What is the best set of development tools to develop Win32 Delphi applications? Include support tools such as automated build servers and modelling software. It would be interesting to get a list of the best tools for Delphi development so please provide a brief description of the tool, state why you use it, why you selected it over alternatives and the impact it has had on your development process. One tool per post please so te more popular and hopefully more useful ones filter to the top. I will update my answer below with my opinion of the tools we use here when I get some time.
A:
Welllll.... the Delphi IDE would probably be a good place to start. What other Delphi-specific tools are you looking for?
DannySmurf
2008-09-15 15:31:44
+14
A:
IDE Delphi 2007 Professional (soon to be Delphi 2009)
Automated Build Server FinalBuilder 6
Unit testing DUnit
Code profiling AQTime
Installer creation InnoSetup
Help file management Help & Manual
Code modeling and design ModelMaker 9
Code formatting Jedi Code Formatter
Source Code Management Subversion and TortoiseSVN
Issue tracking Jira
Bug reporting and logging MadExcept
File comparison and merging Beyond Compare
Object persistence framework tiOPF
UI testing ???
Code documentation ???
Luke CK
2008-09-15 15:37:08
He did say 'one tool per post'!
Richard A
2008-10-30 04:04:22
MarkF
2009-07-22 12:34:29
About Code documentation, I'd recommend our GPL tool, available from http://synopse.info/fossil/wiki?name=SynProject
A. Bouchez
2010-10-20 10:14:14
+6
A:
GExpert, adds several new features to the IDE: http://www.gexperts.org/
Delphi IDE Keyboard Shortcuts: http://delphi.about.com/od/adptips2005/qt/editorshortcuts.htm
Delphi online documentation: http://docs.codegear.com/
Delphi IDE / Tortoise SVN integration http://delphiaddinfortortoisesvn.tigris.org/
JEDI VCS: Delphi oriented open source VCS system: http://jedivcs.sourceforge.net/
Code documentation : Doxygen ( http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/ ) + Pas2Dox filter( http://sourceforge.net/projects/pas2dox/ )
Trac, Project management, Issue tracking, Wiki, Subversion web UI: http://trac.edgewall.org/
Bitten, Continuous integration: http://bitten.edgewall.org/
Pierre-Jean Coudert
2008-09-15 16:07:25
A:
The ones I use are:
CnPack. Ide Enhancements
FinalBuilder. Automated Build tool
Jamie
2008-09-15 17:51:09
+2
A:
IDE: Delphi 2009
Automated Build: FinalBuilder 6, if you don't have the budget, go for WANT tool.
Unit testing: DUnit
Code profiling: AQTime
Installer creation: InnoSetup
Code modeling and design: ModelMaker 9
Source code versioning: Subversion
UI testing: TestComplete
Code documentation: Doc-O-Matic
Ali
2008-09-16 03:54:00
A:
A lot of good suggestions so far.
I would add the following
GExperts - IDE Integrated tools www.gexperts.org
ModelMaker Code Explorer - Great for additional refactoring amongst many other things http://www.modelmakertools.com/
CodeSite - Great debugging tool http://www.raize.com/DevTools/CodeSite/Default.asp
VirtualTreeview - Good Free Tree component once you get your head around how it works http://www.delphi-gems.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=38
I have to agree that FinalBuilder and MadExcept are both essentials as far as I am concerned.
There are also many great component suites around, TMS, DevExpress, etc..
dcraggs
2008-09-16 09:17:58
+2
A:
Delphi Speedup if you're not already on D2009
DDevExtensions gives you a few extra tweaks in the IDE
FastMM Included in the IDE from D2006 and up but you have more options if you run it youself
FastCode Highly optimised versions of some RTL and VCL functions
Marius
2008-09-16 09:28:41
+1
A:
I don't yet have the ability to add "comments", so I'm adding this as an answer: it was suggested by Joel Spolsky that such questions would be best phrased as "one tool per answer please" - this would allow voting on individual development tools, thus is more likely to give you a list, in order of popularity, of the best tools to have.
Graza
2008-09-16 12:09:48
+2
A:
Pascal Analyzer (Proprietory) Tool for code analysis & improvement, including warnings (such as ambiguous references), possible optimisations, identification of potential memory leaks (useful as most mem reports only show paths actually taken during a test), repeated string literals (that may be best as consts), unused units in uses clauses, convention compliance, and the list goes on....
Graza
2008-09-16 14:00:12
+8
A:
GExperts - (FOSS) Integrated IDE tools (Already mentioned, but well deserving of further explanation). Features most used by myself include integrated grep search (which can include use of regular expressions) with a nice UI, code navigation (ctrl-g for quick search and jump to any method in unit), custom key combinations (eg you could set ctrl-shift-B to Build-All), ascii chart for any installed system fonts,
Note: FOSS - Free Open Source Software
Graza
2008-09-16 14:06:44
+1
A:
AQTime is also a good code profiler. Provides function and line use metrics to give a developer a clue to where all the processing time has gone.
Ray Jenkins
2008-09-16 22:06:18
I thought this was one of the features of AQTime which is made by AutomatedQA, who also make TestComplete. Is code profiling in TestComplete as well?
Luke CK
2008-09-17 05:45:43
+3
A:
Component Set (propietary): DevExpress QuantumGrid Suite
Component Set (Free): JEDI and JCS
IDE Experts: GExperts
Version Control System: JVCS/Free VCS
Exception Trapper/Log: EurekaLog
Localization Suite: siComponents of TsiLang
Neftalí
2008-09-18 10:09:12
+3
A:
IDE enhancement Model Maker Code Explorer
I know this is repetition, but it needs to be in an answer on its own. This is my number 1, can't do without, desert island tool.
Richard A
2008-10-30 04:12:36
Stolen from 'desert island disks', etc. I can't tell you the oldest usage of the term, but I'm sure you could google it. :) Happy New Year.
Richard A
2008-12-31 00:02:35
A:
Static code analysis is important. Especially if you work with someone else's code.
I like CodeHealer, which is great for flagging critical and otherwise difficult to locate problems.
Bruce McGee
2008-11-14 16:04:33
A:
Concerning Unit Testing, there is now a DUnit2 project.
It supports Delphi 2009 and brings some improvements over DUnit.
Edit
Just found another project, DUnitLite with extended syntax over DUnit.
Pierre-Jean Coudert
2009-07-22 11:43:30
+2
A:
DevExpress VCL components. Brilliantly simple to use and good-lookin' - aesthetics is a feature in itself.
Darius
2009-07-22 11:50:16