UPDATE: The problem was that I was using Delphi 10.2.2 build 1978. Apparently I have missed an update in December 2017 to build 2004. I have downloaded and installed the new version, and now the patch worked fine.
I hereby apologize for being stupid, because it clearly says in the description:
This patch for RAD Studio 10.2.2 (build 2004 — it won’t work on build 1978) resolves some compatibility issues in the RTL and fixes a problem with Android animations. It is designed to be installed only on top of an existing RAD Studio 10.2.2 Tokyo installation.
(emphasis mine)
I was so sure to be running the latest version that I didn’t even check. Sorry about causing so much fuss.
I’ll leave the rest of the blog post unchanged just in case anybody is googling for some of the key words and to remind me to check first and complain later.
After I reported the problem with the Delphi 10.2.2 February 2018 Patch, Embarcadero first removed the download and has now released a new installer. Unfortunately this new patch might have solved some other problems, but it didn’t solve mine. I did a complete uninstall of Delphi 10.2.2 (I even removed all directories and files that the uninstall left behind) and a new installation from my DVD followed by applying the new patch. I could still not compile GExperts and the simple test program I described in the steps for the bug report did not compile either. (Guess what: Embarcadero apparently never actually tried to reproduce my problem, but the ticket was closed anyway.). I don’t know what exactly they think they fixed, but they didn’t fix the problem I reported which is:
RAD Studio 10.2.2 Tokyo February 2018 Patch breaks “Link with rutime packages”
- Create a new VCL project
- Open project options
- Select Packages -> Runtime Packages
- Set “Link with runtime packages” to true
- Close dialog with OK
- Compile the project
-> Error
Today I tried to find out what the problem was and how to fix it. It turned out to be actually quite simple:
They updated the packages rtl.bpl and fmx.bpl together with their corresponding .dcp files. Since the .dcp files contain some versioning information the packages that use these packages (e.g. vcl.bpl which uses rtl.bpl) were no longer compatible with the new packages and the compiler complained about this.
So, the fix for this would be to recompile all the packages depending on rtl.bpl and fmx.bpl, but since I don’t have all the sources required for that, I couldn’t do that (but Embarcadero should).
What I did instead was replacing the .dcp files in libs\win32\debug and libs\win32\release with the .bak files that the Patch created. Afterwards, GExperts compiled again. And since probably the interface of the bpl files didn’t change, I don’t expect any problems. But of course, I can’t guarantee this. So, if you follow my example, you might still run into problems and, No, I won’t fix your computer. 😉