Brian Evans

Can you set it up and test it in the ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit)? It should tell you if the 32-bit drivers required are available/installed. If only the 64-bit drivers are installed the newer versions of this utility will mention it. For example on my system I do not have the 32-bit drivers:

Couldn't tell you. The wording does suggest they do. The InterBase licensing was too much for me, both cost wise and having to manage licenses, that back in the day I looked for a royalty free alternative. Went with FlashFiler from TurboPower and when they exited the market transitioned to using NexusDB. Combined with a tool to help write queries (Database Workbench by Upscene) it has served my needs for almost two decades.

I move my own units from the uses clause in the interface section to the implemenation section. An example would be two forms that access some of each other's properties and objects. They have each other listed in the implementation's uses clause.

InterBase Developer Edition is free and included with Delphi as an optional feature you can choose in the installer. You can also request a license. The main limitations are: Limited to a maximum of 20 users (and 80 logical connections to the server) Limited to work only for 48 hours, after that time new connections are disallowed and you'll have to restart the server Download the Free InterBase Developer Edition - Embarcadero

It seems beyond your ability to not be obnoxious. I don't see a point in continuing to converse who you.

I don't think it is "displaying a TPopupMenu at design time" but is a custom form used to design menus. Works fine for the biggest requirements: add menu items and show their relation to each other.

Notice in buy now it shows $3,000 Perpetual License + $999 for one year of Maintenance for Delphi Enterprise. If support is still $999/year that is not much of an anmesty at $2599. Looks like they offered that price or close to it last fall but included 24 months of support. They sometimes offer(ed) discounts on longer support renewals - like 20% off 60 months (paid $ ~4,000 USD in 2022 for that myself on an active Delphi Enterprise license). Might be worthwhile waiting them out or occasionally asking sales about any offers etc.

For code navigation I use MMX Code Explorer which was taken over by Uwe Raabe and is available for free. I have a large wide screen monitor so docking the MMX navigation panes works well. A New Home for ModelMaker Code Explorer™ – MMX (mmx-delphi.de) MMX – speed up your Delphi development (mmx-delphi.de)

Early on I read the terms for the Parnassus stuff, and it included text about sending system information back to them. I have avoided them since because the code to do that often hangs the IDE or causes issues when a security system/IDS/IDP blocks such collection and communication. From the Data section of : License Agreement - Parnassus OÜ

Windows messes with the clipboard so higher integriity processes do not see/get content put there by lower integrity processes. This may be the source of the extra change messages. The problem tasks you list all run with a High integrity level while most things like File Explorer run with Medium. Might have to keep track of the clipboard content and check it is has really changed (not just went from empty to having something or the reverse).

There is Nexus Quality Suite | NexusDB which "works with Delphi 5 to Rad Studio 12 Yukon and beyond!". It has a long lineage as it is a successor to the long defunct TurboPower Sleuth QA Suite. A book is available on high performance Delphi which has a free chapter on profiling: Delphi High Performance - Second Edition | Packt (packtpub.com) that covers various tools.

Note Windows does not allow drag and drop from a lower privileged process to a higher privileged one. It is part of UIPI (User Interface Privilege Isolation). If you run Delphi elevated the default file explorer which runs as a regular user will have issues with dropping to Delphi.

Usually start with the bottom question/answer from: TFDMemTable Questions - RAD Studio (embarcadero.com) especially the use of BeginBatch / EndBatch.

Google Drawings does a decent job.

This might not apply but: most databases have temporary tables of various lifetimes. SQLite has temporary tables that are database session specific and go away on their own when the session is closed.

Darn seems SQL Server doesn't allow the password to be parameterized. An odd quirk. Two options I can think of : passing parameterized values into a chunk of SQL that then creates dynamic SQL and runs that (ex: answer to c# - How to change a sql login password with variables - Stack Overflow) or turning preprocessing off in FireDAC ( qry.ResourceOptions.PreprocessCmdText := false; ) for the query.

The Call Stack window should be showing it during program execution when it hits the breakpoint.

You could pass the password as a parameter to avoid any FireDAC string/macro processing. Use one of the ExecSQL overloads to get rid of the housekeeping lines. qry.ExecSQL('ALTER LOGIN sa WITH PASSWORD = :PASSWORD',['newPASSWD'],[ftString]);

Your password strings as posted are infested with zero width non-breaking spaces at differing locations.

Check the Info tab in the FireDAC Connection Editor after trying to connect. As well not sure what you mean by: "I've set up a Windows credential that seems to work"

Looks like registry keys from old releases came along for the ride for some users.

Just looked for public/free servers and could not find any. Only paid access mostly targeted at those who want access to binary groups. The Internet Archive does have some collections of Usenet traffic. So far only see one for comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc and it looks to only go as far back to mid 1997 as well. In mbox format presented as a zip file containing one large text file. usenet-comp directory listing (archive.org)

Most internet service providers stopped providing Usenet servers for customer use over a decade ago. You need to find and use a public Usenet server (usually limited to text newsgroups) or pay for access to one.

In Delphi 12 you can do Tools -> Manage Features to bring up the install dialog from inside the IDE to add or remove things like platform support and the Android SDK and suggested Java JVM. In earlier releases Tools -> Manage Platforms did the same, but it was more limited. It can be used to add/remove Windows 64-bit platform target amongst other things.

Looks fine: the top of the hint window is below line of text it is providing a hint for. Broken: The bottom of hint the window is where it's top used to be. This causes it to appear on top of the line of text it is providing a hint for.