What is the fastest and most stable version of Delphi?

Question

In your experience, is one version of Delphi significantly faster and more stable then the rest of the versions. Provide specific examples when possible.

Answer 1

Most stable still is version 7. But I'm beginning to like 2009. Hopelfully the next version greatly enhances the stability.

Answer 2

I've used 5, 7 , 2006 and now 2007. I like 2007 the best by far. It's stable, and it's not any slower than D7 was back then.

Besides, the new language features like records-with-methods, inlining, for..in have enabled me to move to more 'abstract' data types without sacrificing performance. And I like 'strict private' and nested types. My current codebase simply wouldn't compile with older Delphi versions.

Answer 3

D2009 simply.
I liked D7 a lot but it was far from being stable and not that fast unless applying Delphi speedup.
The latest D2007 with all patches and Andreas's tricks is very good too. Actually, going back to D7 feels like a pain once you got used to the new features...

Answer 4

After the new memory manager was introduced with Delphi 2007 I really think Delphi 7 no longer wins the "faster more stable" argument. At least not enough to justify not having all the new features. Then with Delphi 2009 it is by far enough new features and speed to justify the new version. Using 2009 for a while and then going backwards is always painful to me.

A few of the features that I love about 2009 (some are a few versions earlier)

• Records with Methods
• Generics
• Anonymous Methods
• Strict Private
• class const, class types, class methods
• Refactorings
• Templates

Although Delphi 5 & 7 had the best help system. It is getting better though. I am optimistic.

Answer 5

Delphi 7 was a good version - It had a great help system with examples

Delphi 8 & Delphi 2005 – were unstable

Delphi 2006 - Is 80% stable but the help is very bad

Delphi 2009 - is a lot more stable than Delphi 2006 . It’s help file is better than Delphi 2006 But not as good as Delphi 7

Answer 6

I have to use D5 from time to time to maintain a project that uses an old component library - I'm always impressed by how quickly it starts and how stable it seems to be. But I miss so many little touches in the IDE, and within Delphi in general. As someone who has used (to earn a living) every odd-number version since the start, it amazes me quickly you come to take for granted things that got added to Delphi 'afterwards', and how much you miss those things when you step back down a version or 2.

Up until recently, my answer to your question would always have been Delphi 7 Enterprise, which along with EMS/Hitech database tools and either Interbase or SQL Server, was just a rock-solid development environment. Run it on 2000, XP or 2003 - it's been brilliant.

However, these days I'd have to say 2007 (I haven't used 2009 yet) - it's a little sluggish sometimes with very large projects but it works, and now that I use it for almost all of my work I can say that it's just as stable as D7 (possibly more so).

I'm looking forward to having the chance/finances to move a few of my projects up to D2009.

It's difficult to offer specific examples but I would say that D3 and D5 used to require significantly more restarts than D7 ever did (for me). There were many occasions in D5 where we'd have to kill the Delphi process with task manager because it got itself upset and confused, stuck in a loop of IDE/compiler error messages etc. Delphi 7 has required a fair few restarts too, but as that's the version I've used for longer than any other, it's hard to put that into proper context for comparison. I don't believe I've ever restarted D2007 yet, although there have been a few times when the IDE has appeared to die on me for a moment or two before coming back to life in a flurry of queued-up activity. :-)

Answer 7

I have used every version except 8. Delphi 2009 is the best, hands down except for the help. Copy the help files from D7 and you are good to go. I get annoyed using D2007 now.

Generics! Smart pointers!

I don't see the point of using an older version than I have to. The only reason I can think of for not using D2009 is the upgrade pain.

Answer 8

I have experience with Delphi 5 and 7 Enterprise, which I use at my work and 2006 Turbo which I use at home.

Delphi 5:

It's been a while since I used it, it's a great IDE, Delphi 7 is just an evolution of Delphi 5.

Delphi 7:

I like Delphi 7 the most, although it gives a lot of Access violations when working in the IDE, but I suspect that our code is causing it :). The help file is great, it's pretty fast (with Delphi Speedup) and the interface feels less bloated then Turbo Delphi 2006.

Turbo Delphi 2006:

It looks nice, although I like the interface of Delphi 7 a little more. It has refactoring, which is a big plus in comparision to Delphi 7. A big no no is of course the help file, that thing is just terrible, when I search for a string, why do I have to choose between C++, .net, Javascript or whatever language? I'm using Delphi! Another thing that annoyed me that code completion was falling over the line

FMultiArray: array of array of Integer;

Somehow it expected an extra ";", changing it to an array of TIntegerDynArray worked.

Answer 9

Delphi 2009. Yes, I loved D7 but I wouldn't now go back.

Answer 10

Definitely agree with TheArtTrooper. D7 and D2009. D2009 is getting back to the good days of Borland at last. Brian

Answer 11

We are still using D5.

Answer 12

Definitely D2009.

Though its new language features (generics, etc) has many bugs, but old functionality is very fast and reliable. I've encountered very few crashes so far. Can't say this for D7. Apparently I cann't return to D7 already - missing so many features of new IDE. BTW, I launched it recently - and I was scared by its "old-school" look :D

But help in D2009 can be a lot better, really ;)

BTW, there is a very nice expert by Andreas, which allows you to compile your code by using D2007 (or any other) compiler (i.e. ANSI) from D2009 IDE and vice-versa (haven't tried it, though). That way you can get a newest IDE, but still produce code, compatitible with older Delphi versions (of course, you still need both Delphi versions installed).

Answer 13

I'm currently developing in D2007 and find it fairly stable - It does crash from time to time - but not enough to make me feel the need to save every 2 minutes. I've played with D2009, but not sufficiently for me to be able to make a credible comment. D2007 is certainly better than D2006. I would think that D2007's stability is very close to that of D7 (close enough that I can't tell), but it is a significantly more productive environment.

Answer 14

Definitely D2009 :)

Answer 15

Everybody is sleeping here :P

I think Delphi 2010 is the best now