Delphi and C++Builder 10.3.2 benefit from a snappy, performant IDE, and other IDE tweaks
In RAD Studio 10.3.2, we had a particular focus on IDE quality. Back in November, we introduced a new look and feel for the RAD Studio IDE. Overall this was welcomed, and we’ve had a lot of feedback (direct via email, in person at conferences, via social media, or via QP.) Many of the benefits (clear layout, keyboard focus clearly indicated, etc) improve the feeling of using the IDE. However, we did have feedback about a number of items, and we’ve heard you and focused on those in 10.3.2.
Quality
RAD Studio has had over 400 customer-reported issues fixed, one of the largest numbers in any release! Among these are improvements to the IDE. Some specific areas we focused on are:
- Toolbar behaviour: you should find that toolbars remain where you placed them
- Resizing, especially minimizing and maximising the IDE
- Changing layouts (eg when starting to debug, and the IDE changes to the Debug Layout)
- Behaviour of the controls in the title bars, such as search boxes in the IDE main window and Options dialogs
- and more.
If you encountered issues with any of the above, install 10.3.2 – it addresses all of them.
Performance
We also focused on some specific actions, including:
- Toggling between code and design view
- Changing layouts (and this is important because it happens automatically every time you debug)
- Opening projects
- Changing IDE theme
We focused both on drawing artifacts (such as flicker) and also on performance, so how long it takes for each of these operations to complete. In 10.3.2, these are all much faster and visually smooth.
Here are some short animated GIFs demonstrating the speed of various operations in the IDE. You can click on these for a larger view:
Toggle between Code and Design
Changing desktop layout to/from Debug
IDE performance in general should feel quick, responsive, snappy, and performant. We’ve had some really good feedback about this since the 10.3.2 release, with very positive reception.
RAD Studio 10.3.2 came out very recently (mid-July), and it’s had great feedback on the features, changes and improvements. Here’s how to install!