← Delphi
Delphi projects are full of component and library names nobody outside that world recognises. Below are the terms that turn up in a quotation or a handover file, with what each one is and what it means for maintenance and upgrades.
The language and the environment
- VCL
- The library of windows, buttons and grids almost every Delphi desktop application is built with. Windows-specific, which partly determines how easily an application can move to the browser.
- Unicode
- Since Delphi 2009 a string is Unicode by default. That is the hardest threshold when upgrading from an older version: everywhere characters were treated as bytes has to be reviewed.
- Lazarus and Free Pascal
- A free development environment and compiler that sit close to Delphi. Sometimes the better route, for instance when an application also has to run on Linux.
- Package and component
- Reusable building blocks installed into the environment as a library. In an upgrade each one needs a version that comes along.
What you meet in a project
- TMS WebCore
- An extension that runs existing Delphi code in the browser. The route to a web version without rebuilding everything.
- DevExpress
- A widely used set of interface components: grids, charts, editors. Actively maintained, so there is usually a version matching your target Delphi.
- FireDAC
- Delphi’s current database layer and generally the destination when the BDE or ADO is replaced.
- QuickReport and FastReport
- Reporting components. QuickReport is the classic stumbling block in an upgrade; FastReport is the usual alternative.
Not sure which components sit in your application? That can usually be derived from the project file. It is the first thing we map as a matter of course.
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