Delphi Versions and Features

What is Delphi ?

Delphi is an Integrated Development Environment for console, desktop, web and mobile applications. It was originally developed by Borland as rapid application development tool for windows and as the successor of Borland Pascal. But now it is maintained and improved by Embercadero Technologies. Delphi uses Object Pascal language which is a high-level, compiled, strongly typed language that supports structured and object oriented design for develop applications that supports Windos 32 bit / 64 bit, linux, mac OSX, IOS and Android platform.

Why the name Delphi ?
As explained in the Delphi Museum article, project code named Delphi started in mid 1993. When it came time to pick a retail product name, after an article in Windows Tech Journal about a product that will change the life of programmers, the proposed (final) name was AppBuilder. Since Novell released its Visual AppBuilder, the guys at Borland needed to pick another name; it became a bit of a comedy: the harder people tried to dismiss "Delphi" for the product name, the more it gained support. But later Delphi has remained a cornerstone product for Borland.

From start to now Delphi was released with several versions. And every version some new features are introduced. As a Delphi developer I have never got a chance to work very old Delphi versions. I have started from Delphi 7 and now working on Delphi XE7. But I think we should have knowledge about old versions and their features.

Delphi 1 (1995)

• Introduced on 1995 by Borland Software Corporation as a Rapid Application Development tool for Microsoft Windows platform. 
• It supports 16 bit windows. 
• Delphi 1 extended the Borland Pascal language by providing object oriented and 
• Provides Form and control based approach, extremely fast native code compiler, visual tools and database support.

Delphi 2 (1996)

• Delphi 2 released on 1996 by Borland Software Corporation to provide support for 32 bit Windows. 
• New QuickReport component is introduced.
• Variant Type, longstring type support
• Visual Form inheritence
• Improved DbGrid and OLE Automation

Delphi 3 (1997)

• Delphi 3 released on 1997 by Borland Software Corporation
• New VCL components added like ToolBar
• TDataset architecture separated from BDE, 
• DLL debugging, 
• The code insight technology
• Component packages, component templates,
• DecisionCube 
• TeeChart
• WebBroker
• ActiveForms

Delphi 4 (1998)

• Delphi 4 released on 1998 by Borland Software Corporation. 
• Delphi 4 introduced docking, anchoring and constraining components. 
• Additional improvements were method overloading, dynamic arrays
• Windows 98 support
• High performance database drivers
• CORBA development,
• Microsoft Back Office support

Delphi 5 (1999)

• Delphi 5 released on 1999 by Borland Software Corporation. 
• Concept of Frames added
• Parallel development, translation capabilities, enhanced integrated debugger
• XML Support
• ADO support

Delphi 6 (2000)

• Delphi 6 released on 2000 by Borland Software Corporation. 
• Delphi 6 added the support for cross-platform development – thus enabling the same code to be compiled with Delphi under Windows and Kylix under Linux. 
• Support for Web Services
• Support for DBExpress Engine

Delphi 7 (2002)

• Delphi 7, released in August 2002 by Borland Software Corporation and became the successful version used by more Delphi developers because of its stability, speed and low hardware requirements.
• Delphi 7 added support for Windows XP Themes
• Added more support for building Web applications with Intraweb

Delphi 8 (2003)

• Delphi 7, released in December 2003 by Borland Software Corporation was a .NET -only release that compiled Delphi Object Pascal code into .NET CIL but it was Delphi 8 was highly criticized for its low quality and its inability to create native applications (Win32 API/x86 code). 

Delphi 2005 (2005)

• Included the Win32 and .NET development in a single IDE
• Includes design-time manipulation of live data from a database
• Added for...in loop statement like foreach in c#
• The ability to compile native windows applications (*.exe) was added back into Delphi 2005

Delphi 2006 (2006)

• In late 2005 Delphi 2006 (Delphi 10, Borland Developer Studio 4.0) was released and combined development of C# and Delphi.NET, Delphi Win32 and C++ (Preview when it was shipped but got stable in Service Pack 1) into a single IDE

Delphi 2007 (2007)

• Delphi 2007 the first version was released on March 2007 by CodeGear which was a separate unit of Borland Software. 
• enhancements to the Visual Component Library for Windows Vista theme
• introduced DBX4 as the next version of dbExpress

Delphi Prism (2008)

• Delphi Prism was developed by RemObjects Software and distributed by Embarcadero from 2008 to replace Delphi.NET. 
• It is a combination of RemObjects's mostly Delphi-compatible .NET compiler (without RTL or VCL), a version of the Microsoft Visual Studio Shell without C# or VB support, and some Embarcadero technologies such as dbExpress. 
• Prism is cross-platform capable insofar as it supports the Mono .NET libraries.

Embercadero Delphi 2009 (2009)

• Released on 2009 starting by Embercadero Technologies after CodeGear is acquired by Embercadero.
• Added full Unicode support to VCL and RTL Delphi
• Added generics and anonymous methods for Win32 native development
• Support for .NET development was dropped 
• New Ribbon Controls and Improved Datasnap 2009 introduced

Embercadero Delphi 2010 (2009)

• Released on August, 2009 and is the second Unicode release of Delphi by Embercadero
• It includes a new compiler Rtun-Time Type Information (RTTI) system, 
• Support for Windows 7 direct 2D, touch screen and gestures, 
• A source code formatter, debugger visualizers and the option to also have the old style component palette in the IDE

Embercadero Delphi XE (2010)

• Released on  August, 2010 with Delphi support for Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure were bundled by Embercadero
• Built-in Source Code Management
• Built-in Cloud Development (Windows Azure, Amazon EC2)
• DataSnap Multi-tier Development

Embercadero Delphi XE2 (2011)

• Released on  September, 2011 by Embercadero
• Added support for native 64 bit Windows platform along with 32 bit
• New Firemonkey platform is introduced to develop single code based application for Widows, MAC, IOS
• New improved VCL components provided to develop Windows applications
•  Extend multi-tier DataSnap applications with new mobile and cloud connectivity in RAD Cloud

Embercadero Delphi XE3 (2012)

• Released on  September, 2012 by Embercadero
• Added support for WIndows 8 platform
• Can develop Metropolis applications for windows 8
• IOS application was dropped 
• But provided support for MAC OSX with Firemonkey 2
• Improved Firemonkey Style Designer
• Added new VCL themes for windows application
• Visual LiveBinding introduced for easy databinding with controls.

Embercadero Delphi XE4 (2013)

• Released on  April, 2013 by Embercadero for Mobile application development support
• Delphi XE4 is the first release of the Firemonkey mobile platform, featuring cross-platform mobile application development for the IOS Simulator and IOS Devices.
• Embercadero introduced 2 new compiler Delphi cross Compiler for IOS Simulator and Delphi cross Compiler for IOS Device
• New style designer for Windws VCL and Firemonkey framework
• FireDAC a data connection framework is introduced that support native connection for all type of database.
• Firemonkey Sensor function support for location. orientation with new sensor components

Embercadero Delphi XE5 (2013)

• Released on  September, 2013 by Embercadero for Android Mobile application development support
• Added support for Android application development support running Gingerbread (2.3.3-2.3.7), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3-4.0.4) and Jelly Bean and also for IOS 7
• IBLite database for android with unlimited deployment license

Embercadero Delphi XE6 (2014)

• Released on  April, 2014 by Embercadero
• It allows to create natively compiled apps for all platforms for both desktop and mobile
• Added support for develop application for wearable devices
• Database Explorer for FireDAC
• In-App purchasing and In-app Advertising support

Embercadero Delphi XE7 (2014)

• Released on  September, 2014 by Embercadero
• Added Bluetooth and App Tethering function to enable windows applications to communicate with mobile application.
• Added support to build new, modern apps that connect desktop and mobile devices with gadgets, cloud services
• Multidevice application development support
• Added new FIreUI for mobile applications
• New UI styles for VCL and Firemonkey