RAD Studio 12.2 Released

Embarcadero Technologies
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

September 12, 2024

Austin, Texas - Embarcadero Technologies Announces Release of RAD Studio 12.2 Athens, including Delphi 12.2 and C++Builder 12.2.

Embarcadero announces the official release of RAD Studio 12.2, including Delphi 12.2 and C++Builder 12.2.

The 12.2 release comes five months after the 12.1 release and 10 months after the release of RAD Studio 12, which set a new historic benchmark for the popular IDE.

Subsequent releases 12.1 and now 12.2 have built on the foundational new capabilities of the RAD Studio and have taken application development to new heights using core feature improvements, customer feedback and feature requests, and new technological milestones like Generative AI as a springboard for product development.

According to Delphi Product Manager Marco Cantù, the 12.2 release is packed with benefits that position the release far beyond an incremental improvement on RAD Studio 12.

From Web development with the new WebStencils template library to building extra large Delphi applications with 64-bit versions of the compilers, from the new feature complete and high speed Clang-based C++ compiler and toolchain to LLMs integration offering online and offline options for using AI in the IDE, RAD Studio 12.2 is not just a regular update, it's a massive new release. And along with these new features, it comes with a very large focus on quality, addressing many top voted customers requests.

Here are the most important features Delphi 12.2, C++Builder 12.2 and RAD Studio 12.2 are making available to users.

Smart CodeInsight: AI Powered Coding

Leveraging AI LLMs for coding is becoming increasingly popular and the quality of these tools is getting better. For this reason, RAD Studio 12.2 introduces an open architecture for AI plugins, offering ready-to-use support for three online solutions (OpenAI, Gemini by Google, and Claude by Anthropic) and one offline solution (Ollama).

This architecture offers multiple goals: everything is optional and disabled by default; RAD Studio makes available multiple providers and lets users choose which to enable, including a locally installed, offline solution for maximum privacy. With Smart CodeInsight, users decide whether and how to use AI, and can even create additional plugins for their preferred solution, as long as it offers a public REST API to invoke.

64-bit Version of Delphi Windows compilers (Delphi)

RAD Studio 12.2 includes the 64-bit binary version of the Delphi Win32 and Win64 compilers, offering the ability to build extremely large applications as a single executable, given the 64-bit memory space of the new compilers. These new compilers are currently available from the command line and from the IDE when using external compilation.

Given the focus on customers with very large codebases, the 64-bit binary version of the Delphi Win32 and Win64 compilers are only included as part of the Enterprise and Architect editions.

Notably, the new C++ Clang compiler has been a 64-bit binary since its release in RAD Studio 12.0.

In fact, C++Builder Product Manager David Millington is very excited about the improvements to the toolset in 12.2.

C++Builder 12.2 is the pinnacle to date of our ongoing focus on C++, with world-class parallel compilation speeds. The new Windows 64-bit toolchain is a full replacement for the legacy toolchain, and joins modern C++, world-leading technology, and the benefits of C++Builder's fast UI and app development practices.

Runtime Packages, Compile Speed and More for the Modernized C++ Compiler and Toolchain (C++Builder only)

Following the release of the new Clang-based C++ compiler for Win64 in RAD Studio 12.1, the new update adds significant features to the new C++ toolchain, including consumption and production of runtime packages, support for all RAD Studio component packages, parallelized CPU-saturating batch compilation (with support for the --jobs parameter) giving incredible compile performance, and an extensive focus on quality for the compiler and RTL libraries. As in previous 12 releases, the older C++ Win64 toolchain remains available alongside the new one.

C++Builder Visual Assist Integration (C++Builder only)

Visual Assist integration in the IDE has been expanded with new features including three new refactorings: Introduce Variable, Create From Usage and Extract Method. In addition, there are significant quality and stability improvements.

Editor Enhancements: Focus Mode and Scrollbar Annotations (RAD Studio)

There are times when developers don't want to be distracted by many IDE panes and features when writing code. The new RAD Studio Focus Mode accomplishes that: it leaves the IDE with the editor panel(s) only, so users can avoid interruptions. Another very useful feature is the new scrollbar annotations: the editor scrollbar shows at a glance the sections of the code that have been modified, have bookmarks, have errors or warnings, and much more.

The product team has also focused quality improvements on the recently introduced Split Views, plus the IDE Toolbar and HighDPI.

This is what Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate Ian Barker has to say about Focus Mode:

Pro user power-ups like focus mode tidy away every distraction so you can focus on what matters most: your code. Combine that with the new, much-requested split views function, toolbar thumbnails and code completion, which displays in whatever editor theme you have created make RAD Studio look, feel, and work your way

WebStencils Template Library (RAD Studio)

RAD Studio version 12.2 introduces WebStencils, a server-side script-based integration and processing of HTML files to the WebBroker and RAD Server technologies. This flexible feature empowers you to develop modern websites based on any JavaScript library, powered by the data extracted and processed by a RAD Studio server-side application. It gives users the freedom to create websites that suit your unique needs.

Looking to build a navigational or an interactive website? With a brand new integrated template library called WebStencils, powerful database access, easy integration of Bootstrap but also HTMX (or any other CSS and JavaScript library of your choice) the new RAD Studio includes a great solution for high performance data-driven web development.

Delphi Product Manager, Marco Cantù asks

WebStencils' main goal is to help with navigational websites by adopting web technologies (WebBroker, DataSnap, RAD Server) and providing server-side scripting. For instance, you can use WebStencils to generate HTML pages with standard tools and adopt any CSS and JavaScript libraries while retaining the ability to add data from the generated pages coming from the Delphi or C++Builder application, like the result of a database query.

Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate Ian Barker is confident RAD Studio users interested in web development will find the new template library an impressive and welcome addition:

When you see WebStencils being used by someone who really knows all the features to create jaw-dropping, modern, responsive, gorgeous web content, you will want to try it out for yourself too.

In addition, WebStencils can be a good foundation for HTMX as a web development solution. HTMX pages benefit from server-side code generation and hook into REST servers for content updates. Delphi web technologies offer page generation and REST APIs at a very high quality level.

Improved Mobile Development and External Libraries Linking (Delphi-only)

RAD Studio 12.2 has significant improvements for Delphi mobile development, for both iOS and Android. To better support Apple platforms, we have updated the linker to the most recent version, so that it's now possible to link iOS static libraries written in Xcode, like for example Firebase iOS SDK.

In terms of Android support, to give our customers more control over the packaging and deployment, we added options to Compress Dex files and Compress native library files in the toolchain in the Android Project options. In addition, for Android, the targetSdkVersion of the Android manifest file can now be configured in the Project Options dialog. We have also added the ability to import Android libraries ('.aar' files), which works, for example, with the Facebook SDK for Android and Firebase Analytics.

Quality Improvements: Debugger (RAD Studio)

We have several improvements in the various RAD Studio debuggers. Most notably, the Delphi debugger will now correctly handle repeated inline variables with the same name. We've also improved the debugger error handling and the remote debuggers communication timeouts.

Embarcadero Chief Developer Advocate Ian Barker draws attention to just how much quality work is done with every release, including 12.2.

In this release we have addressed hundreds of areas of improvement in quality and performance. Increasing quality, including those little improvements I think of as "quality of life" items is as essential as any new feature. We know RAD Studio is a tool that shapes your working day and makes your code come to life. Improving on quality improves your day, that's why it's important to you and us too.

Quality Improvements: Delphi LSP (Delphi-only)

The Delphi Language Serve Protocol engine powering CodeInsight has been expanded with core groundwork and a focus on better resolving and navigating symbols, including symbols in the class interface, including fields, local constants and variables, and forward type declarations. We addressed many requests including some related to Delphi multiline strings. In addition, RAD Studio 12.2 includes a 64-bit version of the DelphiLSP engine, which offers better support for large codebases, having no memory limits. As with the 64-bit versions of the Delphi compilers, this feature is only available in the Enterprise and Architects editions.

Quality Improvements: Delphi RTL, VCL, and FireMonkey (RAD Studio)

RAD Studio 12.2 has dozens of improvements to the core Delphi RTL and to both the VCL and FireMonkey UI libraries. Worth calling out are the new TParallelArray and TOrderedDictionary classes of the RTL; VCL quality work around frames scaling, FormsTabBar, styling issues, and High DPI issues; FMX intensive quality work for many areas, with additional focus on edit controls on mobile.

Quality Improvements: RAD Server (RAD Studio)

Besides the WebStencils integration, which adds Web development to the Web Service development capabilities of RAD Server, in 12.2 RAD Server extends the Swagger Documentation support with custom metadata, API filtering, YAML format, and Delphi multiline string literals.

How to Find Out More

For more information contact Embarcadero through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio page on the Embarcadero website.

About Embarcadero Technologies

Embarcadero builds tools that solve productivity problems for application developers. The company's products allow users to design, build, and run applications from a single code base across all platforms. Ninety of the Fortune 100 companies and a community of more than three million C++ and Delphi users worldwide rely on Embarcadero's award-winning products to deliver critical enterprise applications. Embarcadero is a division of Idera, Inc.

To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.