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613

answers:

3

I used to work in Delphi 6, and got very used to having CodeRush's various helpful IDE additions. Many are now in the IDE itself, or I've managed to replace with something else, but the one feature I REGULARLY find myself wishing I had in Delphi 2007 still, is the ability CodeRush had that added little "connecting lines" between components that were linked to each other (lines showing the connections between TDataSets and TDataSources, for instance).

Does anyone make something that does that in the newer Delphi IDE?

=== * LATER NOTE / Clarification * ===

Andreas is correct in his comments below... "I don't think that he meant structural highlighting which works on the source code. He wants "connection lines" between components in the form designer."

He also says "as far as I know there is no such tool for Delphi 2005 or newer".. which is a bummer if true. (...and if that IS the case, what's the best place to make Delphi IDE feature requests?)

A: 

You want Castalia, which works fine here on my D2007 for structural highlighting. Castalia from Twodesk

mj2008
I don't think that he meant structural highlighting which works on the source code. He wants "connection lines" between components in the form designer.And as far as I know there is no such tool for Delphi 2005 or newer.
Andreas Hausladen
+1  A: 

another freeware/opensource option would be to look at CNPack which supports structural highlighting and runs well in Delphi 2009. The library contains many other enhancements to the IDE also, some which are duplicated in other packages such as GExperts. I run both CNPack and GExperts in both 2009 and 2006 without any problems.

skamradt
He doesn't ask for structural highlighting. He asks for "connection lines" between components in the form designer, not the code editor.
Andreas Hausladen
+2  A: 

I don't think it exists. The best place to make form designer feature requests is here.

Craig Stuntz
I'm sad to say, I think this is the correct answer (and yes, I was referring to visual links/lines on the form designer itself). Thanks for the link to feature request though.FWIW, this was a GREAT feature for helping keep track of connections/dependencies at-a-glance.
Jamo