The backward and forward compatibility of Delphi is simply legendary. Few languages and libraries, if any, can match Delphi’s backward and forward compatibility and stability, which can make even decades-old software run perfectly on the latest version of the Delphi IDE.
With a backward compatibility rate close to 100%, Delphi offers developers the luxury of knowing software they have built will run forever, and can be successively updated and modernized without the headaches that plague software written with other programming languages.
Where some other frameworks and their owners consider backward compatibility to be “bad for sales” and prefer to force migration to new products and tools, Embarcadero and Delphi have resisted this and preserved backward compatibility as a core characteristic of the language, as well as a point of pride.
It’s also worth noting that backward compatibility has never been a limiting factor for Delphi, as the product is consistently improved through frequent version updates to align with evolving requirements and implement feature requests and quality updates.
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Backward Compatibility And Software Migration
This distinguishing characteristic of the Delphi language and libraries provides long-time developers with a unique advantage, which is the opportunity to:
- Implement upgrades and migration with a near-zero risk of breaking the product or a component
- Migrate a software product without having to update the core design and functionality from scratch, without time-consuming upgrades and cost overruns
- Easily extend the reach of an existing tool to new platforms with minimal financial outlays and time spent
- Avoid the high costs that prevent the timely modernization of software products, causing loss of market share to competitors
- Take full advantage of the modern extensions every new release brings to market
In fact, an app built with Delphi 15, 20, 25 years ago can be updated to support Windows 11 today, and today’s Windows 11 app can be easily maintained to work with Windows 20 in 2040.
With this level of continuity over time, software built with Delphi preserves the user experience and protects customer loyalty over time, also greatly reducing the need for customer support and troubleshooting after software updates, leading to a reduction in support and maintenance costs for you.
Are You Ready for a Software Upgrade?
Is your software business ready for a modernization? It’s time to consider updating your Delphi, C++Builder and RAD Studio IDEs to make them ready for modernizing your apps if:
- Your products are looking out of date, and customers are noticing
- You’re ready to modernize, but are worried about breaking your apps
- Customers are demanding features you’re not in a position to provide
- You want to extend your apps to web, mobile or desktop but are limited by the current version of your toolset
Landmark Release
RAD Studio 12, quickly followed by 12.1 in April of 2024, is a landmark release with a bumper collection of new features and quality improvements thanks to the continuous development of RAD Studio.
The latest version of RAD Studio comes with:
- Faster, easier coding productivity with split editor views, improved CodeInsight, and real-time views of VCL styles
- Improved VCL and FireMonkey libraries for stylish designs for mobile and Windows
- Deeper integration with Visual Assist for C++Builder, and modernized C++ compilers and toolchain
- Support for latest platform versions, like iOS 17, Android 14, macOS Sonoma, Ubuntu 22 LTS, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022.
Need a Modernization Assessment?
Migrating to the latest version of your IDE is about leaving zero room for missed opportunities.
Migration and modernization projects are always unique. The best way to assess your readiness for a software modernization and toolset upgrade is to have a chat with one of our experts.
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Beautiful
Happy you found the article an enjoyable read Erik
My 15 years old applications are still running with very big smile on my customers faces… Long live Delphi.
Indeed Abdulaziz!
I still compile my flagship software product on RAD 12. It started with C++ Builder 1 by 1997.
That’s amazing Antonio! Would you like to share the link to your product?
If I could have upgraded my Crystal Reports from Delphi 7 I would have done so years ago but seemingly impossible
Hi Jeff, the problem there is that SAP purchased Crystal Reports and many years ago narrowed down their support for integration. Unfortunately, we can’t control what SAP do. 🙁
It is possible to integrate later versions of Delphi with CR but it’s not straight-forward. I’d recommend looking at one of the many other reporting options such as Fast Report.
There is still code that I wrote in the 90’s in applications we are still developing and deploying to this day. The other day, I had to make a very small change to a legacy project that has not been compiled since 2002. I had to update a dependency on a third party component it used, and other than that it built perfectly! Also @JeffD I too miss sweet sweet Crystal reports integration! We have Delphi 5 running in a VM just to support a few legacy projects that still use CRW. FastReport is an excellent modern option though. We use it for new development.
Yes Crystal Reports was at the very cutting edge back in the ’90s and early Naughties. I worked on hundreds of reports written with it as part of a role I had back then. I’d love to see something released which would allow compatibility to be developed again but I fear that’s not likely since SAP have their own direction in which they want to take things.
The important core of my present product on RAD Studio 12.1 for MacOS, iOS, Windows and Android is about 800 lines of code that was written in Turbo Pascal 2 and run on an Osborne 1 computer in 1982.
Holy moly! That’s one heck of a history to your product!!! I’m used to hearing people who first released on Turbo Pascal (I did myself, too) but an Osborne 1 was an excellent computer for its time and the fact your app started out on there and still runs to this day with the very latest version of RAD Studio with Delphi is totally epic. 🙂
My POS software was first installed in the year 2000 and is still running. The latest version was compiled in 10.2. My application uses QuickReport, and its no longer supported for versions above 10.2
Hi Thooloon – I have some good news for you – QBS Software, the company that owns QuickReport, have versions available now for RAD Studio 12 and lower. They had a period stagnation after their main developer for QuickReports passed away unexpectedly but they tell me they have a new development team in place and have now brought QuickReports up to date.
Greetings from the Czech republic, I had been using QuickReport for years but I switched to FastReports in 2007 and since then, it’s still better and again. I can highly recommend also FastCube as a great analysis and business intelligence tool with bunch of great features and minimum needs toward user/programmer. Long live Delphi!
Hello Ian, – I have enjoyed – and participate in – the praises of the longevity of Delphi. I bought my Osborne 1 in 1983 after a years in the US, and learned Pascal. Then developed my first Horse nutrition software when Delphi became available. There is still some code in the current version of the PC-Horse program we are selling. I am on 12.1 now. So far so good.
In June we upgraded a 100,000 line app from BDS2006 to Delphi XE2. It took a couple of weeks to harmonise our BDE2006 and XE2 common libraries and remove some foreign language character work around code from the BDS2006 app source code. But now everything works great and we have a full native foreign language character implementation. Now our two business apps are on the same XE2 platform and share all of our common libraries. Some of our common libraries were developed in Delphi 7 more than 20 years ago. We are still 12 years behind so maybe will upgrade again soon.
Our product was started in 1998 with Delphi 1. A software for billing heating costs. Today, the entire infrastructure of a measuring service is mapped and developed exclusively with Delphi. Two different web front ends with TMS Webcore and Unigui. Client software, server processes and Android apps for assembly.
And you won’t believe it. The client, which was developed with Delphi 2, can still be compiled in a VM under Windows XP and runs perfectly on Windows 10 systems.
And in our free time, we do little experiments with games like this:
https://www.sqlmanagement.de/tmstest/TMSShooter.html
Use Keyboard oder use it like a PWA on your Phone.
Just an experiment, not perfect, with bugs. Built on a weekend at a private game jam.
But it shows that you can do things like this even without JavaScript knowledge. 🙂