" format. Visualizers are included for TDateTime, TDate, and TTime classes (for Delphi and C++), C++ standard string class, and Delphi TStrings class. When variables of known types are included in the local variables, watch, and evaluate/modify windows you see the data in its natural format. There is an IDE API so that you can build your own debug visualizers. Stay tuned to EDN for an announcement of "The Great Debug Visualizers Contest.
Search (Control-F12) in the editor now creates a search box in the status bar area of the editor instead of popping up a modal dialog for search and search again. As you type text into the search box, matching text is highlighted in editor. All matching strings are highlighted and you can easily move from item to item.
Background compilation for Delphi and C++. In Tools | Options Compiler you can turn on background compilation and set the thread priority for the compiler. When you start a compile, a snapshot is taken of any open files in the editor and the comilation starts. You can continue doing other work in the IDE while you watch the message window for any errors, warnings, hints, and completions.
If you haven’t seen some of the new productivity and flexibility enhancements in our new IDE, you can
These are just a few of the new 2010 IDE features. Do you have your favorites? If you haven’t purchased Delphi 2010, C++Builder 2010 or RAD Studio 2010, now is the best time. Our buy one, get one free special offer ends September 24th.
Share This | Email this page to a friend