Embarcadero is delighted to announce the General Availability of C++ IDE: C++ Builder & RAD Studio 11. RAD Studio 11 Now Available! This release introduces several new features, enhancements, and quality updates in key areas including:   

• Provision apps for Windows 11
• Compile for Android API 30
• Compile for macOS M-series (Apple Silicon) processors
• Design on high-DPI 4k+ screens
• View VCL Styles in design time
• New & modernized VCL components  
• Use enhanced remote desktop support to collaborate remotely 

RAD Studio 11 – Key New Features & Benefits

Key IDE New Features and Enhancements    

• RAD Studio 11 adds high-DPI support to the IDE: This improves daily developer activities with full support for the latest 4k+ monitors, with cleaner, sharper fonts and icons, and high-resolution support throughout the IDE windows including in the VCL and FMX form designers and code editor. You can now design your forms directly in high resolution.  
• VCL Styles add design-time support: Prototype stylish UIs even faster by seeing immediately at design-time how your styled forms and controls will look when running. 
• Multi-monitor and multi-window improvements: you can design and edit code for the same form at the same time in multiple windows, including ‘pulling’ the form designer from one window to another. This allows you to mimic the benefits of the old floating form designer in the modern IDE layout, including across multiple screens.  Welcome Page: Completely rebuilt with the VCL (removing browser dependencies), the new page has a native look and feel and a UI that fits the IDE, plus is easy for you to customize in layout and content. 
• C++ Code Formatter: Automate the layout of your C++ code using clang-format. Numerous Code Insight (DelphiLSP) improvements based on developer community feedback and requests.  
• Remote Desktop: Improved remote desktop support (for VCL and IDE).  
• FireMonkey design-time guidelines: Prototype faster with visual lines for moving and aligning controls (similar to the VCL), with enhanced margin and padding support.    

What other features? VCL Modernization!

• Rich Edit component updated: A new implementation removes XP dependencies and brings additional features into the TRichEdit control, including: URL detection, spell checking, background color and transparency.
• TreeView CheckBoxes: Support for CheckBoxes in TreeViews added, with each node supporting 3 states (Partial, Dimmed, Exclusion) to help customise the UI  
• New TLabelDBEdit component offering a data-aware version of the TLabelEdit for faster prototyping.  
• Large collection of minor VCL improvements including default form size and font, exception dialog copy button, Coolbar improvements, margins on Memo and RichEdit, Optional Group box frames and many more.    

What are the key FireMonkey platform enhancements in RAD Studio 11?

• Improved FMX High-DPI support for Windows and Desktop with a visibly superior desktop UI, driven by an updated scaling engine that has been moved from physical to logical coordinates.  
• Support for Microsoft’s WebView 2 control (Edge Chromium) in the WebBrowser component.  
• RAD Studio 11 supports the latest Android 30 API and latest Billing APIs, and also migrates to use the AndroidX libraries. 
• Android support for multiple classes.dex files, simplifying integration of external Android dependencies.    

What about target platforms and compilers?

• macOS 64bit ARM compiler and toolchain that includes building universal binaries for Intel/Arm AppStore submissions.  
• Delphi language support for binary decimals and digits separator.  
• C++ toolchain improvements include overhauled Delphi-style RTTI for C++ types (allowing compiling components with Clang), including using typeid on Delphi-style types; improved C++-style RTTI for Delphi types; CMake quality improvements, and greatly improved exception handling on both Win32 and Win64.    

Key Run-Time Library Enhancements and More

• RTL Quality focus: TZipFile, 64bit improvements for large data structures, Bluetooth LE  •Record Helper for TDateTime in System.DateUtils. Makes common date and time tasks faster to code, and code cleaner to read. Examples include getting the first date of the Month or Year, or converting to a Unix date format, checking AM/PM, finding out if it’s in a Leap Year, etc.  
• Record Helper for TCurrency in System.SysUtils makes working with Currency simpler and easier.  
• C++ RTL improvements include using make_shared<> and make_unique<> with Delphi classes; string_view support for Delphi strings; easy Delphi/C++ string conversion including being able to directly assign a Delphi string to a C++ string and vice versa; and Delphi core data type (such as TDateTime, Variant, etc) conversion to and from C++ strings using to_string() and from_string().

Enhanced Delphi Code Insight with LSP    

• LSP awareness of Include files  
• Auto restart of LSP server
• Smarter code navigation when refactoring 
• Auto code completion with Tab key  
• Class helper support  •Array suggestions when assigning arrays  
• Use of Visual Studio Code to edit Delphi source with full code completion, thanks to LSP support as part of the license    

What Data Connectivity improvements are there in RAD Studio 11?

• FireDAC in the new release offers specific improvements for the PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Firebird databases  
• The HTTP and REST client libraries have been extended with timeout mechanisms, support for HTTP/2, TLS 1.3, Base64 URL Encoding  
• A new component TRESTRequestDataSetAdapter simplifies uploading datasets to RAD Server  
• A new low-traffic RAD Server Lite allows unlimited deployment of your multi-tier solutions, alongside with the fully scalable RAD Server engine  
• For DataSnap, the REST URL mapping logic is now fully configurable.

Are there overall quality improvements in RAD Studio 11?

• This release includes specific fixes for over 650 issues reported by customers on Quality Portal (QP) 
• Over 110 new features requested by customers on the QP system

C++ Builder is the easiest and fastest C and C++ IDE for building simple or professional applications on the Windows, MacOS, iOS & Android operating systems. It is also easy for beginners to learn with its wide range of samples, tutorials, help files, and LSP support for code. RAD Studio’s C++ Builder version comes with the award-winning VCL framework for high-performance native Windows apps and the powerful FireMonkey (FMX) framework for cross-platform UIs.

There is a free C++ Builder Community Edition for students, beginners, and startups; it can be downloaded from here. For professional developers, there are Professional, Architect, or Enterprise versions of C++ Builder and there is a trial version you can download from here.