AI;DR - for those who can't be bothered. Note to self (so I can find it again if I need it): I just spent an embarrassing amount of time debugging a problem that compiled without errors, produced no warnings, and simply didn't work at runtime. The culprit? Delphi's smart linker silently optimizing away code that … Continue reading Delphi Class Constructors and the Smart Linker: A Silent Trap
Category: Delphi
Fixing GExperts Code Formatter Bugs with Claude Code
Over the past few weeks I have been using Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding assistant, to fix long-standing bugs in the GExperts Code Formatter. The results have been impressive - bugs that had been open for years were fixed in a matter of hours, including some that I had hesitated to tackle because of the … Continue reading Fixing GExperts Code Formatter Bugs with Claude Code
GExperts Reverse Statement Expert: Now with Configurable Regex Rules
The Reverse Statement expert in GExperts has received a major upgrade. Previously, it could reverse simple assignments and swap a small set of hardcoded function pairs. Now it uses configurable regex-based rules that you can customize to match your own coding patterns. What Does Reverse Statement Do? When you press Alt+Shift+R in the Delphi IDE, … Continue reading GExperts Reverse Statement Expert: Now with Configurable Regex Rules
GExperts Code Formatter: Align Assignment Operators
The GExperts Code Formatter can already var blocks, const blocks and single line comments at a configurable column position. The latest addition brings the same capability to assignment operators (:=) in regular code as suggested in this feature request (Yes, I do read those.) How It Works When enabled, the formatter pads the space before … Continue reading GExperts Code Formatter: Align Assignment Operators
GExperts: Sharing Identifier Casing across Experts
The GExperts Uses Clause Manager (UCM) has always parsed the identifiers exported by all units in the search path. It uses this information for its own purposes, like showing you which unit to add to your uses clause when you type an unknown identifier. But that parsed data just sat there, unused by any other … Continue reading GExperts: Sharing Identifier Casing across Experts
GExperts: The Dialog That Ate My Screen (and How I Finally Fixed It)
If you've been using GExperts' "Edit Unit Search Path" dialog on a multi-monitor setup with mixed DPI scaling, you may have noticed something odd: The dialog gets a little bigger every time you open it. Not dramatically - just enough to be annoying. Open it ten times and it's noticeably larger. Open it twenty times … Continue reading GExperts: The Dialog That Ate My Screen (and How I Finally Fixed It)
Exploring DelphiLSP: A Small Experiment
Today I got curious about Embarcadero's DelphiLSP - the Language Server Protocol implementation that powers code intelligence in the Delphi IDE. I wanted to understand how it worked under the hood and whether it could be useful outside of RAD Studio. The result was DelphiLSP Tools, a pair of small Delphi applications: DelphiLspProbe is a … Continue reading Exploring DelphiLSP: A Small Experiment
GExperts 1.3.26 2026-02-07 released
The new GExperts version still supports all Delphi versions back to Delphi 6 (with the notable exception of Delphi 8) and even the Delphi 13 version is no longer in Beta state. There is also a 64 bit DLL to be used in the new 64 bit IDE of Delphi 13. And guess what? Dark … Continue reading GExperts 1.3.26 2026-02-07 released
Context-Sensitive Preview in GExperts Code Formatter Configuration
The formatter configuration dialog now shows context-relevant preview code when you switch between settings tabs. Previously, the same preview.pas file was shown regardless of which tab you were configuring. This made it difficult to see the effect of certain settings because the preview code didn't contain relevant examples. Now each tab loads its own preview … Continue reading Context-Sensitive Preview in GExperts Code Formatter Configuration
GExperts Win64: Enabling the Explicit Filter Expert
The GExperts 64-bit build just got a little more capable. The Filter Explicit Properties expert, which prevents the IDE from writing ExplicitLeft, ExplicitTop, ExplicitWidth, and ExplicitHeight properties to .dfm files, now works in the 64-bit IDE. Since Delphi 2006, the IDE has been adding these Explicit* properties to .dfm files. While they serve a purpose … Continue reading GExperts Win64: Enabling the Explicit Filter Expert