Delphi 2007 RTL in Delphi 7

I read somewhere that it is possible to use Delphi 2007's (or for that 
matter Delphi 2006's) RTL in Delphi 7 by just recompiling the source of RTL.

Is this really possible? What are the benefits that we can derive using 
a higher version's RTL?

TIA

Yogi Yang

Yogi Yang wrote:

> I read somewhere that it is possible to use Delphi 2007's (or for
> that matter Delphi 2006's) RTL in Delphi 7 by just recompiling the
> source of RTL.

If it actually compiles in Delphi 7, I guess it would be possible.
OTOH, if one has Delphi 2007 already, I don't see the point <g>

-- 
Dave Nottage [TeamB]

Dave Nottage wrote:
> If it actually compiles in Delphi 7, I guess it would be possible.
> OTOH, if one has Delphi 2007 already, I don't see the point <g>
We don't have Delphi 2007. But while surfing I can across an article on 
a Chinese site. The gist of this article was that one can easily use the 
RTL of the latest version of Delphi in older versions by just compiling 
the source of the RTL.

I was surprised to read so thought I would clarify this fact here.

Thanks for your reply.

Yogi Yang

> {quote:title=Yogi Yang wrote:}{quote}
> Dave Nottage wrote:
> > If it actually compiles in Delphi 7, I guess it would be possible.
> > OTOH, if one has Delphi 2007 already, I don't see the point <g>
> We don't have Delphi 2007. But while surfing I can across an article on 
> a Chinese site. The gist of this article was that one can easily use the 
> RTL of the latest version of Delphi in older versions by just compiling 
> the source of the RTL.
> 
> I was surprised to read so thought I would clarify this fact here.
> 
> Thanks for your reply.
> 
> Yogi Yang

And in those Chinese sites you will find "lite" versions of Delphi 7 SE (so called "second edition") which offer the option to install 2007 RTL. I have tried that option once, sometimes it does work. Most of the time the compiler will complain that xyz unit was compiled with a different version of system dcu ... especially if you don't have the source code for an unit.

So it is possible, and it has been done already. But is it feasible? That depends on you.

Yogi Yang wrote:
> I read somewhere that it is possible to use Delphi 2007's (or for that 
> matter Delphi 2006's) RTL in Delphi 7 by just recompiling the source of RTL.
> 
> Is this really possible? What are the benefits that we can derive using 
> a higher version's RTL?
> 
> TIA
> 
> Yogi Yang


Interesting; Call me sentimental, but despite all the hard work delphi7 
IDE is IMO better and faster than any of the new BDS series (bloated, 
crashes, little help etc), having the new 2007 rtl and vcl improvements 
in delphi7 would fix a lot of issues. If codegear would support and sell 
this i would buy it without hesitation.

> {quote:title=Marius . wrote:}{quote}
> Interesting; Call me sentimental, but despite all the hard work delphi7 
> IDE is IMO better and faster than any of the new BDS series (bloated, 
> crashes, little help etc), having the new 2007 rtl and vcl improvements 
> in delphi7 would fix a lot of issues. If codegear would support and sell 
> this i would buy it without hesitation.

I completely disagree (except for your mention of the BDS help, which is still not quite up to par; it's getting better, though).

I find Delphi 2007 to be extremely stable (I've had one crash in the last year that I can remember, and I'm pretty sure it was my fault). It's just as fast, the new IDE is actually considerably more productive (see below), and the editor and VCL/RTL improvements are tremendous. 

As far as the "considerably more productive", the Code Completion, Code Insight, and Code Templates alone are great timesavers. Add in the improved usability of the Component Palette (Ctrl+Alt+P, start typing the name of the component you want; the palette does an incremental search as you type, reducing the visual components to those that match what you're typing. Get to the one you want and press Enter, and it's on your form) and the new IDE runs circles around Delphi 7's.

The only advantage to Delphi 7 now would be the floating windows instead of RAD Studio's docked ones, but there are two things to consider about that as well:

1. RAD Studio can be configured to appear almost exactly like D7 (except, of course, for the component palette).

2. If you have dual monitors, there's no need. Debugging is actually better; you set your debugging desktop to be on your secondary monitor, and your application to run on the primary. You can see what's happening in your app while stepping through the code on the second monitor. It makes things much easier that way. (D7 can, of course, be used this way for debugging as well; I only mention it because this ability makes the need for D7's floating window layout less.)

Ken White wrote:
>> {quote:title=Marius . wrote:}{quote}
>> Interesting; Call me sentimental, but despite all the hard work delphi7 
>> IDE is IMO better and faster than any of the new BDS series (bloated, 
>> crashes, little help etc), having the new 2007 rtl and vcl improvements 
>> in delphi7 would fix a lot of issues. If codegear would support and sell 
>> this i would buy it without hesitation.
> 
> I completely disagree (except for your mention of the BDS help, which is still not quite up to par; it's getting better, though).

There has been enough said about the help :( For us every BDS release 
has been a disapointment. 2005 was a joke to begin with, 2006 was a AV 
machine, 2007 had other problems and 2009 looks promising (but it needs 
"some" fixes).

> I find Delphi 2007 to be extremely stable (I've had one crash in the last year that I can remember, and I'm pretty sure it was my fault). It's just as fast, the new IDE is actually considerably more productive (see below), and the editor and VCL/RTL improvements are tremendous. 

Yes, stable it was, like all delphi products it had some acceptable 
crashes and problems. For us the main problem was it was impossible to 
work with large projects and that "large file problem" was never solved 
satisfactory IMO&AFAIK. I estimate only a hand full of developers hit 
this problem so i guess you should be happy it worked out for you. After 
update pack 3 we decided never to look at 2007 again because of the 
"slow" IDE.

> As far as the "considerably more productive", the Code Completion, Code Insight, and Code Templates alone are great timesavers. 

D7 had the same productivity stuff you mention so i miss the point (sure 
they might have been improved). I do know that in BDS those options 
repeatedly halt the IDE for anything between 5 to 60 seconds. (certainly 
no fun in large projects, with smaller projects there are no problems, 
but what the point in having an IDE which cant work with large projects 
like ~250k loc)

So far delphi7 has beat any BDS IDE with the same project(!) and that is 
the main reason for us in wishing the 2007 rtl/vcl into 7. I guess a lot 
of developers would presumably agree on this one, but hey, this is just 
a wish, i can understand CG in wanting to sell new stuff instead of 
doing "fixes" in old ones, but they might consider it if nicely asked ;)

> Add in the improved usability of the Component Palette (Ctrl+Alt+P, start typing the name of the component you want; the palette does an incremental search as you type, reducing the visual components to those that match what you're typing. Get to the one you want and press Enter, and it's on your form) and the new IDE runs circles around Delphi 7's.

They should have done that 10 years ago ;-) The old one was only 
practical for a few tabs, imagine having jedi or any other large third 
party installed with ziljon of components and tabs ;)
I have little use for it as i have my own component lookup form since 
delphi 5 (i build the same into lazarus ide) which works approx the 
same, it just doesn't have the icon candy.