How to update Delphi

What is Delphi exactly? How does it work? And how to update Delphi in the correct way? Are you working with an application which has been developed in Delphi 5, 6 or 7 or another outdated Delphi version and are you reaching the limits of the development environment? Or does your application no longer work properly on for example Windows 10?

If you are facing (one of) these problems, it makes sense to upgrade to the latest version of Delphi. Read more and get started. Or contact us right away and talk to one of our experts. They are happy to help you!

What is Delphi exactly?

Delphi is also known as Embarcadero Delphi or Pascal. It is a quite old programming language, but since Delphi 1 it includes an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). A lot of companies still use old versions of Delphi applications, since it has been there for a long time. When (national as well as international) companies need to renew or upgrade their Delphi application, they come to GDK Software. How to update Delphi is particularly complicated. So, they are making the right move by contacting us. We employ many good Delphi programmers.

Why would you update your Delphi application?

There are many diverse reasons to update Delphi. Not only is the IDE much nicer to use, but various language improvements have been made as well. Moreover, applications can be used on many different devices, such as mobile phones (iOS / Android), Windows, and Mac. Additionally, it could be that older versions of Delphi are increasingly causing error messages. «Our users had to restart the old Delphi application up to five times a day, and response times also increased,» says Ailsa Hunt from the New Zealand organization Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC). «That could no longer continue.» After the hundreds of Delphi applications were updated from Delphi 5 or 7 to the latest version, the problems disappeared like snow in the sun.

I want to update Delphi myself, is that possible?

The short answer is yes, but it heavily depends on the size of your application and your team’s experience with legacy codebases. If your application is relatively small, uses mostly standard out-of-the-box components, and you have experienced Delphi developers on hand, doing it yourself is absolutely achievable.

However, migrating a legacy Delphi application (especially from version 5, 6, or 7) is rarely as simple as opening the old project file in the latest IDE and clicking «Compile.» There are massive structural shifts between old and modern Delphi that trip up even seasoned developers.

If you decide to tackle the upgrade internally, these are the major technical hurdles your team will need to solve:

• The Great Unicode Divide: In Delphi 2009, the language switched from 1-byte ANSI strings to 2-byte Unicode (UTF-16) strings. If your legacy code performs direct memory manipulation, pointer arithmetic, or uses specific byte-lengths for Windows API calls, it will break. Your team will need to audit the code to replace functions like SizeOf(Char) or refactor old string-handling logic to prevent silent data corruption.
• The Ghost Towns of Third-Party Components: Older Delphi apps often rely heavily on third-party VCL (Visual Component Library) packages for UI elements or data grids. Many of the companies that built those components went out of business a decade ago. You will need to hunt down modern open-source alternatives or spend significant time rewriting your UI layer to use native components.
• The Death of the BDE (Borland Database Engine): If your app still uses the BDE to talk to databases like Paradox, dBase, or early SQL Server, you hit a hard stop. The BDE is completely deprecated and unstable on modern 64-bit Windows. A DIY upgrade requires manually ripping out the BDE layer and rewriting your database logic using FireDAC, Delphi’s modern database framework.
• Moving from 32-bit to 64-bit Architecture: If you want your app to leverage modern computing power, you’ll want to compile for 64-bit Windows. This requires tracking down and refactoring any embedded assembly code (asm blocks) and ensuring any external third-party DLLs your app calls have 64-bit versions available.
• High-DPI and Modern UI Crashing: Older applications look incredibly tiny or completely distorted on modern 4K monitors. Modern Delphi has excellent High-DPI scaling, but retrofitting a layout built in 2002 to scale smoothly across different screen resolutions takes meticulous manual tweaking of forms and alignments.

Upgrading yourself is entirely possible if you treat it as a dedicated software development project rather than a minor weekend task. If your team has the runway to systematically hunt down compiler errors and rewrite legacy infrastructure, it’s a great way to keep full control over your source code.

How to update Delphi?

In case we are upgrading your Delphi application to a newer version, we start with an initial analysis of the software. Thanks to this quick scan, we can unravel the source code. We answer questions like:

• Which components are used?
• Are there any risks in upgrading or updating to a new Delphi version?

You will get the results of this analysis within three business days. After the analysis, we discuss our findings and present our plan of approach on how to update Delphi. In doing so, we take various factors into account. Such as, do you have your own developers working on the application? What is the desired lead time? You will then receive a tailor-made offer and we will get to work. Let’s start updating your Delphi application!

Why GDK Software?

With our years of experience, we know how to update Delphi to the latest version (currently Delphi 11). We achieve this with a conversion tool that we have developed ourselves. This allows us to perform a faster conversion, during which the development of your application can continue.

At GDK Software we are very proud of our Delphi specialists. Our Delphi programmers also work on their own projects and they keep on innovating. They build clever apps that take work off your hands.

We share a passion for software development and love to keep up the momentum. For us, there is no such thing as standard software, only tailor-made challenges.

Let us help you to realize your ambitions

Do you have a Delphi challenge and are you looking for expertise or capacity? Our experts and developers are ready to realize your ambitions and goals. We gladly help you with new development, upgrade and maintenance of your Delphi application. Want to know more about how to update Delphi? Read more. Or contact us directly!