the project manager and the object inspector now work together, as you can select a file in the project manager, which results in the object inspector showing information like the file name and full path, plus file specific properties like the culture, name and version number of assemblies, or the copy local option. most of these properties will be read-only (displayed in grey font), while some can be used to actually change for example the filename or copy local status. the project manager is also starteam aware and offers context sensitive commands within the project manager for managing projects stored in starteam.
backup and history
the borland delphi 2005 ide transparently maintains multilevel backups and a history of your project source files in a hidden __history directory of your project directory. this replaces the old .~ files. the __history directory can contain multiple versions of your project (by default the latest 10 versions are maintained), and can be used as a local version control repository.
the history view is used to examine the current and backup versions of your project files, and even view at insightful (and intelligent) difference views between two different versions, showing exactly what you added, removed or modified in your source code. apart from just looking at the differences, you can also revert changes, going back in time to backup versions of your files.
the history view also supports starteam for even more complete team view of your projects history (see alm section).
floating vcl designers
borland delphi 2005 now offers a choice of free-floating vcl designers, just like borland delphi 7 and prior (as opposed to the fixed form designers of borland delphi 8). by default, the embedded designer is used, but you can uncheck the embedded designer option in the vcl designer node of the delphi options.
delphi 2005 tools options dialog
this not only allows you to view your form designer and source code at the same time, it also allows you to simultaneously view multiple forms and data modules at design-time.
sync edit
borland delphi 2005 offers a new sync edit feature, which allows you to edit multiple occurrences of symbols in a section of selected code (allowing you to rename them all at once, for example). note that the sync edit feature is lexical, and is therefore best used for small portions of source code (like a routine or method implementation). for renaming identifiers within larger portions of source code, it's recommended to use the refactoring features, which uses a syntactic and semantic engine instead.
