Delphi 10.4 Sydney

Delphi 10.4 Sydney has all the right ingredients. From support for Android OpenJDK up to the soon to be required iOS Storyboard; it’s all there. The all new LSP adds syntactic sugar and the per control Windows VCL styling is the finishing touch.

For me the timely support for iOS storyboard is the winner, as Apple requires us to start using this on June 30th.

Support for Android OpenJDK is very cool, as this opens up the Android environment even more. Although you could already customize and modify just about anything in Delphi on Android (adding APIs and even CPU code), this makes it easier still.

And what about this LSP, the Language Server Protocol? We now have all kinds of syntax, code, class completion and what not in multiple LSP processes! This is also very open, allowing you to add your own. Most important for you as a developer, it’s asynchronous, so you’ll never lose keystrokes again, when code completion kicks in.

Starting from this release we now have the same classic unified memory model for all platforms. This means that you no longer have to write specific code for ARC (Automatic reference Counting) anymore, because its gone (except for strings and interfaces). If you’ve adhered to the CTFF (Create Try Finally Free) pattern on mobile platforms there is no need to change any code, if not, you may want to add a Free at some places in your source code.

Last, but not least, per control Windows VCL styling. It’s now possible to use multiple VCL styles in one application at the same time, even on the same form. This will allow you to mix and match your main VCL style with form specific styling to better match specific styling of certain third-party controls you can not VCL style themselves. Finishing touch indeed.

All features can be found right here: http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Sydney/en/What%27s_New

You can download Delphi 10.4 Sydney from the new customer portal here: https://my.embarcadero.com/#downloadsPage The online web installer and the offline ISO installer are now compatible with one another. The ISO file contains the files the web installer would otherwise download, so you can choose the method you prefer.

iOS storyboard support in Delphi 10.4

No worries, the iOS storyboard that Apple requires for iOS Apps starting June 30th is covered in the soon to be released Delphi 10.4.

The way you add a iOS storyboard is, as always in Delphi, very easy to use. Just head over to Project Options | Icons and reconfigure your launch images. Also set the new Dark and Light background, and you’re done.

The other requirements added by Apple may or may not mean you have to add or change some of your code. Please use the news item from Apple to review any necessary changes at https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=03262020b.

It’s good to know that everything we need for our iOS development is there, and, well, I just had to share this tiny bit of information. Thanks to Jim McKeeth for allowing me to share this with you before Delphi 10.4 ships.

Delphi 10.4 Coming Soon