RAD Studio 12.1 Athens – Patch 1

Embarcadero released a patch for RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++Builder 12.1 Athens. This patch addresses some issues in RAD Studio 12.1, around the new editor split view feature of the IDE, the Delphi 64-bit compiler when building packages, debugging, and strings.  The detailed list of the issues addressed is available at the end of this blog post.

This patch is about 517MB to download.

GetIt-based installation steps for this deferred package are very similar to what already described in the past. In case you want more information about the GetIt based installation steps, please refer to the blog post we did for the last patch we released, for RAD Studio 1.20 Athens. Notice that you also have the ability to dismiss the patch and not be reminded about it in the Welcome Page any more, even without installing it. Also, if you install the patch via GetIt, the About Box in the IDE will indicate the patch has been installed.

Take into account that the patch includes new versions of PAServer for each target platform, so you’d have to install them on your Mac, Linux, or remote Windows computer. If you build and distribute Delphi packages for Win64, please read only the specific note in the readme and reach out to PMs for further information if needed.

In this case you download the patch ZIP file from the my.embarcadero.com portal (where it will be available shortly), you’ll have to install it manually, following similar steps of the automated install. You need to manually close the RAD Studio IDE before you install the patch (you’ll see an error if the IDE is running) and follow the steps in the readme. Also, in case of a manual installation, the about box won’t reflect the patch status.

RAD Studio 12.1 Patch #1 Readme

April 17th, 2024

This patch addresses some issues in RAD Studio 12.1, around the new editor split view feature of the IDE, the Delphi 64-bit compiler when building packages, debugging, and strings. This patch is about 517MB to download.

Installation via GetIt
If you download the patch via GetIt, it is installed automatically, creating a backup of the files replaced and a log of the operations. However, because PAServer is installed on remote computers, you need to manually reinstall PAServer on each of the target platforms you are working with, following the steps at: https://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/en/Installing_the_Platform_Assistant_on_Windows
https://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Athens/en/Installing_the_Platform_Assistant_on_a_Mac
https://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/Athens/en/Installing_the_Platform_Assistant_on_Linux

Manual Download and Installation
This patch is also available in the download portal at my.embarcadero.com. In this case, after downloading and expanding the ZIP file, you should run the patch.R121.patch1_install.bat file or manually expand the R121.patch1.zip into the respective subfolders of the RAD Studio installation folder. You also need to update PAServer on target platforms as discussed above.

Uninstallation Steps
If you installed the patch via GetIt:
* Open the Catalog Repository installation folder and move to the patch folder
* Run the patch.R121.patch1_uninstall.bat file
* Only *after* you have cleared the patch, uninstall the package from GetIt

If you installed the patch manually:
* Open the folder you expanded the patch ZIP file into
* Run the patch.R121.patch1_uninstall.bat file
* Delete the folder and patch ZIP file

Notice on Delphi Win64 Packages
This patch modifies the symbols exported by Delphi packages built for the Windows 64 platform, to address a problem introduced in 12.1. Packages that include unit names with a single underscore character or that refer to units with single underscore character in other packages and built with the RTM version of 12.1 can conflict with unit names using the dot notation. We addressed this issue in the patch, but the net effect is that using packages built with the RTM version of 12.1 might have compatibility issues with the code built after applying this patch. We recommend any third party vendor or developer to update the binary of Delphi Win64 packages built with 12.1 with a version built with this patch applied. This is not required for Delphi Win64 packages built with 12.0. In fact, the compiler in this patch offers improved compatibility with the 12.0 compiler.

Publicly Reported Issues Addresses by This Patch
These issues have been reported in the new quality portal, see this blog post for details on how to create an account, with the exception of the last one, which is in the on the old portal (still available in read-only mode):
RSS-574 [dcc32 Fatal Error] PythonFmx.dpk(70): Internal Error: AV00B5992F-R0000014C-0
RSS-536 Delphi 64-bit DPK compilation problem
RSS-497 F2084 Internal Error: NI5166
RSS-447 F2084 Internal Error: compiling Win64 Package
RSS-425 Error F2084: Interner Fehler: AV006A992F-R0000014C-0
RSS-391 String with non-ASCII characters directly attached to a #xx or #$xx literal corrupts the final string
RSP-40084 StringTable and LoadStr

In addition, this patch addresses two beta reports (not publicly accessible at this time):

• Division by zero when clicking “Move Designer” after Editor split
• Crash in rtl290.bpl when assigning an action to a TPopupMenu via object inspector

The patch also addresses other duplicate issues and the following internally found issues:

• iOS: Can’t Run application without Debugging (Ctrl+Shift+F9)
• macOS: Cannot evaluate Edit1.Text + ‘abc’
• Split Code Editor: Closing the additional right editor switches the left editor to the Design tab
• Split Code Editor: issue with selecting editor tabs through the menu
• Split Code Editor: AV in IDE if creating a new project after using a split code editor.
• Editor tab group title bar draws incorrectly