Path for Delphi libraries

Question

Where do you guys store 3rd party (and your own) components?

Do you keep separate copies per Delphi version?

For years I've been using c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\, even for Delphi 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010, like this:

c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\AggPas\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\DeHL\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\DevExpress\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\FastCode\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\FastMM\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\Fundamentals\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\Graphics32\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\JCL\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\JVCL\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\OmniThread\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\Raize\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\TeeChartPro\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\TurboPower\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\VirtualTreeView\
c:\program files\borland\delphi7\lib\Zeos\

However, nowadays I don't even use Delphi7 anymore (what can it do that 2010 can't?), so this path doesn't make much sense anymore. I'm about to install windows7 on my home machine, so I'm thinking on something like this:

c:\src\DelphiLib\

Any better ideas?

Answer 1

I've a directory where I do all my checkouts. Components (versioned) are just another checkout (**).

mysvndir\components                         (D7 components)
mysvndir\components2006                     (D2006 components)
mysvndir\components2009                     (D2009 components)
mysvndir\trunk                              (trunk of framework)
mysvndir\flex                               (check out of flex project that 
                                                is in a branch)

The delphi projects are all setup with relative paths. The component paths are hardcoded in delphi under options->environment.

mysvndir can be on different drives (or directory level) depending on the workstation. (most notably, on my laptop it is on D:). The ability to compile alternative checkouts (e.g. to check an older revision) is another strong motivation to keep everything relative.

This works reasonably well(*) for normal Delphi projects, but I'm now considering using hardcoded paths (or substitutes) for some projects. Mostly due to starting to use the ITE.

(*) Delphi (all versions) seems to change the working directory sometimes on opening files, which in turn messes up relative paths (they are relative to the working dir, not the .dpr(oj) apparantly). If I notice this, I open a file (using file->Open) in the working dir, and all is fine again. I also make a habit of closing projects before opening new ones.

(**) I have a base set of designtime components that I use for all apps and don't use packages. I don't have designtime components specific to apps.

Answer 2

All my Delphi stuff is in subdirectories under C:\Delphi