Brian Evans

Can check what API calls are being made and if some are failing shortly before the application gives up the ghost. One tool for that is API Monitor by Rohitab Batra http://www.rohitab.com/apimonitor

Note you can access the VCL from another thread in a thread-safe manner using Synchronize (https://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/Athens/en/System.Classes.TThread.Synchronize) Code inside the Synchronize is run using the main thread.

In the full IDE more than just the compiler parses the code and some of the other parsers have been slow, flaky and unreliable for a long time. I don't think allowing and including code like this is helping any.

This seems like adding requirements covering corner cases or minutiae that are unlikely to be meaningful to actual users. Most just dislike doubt and uncertainty - is it still doing anything? did it freeze? How much longer will it take? - provide some indication that answers those questions and most users will be happy. Trying for a precise UI treatment while also not fixing threading in the main application seems like a way to waste a lot of time on a secondary issue - just get the information displayed.

One option: Create another application that shows a loading GIF and occasionally send it messages from your main thread to update/exit/etc. Has drawbacks but disturbs the exiting application the least code and UI wise.

Two of the big ones - Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle - still provide and support 32-bit clients. The databases with per server and/or per client license fees have more resources and incentives to keep that support going.

An elapsed time clock is another option. If the time taken has some predictability users tend to like this option - over time they get a feel for how long some tasks take and if they can grab a quick coffee etc. In the Delphi 7 days I used a component from the Developer Express Forum Library for this but they stopped maintaining it a long time ago.

There is a 32 bit ODBC driver, currently it is: Connector/ODBC 8.0.40. (select version 8.0.x in the list here: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/ ) It does mean using the FireDac ODBC driver to then use the MySQL ODBC driver vs going more directly.

Note "IDE Insight", a search box on the right of the title IDE Window's title bar can be used to search for settings. Once you remember it exists finding settings is usually much faster than manually going through the settings dialogs.

Could be some piece of software or the display driver. Hard to say without more details of the system. The contents of the Display tab of dxdiag might help. Also check for any tray icons or software running in the background with % GPU (CTRL-SHIFT-ESC, Processes, right click column headers and turn on GPU engine column).

How about fully logging/signing out then back in (so it resets the Window session)? Very odd such basic functionality is failing.

Instead of rebooting try Win+Ctrl+Shift+B shortcut to reset/restart the graphics driver. Not a solution but might point to what is causing problems.

Outside of the recently (relatively anyway) introduced STRICT tables the type of a column is really just a suggestion and it will happily stick a string anywhere if asked. Most tools try to tame this by enforcing the type but don't always succeed. SQLite website: 1. Datatypes In SQLite Most SQL database engines (every SQL database engine other than SQLite, as far as we know) uses static, rigid typing. With static typing, the datatype of a value is determined by its container - the particular column in which the value is stored. SQLite uses a more general dynamic type system. In SQLite, the datatype of a value is associated with the value itself, not with its container. The dynamic type system of SQLite is backwards compatible with the more common static type systems of other database engines in the sense that SQL statements that work on statically typed databases work the same way in SQLite. However, the dynamic typing in SQLite allows it to do things which are not possible in traditional rigidly typed databases. Flexible typing is a feature of SQLite, not a bug. Update: As of version 3.37.0 (2021-11-27), SQLite provides STRICT tables that do rigid type enforcement, for developers who prefer that kind of thing.

The type-less nature of SQLite makes it not ideal for data in transit between databases. You end up doing work for edge cases that a typed database would handle on it's own. Want real fun? Have both English and French users, like in Canada with it's two official languages, where the decimal separator is period and comma respectively. Soon as strings start appearing in a column storing transaction values the fun begins. It can work as long as you listen to Egon Spengler and never cross the streams. Soon as you do however ...... think an online store that occasionally gives out 99.9% discounts level bad (few would complete the reverse - an order with items having a 1000x price increase except maybe the government).

No solution but some thoughts. FMX forms use GPU resources including when designing in the IDE which is not the case for most VCL forms/components. Perhaps re-install / upgrade to the latest graphics drivers with whatever 'clean install' option is available selected in the installer.