Delphi XE4 LIbrary Path - Delete Invalid Paths deletes critical data!

The Library path editing dialog in Tools Options has for some time now had a button called "Delete Invalid Paths".

screenshot:

http://i.imgur.com/Wzn7Ib8.png


The first item in this library path, in Delphi XE4, due to it being a multi-platform tool, is now more complex than before, it looks like this:

$(BDSLIB)\$(Platform)\release

However, it appears $(Platform) does not resolve within the context of this dialog box and so it appears grayed out. When users use the Delete Invalid Paths button to remove invalid paths (paths that do not exist), this will delete the most important path in the library path. No VCL application will be able to find its resource or DCU files anymore.

This is a pretty serious bug.  I'm posting it here rather than on QC because it doesn't seem to me that QualityCentral gets looked at much. nevertheless, I will post it on QC eventually.

This problem frustrated several developers where I work, because the presence of extra folders in the library path sometimes confuses the compiler, and removing those malformed items (by using Delete Invalid Paths) was helpful to them, but it also kills important information that should ALWAYS be in the library path.  

In my humble opinion you should just take this whole  $(BDSLIB)\$(Platform)\release part OUT of the Library path in the registry permanently, and make it implicit, or else have a new $(AUTOBDSLIB) environment variable that is easy to remember and which this dialog box does not ever permit to be removed.


Warren

FWIW -

<Warren Postma> wrote in message news:[email protected]
> However, it appears $(Platform) does not resolve within the context of 
> this dialog box and so it appears grayed out. When users use the Delete 
> Invalid Paths button to remove invalid paths (paths that do not exist), 
> this will delete the most important path in the library path. No VCL 
> application will be able to find its resource or DCU files anymore.

I believe you, and yours, are not the first to encounter this (back to at 
least XE2):
https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?threadID=61701

Warren Postma wrote:

> In my humble opinion you should just take this whole
> $(BDSLIB)\$(Platform)\release part OUT

Or install the latest IDE Fix Pack which fixes the bug by using the
platform that is selected in the option dialog, so it knows how to
replace the $(Platform) macro ;-)


-- 
Andreas Hausladen

Am 27.08.2013 17:54, schrieb Andreas Hausladen:
> Or install the latest IDE Fix Pack

This cannot be said often enough.


-- 
Uwe Raabe
Embarcadero MVP
Certified Delphi Master Developer
Uwe's Blog: The Art of Delphi Programming <http://www.uweraabe.de/>