Customize Delphi IDE and Improve Speed

• Official updates
  • Delphi 2005 service pack 3 also called SP3. Released: 2005/06/10.
  
  
• Unofficial updates
  • Remember to backup all the files you replace!
  • Only apply these patches after all official updates, and only if newer!

The 2005 September rollup of unofficial updates provided by Allen Bauer - also referred to as "unofficial SP4". The file you need to download is called 2005_update.zip, and is available from Code Central with item id 23618.

FastMM is an open source memory manager. When you have downloaded and extracted the newest version, refer to the documentation for further instructions. I installed FastMM by replacing the file BorlandMM.dll in the Delphi bin directory with BorlandMM.dll found in FastMM Replacement BorlndMM DLL Precompiled for Delphi IDE Performance.

• Official updates
  • Delphi 2006 update #1. Includes C and C++ Builder personality. Released: 2005/12/12.
  • Delphi 2006 update #2. Released: 2006/04/17.
  • Delphi 2006 hotfix #1 to #6. Released: 2006/06/01.

• JED Software
  • Delphi Configuration Manager - select the modules you want Delphi to load at startup.
  • JED QualityCentral Client - tool for reporting bugs.
• Miscellaneous
  • Delphi help for BDS expert plugin - Integrate Delphi 6 / 7 help into Delphi 2005 / 2006.
  • DelphiSpeedUp IDE plugin - Improves load time and speed of the Delphi 2006 IDE.

• Fastcode project.
• FastMM.
• Project Jedi.

• "SHIFT + CTRL + K + O" enables/disables code folding.
• "Ctrl + Alt + P" focuses tool palette.

• Tools - Options - Environment Options - Delphi Options - VCL Designer - Embedded designer.

To minimize delays, try these options:

• Tools - Options - Environment Options - Editor Options - Code Insight - Error Insight.

• In Delphi 2005 the original Delphi twilight theme with white text on black background disappeared from selectable themes.
• However, it is possible to export the relevant parts of Delphi 6 Twilight theme settings from Windows registry.
• After cleaning the data, the result is original-twilight-editor-highlight.reg.txt.
• Note: This file is provided as is. Make sure to view it. Remove the .txt extension to run it.

To minimize flicker in Delphi 2005 (and possibly later) edition use docked Structure + Tool Palette + Object Inspector + Project Manager + Data Explorer together into the same floating window. Use keyboard shortcuts to switch between. Doing so means that only one of the above tool windows are visible at any given time. This, in my experience at least, minimizes the flicker experienced when switching between form and code.