VSoft Technologies Blogs

In December 2019, I about a package manager for Delphi that I have been working on. This post is a progress update that shows where it's at and what's left to do to get to v1.

We use many third-party Delphi libraries to build FinalBuilder and Automise, and that brings plenty of issues when upgrading compiler versions. I've been using Delphi since 1995, both as a user and as a component vendor, I have learned a thing or two about creating libraries that I would like to share.

Back in Feb 2019, I blogged about the need for a Package Manager for Delphi. The blog post garnered lots of useful feedback and encouragement, but until recently I could never find a solid block of time to work on it. Over the last few weeks I've been working hard to get it to an mvp stage.

Delphi/Rad Studio desperately needs a proper package/library/component manager. A package manager provides a standardized way of consuming third party libraries. At the moment, use of third party libraries is very much adhoc, and in many cases this makes it difficult to move projects between machines, or to get a new hire up and running quickly. Other development eco systems, like Ruby, .net and Javascript, recognised and solved this problem many years ago. Getting a Ruby, .net or Javascript project up an running, in a new working folder or new machine is trivial.