Using "Clade Code" with Delphi

[Javier Tarí 23]

Anyone else using the Claude Code software to program in Delphi?

I'm not asking about using AI to ask stuff about Delphi (not Claude, not ChatGPT, not Gemini)

 

If you are using Clade Code, please share anything useful for you on the topic

 

My two cents:

• I'm using with it the Context7 MCP server, which is helpful
• I've made a "compile" bash command that takes care of compilation
• I've finally made an agent that uses the command, and returns the result (It helps keeping the context cleaner):
  • Compilation Sucessful
  • Compilation Sucessful but there are warnings that you MUST fix (and the list of warnings)
  • Compilation Error (and the list of the errors)

 

I'm trying to use DelphiLSP.exe through a MCP server, but with low success

[Des101 0]

I've been using it with C++Builder for some time and love it. 

 

I'm on the max £150 plan and only use the Opus model. 

 

I haven't got around to setting up automatic compilation, but it's no big deal, I have CC running on WSL1/Debian so it's simple enough to just paste in any compilation errors, let CC fix them and just click to compile again.

 

(actually my biggest bugbear is probably the cutting and pasting in the terminal, despite what it says, it won't use cntrl-c/v and I have to paste via the menu, I probably need to use a different terminal).

 

Overall, I'm astonished at how well it understands my requests and is able to give me what I need. The results are rarely perfect, but I'm fine with that, the fact that it can get something to 80% complete by itself is good enough for me.

 

I think the main trick to using it is to work out when it's probably reached its limits on a particular task, and rather than just keep asking it to fix things, realise it's time to jump in and do the rest yourself. 

 

Des

 

 

[corneliusdavid 255]

I've got Claude Code installed on WSL2 (Claude helped me get there--it was quite a chore) but probably won't be using it much for Delphi. I support some web sites using the Hugo static generator so plan on getting my feet wet with that.

[Vincent Parrett 852]

I've been playing with AI lately - if you can't beat them then join them 😢

 

My experiences are that the AI tools out there right now do not work that well for Delphi - they suffer far too much from library hallucinations (generate great code, if only the library existed!). I gave up and focused on some other projects/ideas

 

On the other hand, if you want to create a React or NextJs application - they will do an amazing job. The main thing is to provide a good context to start with, use the AI to generate a Product Requirements Document - refine that before you have it start coding (and tell it not to start coding till you are ready).

 

I'm still learning all this - but I was able to take a simple saas idea and spit out a working prototype in a day. I probably won't use the prototype - it generated Nodejs/Express/React code even though I told it it use asp dotnet for the backend - I'll recode it using some existing dotnet backend code (since nodejs is single threaded and I have background tasks) and iterate on the prototype front end React code. 

 

I will say the whole prompting experience is like looking over the shoulder of a junior dev - spending a day to get them to do a weeks worth of work. 2 steps forwards, 1 step back, over and over - it can be both exhilerating and friustrating at the same time. That 1 day chewed through my $25 Replit credit - so be prepared to spend. 

 

Will be trying claude code next - I have tried replit and bolt.new (good for web) so far, along with various others for basic chat stuff.