Category: dzBdsLauncher

I just released dzBdsLauncher 1.0.9.

If started with a .bdsproj file, it will now not just assume that a .dpr file must exist but will check for it and if it does not exist, will try for a .dpk file.

I just released dzBdsLauncher 1.0.8. It now, in addition to the already existing checks, will also examine the full filename of a .groupproj file for hints on the Delphi version.

E.g. it will correctly determine the following file names to mean Delphi 2009:

• UnitTestsGrp_BDS2009
• UnitTestsGrp_D2009
• UnitTestsGrp_Delphi2009
• UnitTestsGrp_RS2009

It also examines the directories that contain the file, e.g.
d:\source\MyProject\packages\2009\MyProjek.groupproj .

I just released dzBdsLauncher 1.0.7. The only change is support for detecting .dproj files created by Delphi 11 (these have a ProjectVersion of 19.3).

I just released dzBdsLauncher 1.0.6. The only change is support for detecting .dproj files created by Delphi 10.4.2 (these have a ProjectVersion of 19.2).

I revisited my dzBdsLauncher tool again – no idea why, it just occurred to me 😉 – and added quite a few improvements:

• It now supports .dof (Delphi 6 and 7) and .bdsproj (Delphi 2005 and 2006) files.
• In addition to the previous checks it now also looks at the disabled packages list to determine which Delphi version to start. That’s the only option for Delphi 2005 and 2006 because these files are nearly identical.
• It can now also handle .dpr files by looking for corresponding .dproj, .bdsproj and .dof files (in that order) and taking these to determine the correct Delphi version.

As a side effect I found a problem with the Delphi 10.1 version of the GExperts .dproj file. It had a wrong ProjectVersion entry.

The latest version of dzBdsLauncher can now also handle some .dproj files with invalid ProjectVersion entries (e.g. those generated by project JEDI which apparently uses ProjectVersion 17.3 for all Delphi versions >XE8). It does this by evaluating the DllSuffix entry, if one exists. This can also help solving conflicts if the ProjectVersion is not unique.

In addition the tool can now also open .grouproj files. It handles them by inspecting the first project listed in the file.

Another small improvement is colored diagnostic output to help troubleshooting if something goes wrong.

See the main dzBdsLauncher page for download links.

dzBdsLauncher tries to solve the problem of accidentally opening a Delphi project with the wrong Delphi version. The latest version 1.0.2 now also detects .DPROJ file from Delphi 10.3.3. See the dzBdsLauncher page for details.

dzBdsLauncher tries to solve the problem of accidentally opening a Delphi project with the wrong Delphi version. The latest version 1.0.1 now also reads the .DPROJ file to determine the Delphi version. See the dzBdsLauncher page for details.

As I work with multiple Delphi versions on the same computer it happens frequently that I simply double click on a project and the wrong IDE starts. It then either tells me that the .dproj file format is invalid (if it was created with a later version) or it updates an older file format to the format which that IDE uses.

While I solved this problem for projects which only get compiled with a particular Delphi version by using a batch file, this fails when a project is in the process of being migrated to a new version. In that case there will be one .dpr file and two or more .dproj files for that project. e.g.

• myproject.dpr
• myproject.2007.dproj
• myproject.xe2.dproj
• myproject.10-3.dproj

Where the suffix tells me which Delphi version to use. It is actually a nice feature of the IDE that there can be multiple .dproj files for a given .dpr file.

Unfortunately there is no easy way to just double click on one of the .dproj files to open it in the correct IDE.

Enter dzBdsLauncher:

It’s a simple tool that I register as the default program for .dproj files. It checks the file name passed to it for a suffix, and automatically starts the correct IDE for it.

It reads the executable name of the installed bds.exe from the registry, so it does not need any configuration.

It does not work if there is no suffix. In that case, you simply double click the .dpr file instead of the .dproj file. If I find the time I will enhance it to check the .dproj file for the Delphi version that created it and start the correct IDE based on that. Unfortunately this is more complex than you’d think.

The source is here on OSDN.