Note: The list of features includes the newly-released RAD Studio 11.3 Alexandria.

RAD Studio 11 Alexandria was a landmark release in many respects. From the support for High-dpi 4k screens to VCL styles visibility at design time and more powerful compilers targeting the latest platform versions, RAD Studio 11 set a new benchmark for what could be achieved with the world’s first and single multi-native app development platform.

Since then there have been another three releases, RAD Studio 11.1, 11.2, and the newly-released 11.3. All have built on the capabilities of 11, enhancing existing features or introducing new ones (like the iOS simulator for Delphi).

To help you evaluate how far RAD Studio has come with the 11, 11.1 and 11.2 Alexandria releases, we compiled a list of every new and enhanced feature contained therein. For a complete list of features that come with the latest version, 11.2, please download the Feature matrix here.

INTEGRATED COMPILERS AND TOOLCHAINS

Delphi native compiler and toolchain for macOS ARM 64-bit (dccosxarm64).

Delphi compiler and toolchain for iOS Simulator on ARM 64-bit macOS (dcciossimarm64).

 

LICENSING

Earlier version licenses included in network licenses (Delphi 2007–10.4, C++ Builder 2007–10.4). Delphi 7 and C++Builder 6 available separately PROFESSIONAL only.

Access to licenses and downloads for earlier versions with purchase of standalone product licenses (Delphi 2007–10.4, C++Builder 2007–10.4, Delphi 7, and C++Builder 6).

 

APPLICATION PLATFORMS, INTEGRATED FRAMEWORKS, DESIGNERS AND SDKS

Support for Linux server-side and standalone applications for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 18.04 LTS, RedHat Enterprise Linux v8, WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

Support for Linux client-side applications using the bundled FMX Linux library.

FireMonkey Application Platform for creating 32-bit Windows applications and 64-bit Windows applications for Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 7 (SP1+); Windows Server 2022, 2019 and 2016.

FireMonkey Application Platform for creating 64-bit macOS applications for Intel and ARM CPUs (M1), that run on macOS 13 Ventura, macOS 12 Monterey, 11 Big Sur and 10.15 Catalina, including support for universal binary.

FireMonkey Application Platform for creating iOS ARM 64-bit applications for iOS 16 (Delphi only), iOS 15 and iOS 14.

New Delphi iOS Simulator support for ARM 64-bit macOS.

FireMonkey Application Platform for creating native Android ARMv7 applications for Android 13, 12, 11, 10, Pie (9.0), Oreo (8.1).

FireMonkey Application Platform for creating native 64-bit Android ARMv7 applications for Android 13, 12, 11, 10, Pie (9.0), Oreo (8.1).

VCL (Visual Component Library) for rapidly building 32-bit and 64-bit applications for Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 7; Windows Server 2022, 2019 and 2016.

Windows MSIX package format deployment (providing support for deploying to the Microsoft Store), including the management of additional files, MSIX packaging and code signing automatically invoking the platform SDK. The Windows signing support in the IDE since 11.3 includes support for the time stamping of MSIX files. (This feature requires running RAD Studio on Windows 10 Anniversary Update or above).

Microsoft Windows SDK support for Windows 11, 10 and 7 APIs. Includes support for calling both classic Win32/Win64 APIs and enhanced support for WinRT APIs; required for the Windows App SDK (aka Project Reunion).

 

FMX APPLICATION PLATFORM (FIREMONKEY)

FireUI multi-device designer for visually building mobile and desktop applications and customize them at design time for different form factors and operating systems.

FireMonkey for Windows now uses the same DP model (rather than Pixel model) of all platforms, offering significant enhancement for the apps rendering on Windows HighDPI and 4K monitors.

Mobile Biometric Authentication component, called TBiometricAuth, which provides a means of authorization to use an application or some specific features via Biometrics (e.g., Face ID on iOS devices or Fingerprint on Android devices).

WebBrowser component for Windows, with support for both classic the IE ActiveX and the new Microsoft WebView 2 control (Chromium-based Edge).

In-app purchase component for iOS and Android, to help monetize your applications.

Phone Dialer Support for iOS and Android. Enhanced in 11.3 with a new IFMXPhoneDialerListenerService, implemented for Android. The service is intended for tracking changes in the state of the phone system service (Calls, Carrier, CallState).

Android solution Google Play Billing Library Version 4.

 

VISUAL COMPONENT LIBRARY (VCL)

VCL Form Designer to visually build native Windows applications, with live snap-to hints and layout guidelines.

TEdgeBrowser Component integrating Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge WebView2 component and changes to the TWebBrowser component to support both IE and Edge– now based on Microsoft release version of Edge WebView2 component and supporting custom cache folders. Now with improved support for the UserDataFolder and the ExecutableFolder configurations.

VCL TControlList control, a flexible and virtualized list control, designed as a high-performance control for very long lists and a modern look and feel. Added support for the selection of multiple items in 11.3.

TRichEdit Component updated to RichEdit 4.1 (MSFTEDIT.dll) with support for transparency, URL detection, spell checking, text attributes and more. Small enhancements to TMemo, TDBMemo, TGroupBox, TComboBox, TCoolBar, TNumberBox and other components.  TTreeView support for CheckBoxes. New TLabelDBEdit component, a data-aware version of the TLabelEdit component.

TTouchKeyboard a virtual keyboard for enhanced non-keyboard interface interactions that support multiple locales and languages, enhanced with better VCL styling support

Support for Windows Imaging Component (WIC) including JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, BMP, and HD Photo image formats. RAW camera formats (such as NRW, NEF, CRW, CR2, RW2, ARW, SR2, SRF, ORF, PEF, and DNG) also supported with manufacturer supplied codecs. Now with multi frame support.

Additional components including graphical buttons, image, shape, scroll box, splitter, buttoned edit, tabs, panels, action toolbar, and color map.

Windows common controls including page control, image list, rich edit, progress bar, date time, calendar, toolbar, tree view and list view. 

 

INTEGRATED BUILD TOOLS AND PROJECT SUPPORT

IDE support for building and managing projects for 64-bit macOS, for Intel and ARM (M1), including universal binary generation, macOS App Store support and integrated Apple Notarization support. 

IDE support for building and managing projects for 64-bit macOS, for Intel and ARM (M1), including universal binary generation, macOS App Store support and integrated Apple Notarization support updated in 11.3 to the new process Apple introduced in XCode 14.

Integrated installation of Eclipse Temurin JDK 11, required by Android SDK tools. 

Platform Assistant for deploying and debugging across platforms, including an updated macOS client (Delphi only).

Build Events for pre-build and post-build on project and file levels. Enhanced with security warnings.

 

C++ LANGUAGE AND CORE RTL FEATURES

Win32 C++ Clang-enhanced compiler (with C++ 17 language support).

Win64 C++ Clang-enhanced compiler (with C++ 17 language support). 

C++ runtime library (RTL) built with the updated Clang-enhanced compiler for Win32 and Win64, including 2018 edition of Dinkumware STL.

Improved C++ and Delphi code interoperability to assist using Delphi and C++ projects, including string_view support for Delphi strings, easy C++/Delphi string assignment, and string to/from conversion methods for common Delphi RTL types.

Support for using our C++Builder compilers to build CMake projects on the command line for Win32, Win64, iOS32, iOS64, and Android, including deployment support. 

Using C++ smart pointers (std::make_unique and std::make_shared) on Delphi-style classes. 

C++ RTTI compatibility with Delphi, with C++-compatible RTTI generated for Delphi types, including using typeid() on Delphi types. 

Updated edition of the Dinkumware STL with C++17 headers for Win32 and Win64.

 

RECENT DELPHI LANGUAGE AND CORE RTL FEATURES

Binary literals and digit separator support. Inline assembler support for AVX instructions (AVX-512). 

Predefined helpers for core types such as string, char, integer, other ordinal types, and floating point types. Now also for TDateTime and Currency data types.

RTTI for indexed properties and RTL support, plus invoking methods using open arrays.

 

SHARED RUNTIME LIBRARY FEATURES

Delphi and C++ RTL for 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows. 

Delphi RTL for macOS 64-bit (Intel and ARM M1). 

Delphi and C++ RTL for Android, with support for Android API level 32. Previously we added support for the new “AndroidX” libraries.

Native zip file support. TZipFile class now has a callback to use during the extraction process to know the current progress, support added to extract ZIP files with passwords. Now with Zip64 support and additional features.

Regular Expressions (Regex) library, now supporting PCRE UTF-16 on Windows. PCRE is now compiled with JIT enabled for faster regular expressions execution.

System.NetEncoding RTL unit for Web encoding and decoding (Base64, HTML, URL, Base64URL). 

NetHTTPClient and NetHTTPRequest components, offering easy access to the HTTP client framework, now with HTTP / 2 protocol version support.

 

INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPER PRODUCTIVITY

The RAD Studio IDE is now high-DPI enabled (using perMonitor v2 Windows configuration). All primary forms and panes have been enhanced, with new high-DPI enabled icons and toolbar button images, smooth IDE and editor fonts, and a full high-DPI experience. It remains possible to run the IDE in low-DPI, classic mode.

Both the VCL and the FireMonkey designers have been enhanced to fully support designing applications in high-DPI. The VCL designer offers multiple configurations and options for improved compatibility.

VCL styles preview in the designer offers the ability to design VCL forms using styles and enabling per-control and per-form styling. This feature is now enabled by default.

Edit the code for and design a form for the same form at the same time in multiple windows, including moving the designer between windows.

The IDE title bar shows when the process running elevated, as administrator.

Completely redesigned and VCL-based Welcome Page, offering rapid access to commonly used features, including recent and favorite projects, GetIt and YouTube feeds, patches notifications. The layout of the Welcome Page is highly configurable, offers background images, and supports adding custom frames with a new ToolsAPI. 

IDE support for Markdown documents, including Markdown preview, and a VCL-based HTML preview (replacing the Internet Explorer based one).

New FireMonkey designers guidelines and designer hints (component hints and position hints).

New Delphi Code Insight implementation (based on the Language Server Protocol architecture) for including Code Completion, Parameter Completion, Error Insight, Find Declaration, and Tooltip/Help Insight. Enhancements include support for include files, better lifetime management of the agent processes, numerous fixes, and increased performance. The classic engine has been removed.

New Help Insight implementation, based on customizable XSLT and CSS configurations and displayed in a VCL-based HTML view

C++ Code Insight implementation (based on the Language Server Protocol architecture and cquery) has been significantly improved in terms of quality and performance. This support was already part of the special 11.1.5 release and includes the ability to better customize the cquery LSP behavior.

New C++ code formatter based on clang-format, including the ability to format as you type and several predefined formatting styles.

Support for using Delphi LSP in Visual Studio Code and other external editors.

Enhanced editor tabs, including the ability to use different, customizable colors for the tabs of files of different types and more options for the close button.

Editor ability to highlight matching words. This feature allows you to see instances of the same word you have selected, or the cursor is currently in, highlighted on the screen.

Styled IDE UI, including ability to toggle and disable IDE styling and support for a dark style. The IDE has a Light theme based around the blue color, a Dark theme and a third Mountain Mist theme. Since 11.2 it’s possible to also use a custom VCL style.

The Messages view uses different colors for compiler errors, messages, and hints to better highlights issues (the colors can be customized).

GetIt Library Manager with support for updates, sort by date, subscription only packages, cached images, and an updated UI. Further enhancements include a filter by language and the introduction of Local GetIt Packages*.

Install experience based on the GetIt architecture; with the ability to select the platforms to install and add more platforms later from the IDE (which has a Platforms Manager option in the Tools menu). New features include upfront language selection and custom catalog repository folder, plus a faster parallel download and installation supporting unattended, silent installation both in online and offline mode.

Code Formatter and beautification for source code including block formatting.

Command-line Code Formatter for integration with automated build processes, enhanced in 11 Alexandria with clang-format support for C++.

.clang-format C++ code formatter configuration file support to automatically format code following the per-project convention used by many open source projects, plus an Embarcadero style.

New IDE ToolsAPI for painting in the code editor and highlighting elements of the source code. This is a new foundation allowing developers to customize the editor.

 

INTEGRATED DEBUGGING

New debugger for C++ for Win64, based on LLDB 9, including formatters to evaluate common complex types like UnicodeString and AnsiString, C++ strings, vectors, deques, and more.

Debug remote macOS 64-bit applications (Intel and ARM). The Delphi macOS 64-bit ARM debugger is based on the LLDB debugger architecture, and in 11.3 the Delphi macOS 64-bit Intel debugger uses LLDB as well.

Remote iOS 64-bit device debugging.

Debugging of apps on iOS Simulator on ARM 64-bit macOS (based on LLDB debugger architecture).

Debug Android 64-bit apps on device. The Delphi Android 64-bit debugger is now based on the LLDB debugger architecture.

Remote Linux 64-bit debugging. The Delphi Linux 64-bit debugger is now based on the LLDB debugger architecture.

CPU view for low-level debugging, Starting with 11.2, the CPU View offers syntax highlighting.

 

FIREDAC MULTI-DEVICE DATA ACCESS LIBRARY

Improved FireDAC’s FDMonitor and FDExplorer tools.

Updated FireDAC Microsoft SQL Server driver, with support for the latest Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server (version 18).

Updated FireDAC MySQL driver, supporting MySQL v 8.0 and MariaDB v 10.6, MySQL Prepared Statements API, internal BLOB streaming.

Updated FireDAC SQLite driver with support for both static and dynamic linkage of SQLite engine. Includes support for SQLite SEE.

Updaed FireDAC Oracle driver to support v 19c and 128-character parameter names for Oracle Stored Procedures. Previous updates included, among many features, support for VARCHAR2, NVARCHAR2, and RAW data types up to 32K, native BOOLEAN in PL/SQL, 64-bit integers and unsigned INTs, identity / auto-increment columns, query change notifications, implicit ROWID fetching, implicit results, additional connection modes, network timeouts, and transaction state detection and synchronization.

Updated FireDAC Firebird driver to look for the driver in VendorHome. Previous versions included support for version 3.0.4 and Firebird embedded, including local connection protocol, FB$OUT package, support for long statements, little/big endian configuration in connection parameters, and support for new Firebird 4 data types.

FireDAC PostgreSQL driver enhancements for PostgreSQL up to version 15.1, specific performance improvements. Past updates included including support for PostgreSQL Stored Procedures, identity columns, macaddr8, password encryption and little/big endian configuration in connection parameters.

FireDAC PostgreSQL driver enhancements for PostgreSQL up to version 13, including support for PostgreSQL Stored Procedures. Past updates included identity columns, macaddr8, password encryption and little/big endian configuration in connection Parameters.

 

RAD SERVER

Freely, unlimited distributable*, limited-bandwidth, easy-to-deploy RAD Server Lite version (based on embedded InterBase ToGo database).

New TRESTRequestDataSetAdapter component to simplify uploading a TDataSet (like a TFDMemTable) to a server via JSON — for use with the

TRESTResponseDataSetAdapter component on the server side.

RAD Server (EMS) multi-tenancy support and console app for managing tenants configuration (on Windows and Linux).

 

WEBBROKER AND DATASNAP MULTI-TIER

WebBroker deployment support for Android.

The REST URI is configurable using a new mechanism, based on a TDSMethodMapEvent event.

 

INCLUDED DATABASES

InterBase 2020 Developer Edition – up to 20 users and 80 logical connections.

IBLite 2020 for Windows, iOS and Android with unlimited deployment license.

IBLite 2020 for macOS with unlimited deployment license.

Free InterBase ToGo Deployment License for mobile platforms.

 

CLOUD SUPPORT

AWS SDK for Delphi by Appercept*, with support for multiple AWS services, continually expanded over time.
* Available for download in the GetIt Package Manager (requires an active Update Subscription).

 

REST CLIENT LIBRARY AND BAAS

Authorization support including Basic Authentication, Plan Authentication, OAuth1, OAuth2. OAuth2 enhanced with automatic token refresh.

 

TEECHART CHARTING COMPONENT

TeeChart Standard components including chart, DBchart, and a rich set of different business graph types.*
* Available for download in the GetIt Package Manager (not included in Community Edition)