For many Delphi developers, the use of the IDE Fix Pack from Andreas Hausladen has been a must have tool dating back to the Delphi 2009 release. The extra speed it provided simply made it difficult for them to upgrade their version of Delphi unless a new version of his Fix Pack was released (which he did for every release up until 10.3.)
As mentioned in an Embarcadero blog post, they reached a licensing agreement with Andreas and started to integrate several items from his Fix Pack into RAD Studio 10.3. With the recent release of 10.4.2, most of the IDE Fix Pack improvements are now in place. Quality Portal issues like RSP-30910 can finally be closed!
While you may not notice any improvements in small projects as Delphi’s compiler has always been pretty darn fast, for large projects there can be a significant speed increase achieved in compiling performance simply by upgrading your 10.4.1 projects to 10.4.2. Of course, it must be emphasized that the changes from Andreas were typically made to handle very specific use cases, so no absolute guarantee can be made of increases in your particular scenario. However, considering that he is no longer supporting his IDE Fix Pack tool for new releases, upgrading to 10.4.2 is definitely your best path forward. Besides, now the changes are officially supported and tested by Embarcadero which was a limiting factor to some. (I have been using Delphi for a very long time and I never used the IDE Fix Pack myself for commercial use.)
All told, the RAD Studio 10.4 Sydney Update 2 includes over 30 improvements from the IDE Fix Pack. As stated in their release webinar, some customers are reporting up to 90% reduction in compile time compared to 10.4.1.
Combining the IDE Fix Pack with all the other IDE improvements included with 10.4.2 makes this a must-have release. Many Delphi developers have a favorite historical release such as Delphi 7, 2007, or XE2 which they remain loyal to year after year and simply refuse to change - to which I respond: With all the improvements Embarcadero has been providing to RAD Studio over the last few years, Delphi 10.4.2 easily kicks your old version’s butt. It is time to get off yours and upgrade! And, as it happens to be Delphi’s 26th Birthday, there is a nice discount available if you purchase a new license or upgrade. Check out their specials page for the latest details!
