Embarcadero Technologies
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March 13, 2025
Austin, Texas - Embarcadero Technologies Announces Release of RAD Studio 12.3 Athens, including Delphi 12.3 and C++Builder 12.3.
Embarcadero announces the official release of RAD Studio 12.3, including Delphi 12.3 and C++Builder 12.3.
RAD Studio 12.3 builds on the milestone features introduced by RAD Studio 12, which represents a new benchmark and a significant departure from all previous versions in terms of both quality and capability.
RAD Studio 12.x users enjoy unprecedented productivity with AI-powered Smart CodeInsight, quick product development and iteration with fast 64-bit compilers, and a superior working environment with high-dpi screens, focus mode and side-by-side code editor displays.
Smart CodeInsight Improvements for RAD Studio (both personalities)
To help customers leverage AI LLMs for coding, RAD Studio 12.2 introduced an open architecture for AI plugins, offering ready-to-use support for three online solutions (OpenAI, Gemini by Google, and Claude by Anthropic) and one offline solution (Ollama). A locally installed offline solution was included to provide maximum privacy.
RAD Studio 12.3 further improves Smart CodeInsight, adding a few notable extensions to the UI, focused on an enhanced chat experience, more integrated with the AI-related editor commands. In 12.3, the Chat window now supports Markdown, offering a properly formatted and much more readable output, and it allows reading editor content, using special in-text commands or additional buttons.
At the same time, the commands issued in the editor offer the option to send the results to the MarkDown-enabled Chat window rather than the editor itself, providing a better formatting of the response. In addition, the Smart CodeInsight configuration dialog offers a list of available models retrieved from the AI engine and there is a new Find Unit / Find Header command based on AI.
Marco Cantù, Product Lead for IDE & Tooling, points out that:
in RAD Studio 12.3, we are taking Smart CodeInsight (our AI tooling integration in the IDE) to a new level, offering a more readable MarkDown-based chat window and interoperability between the chat windows and the AI commands in the editor. In the chat, you can use information from the current unit or selected text, or from the edit, you can now send the output of the AI commands to the MarkDown chat. On top of this, our optional AI integration allows you to choose among different vendors, use an offline solution for maximum privacy, and even plug in an additional AI engine to keep up with a rapidly changing landscape.
Embarcadero Developer Advocate Ian Barker to the attention paid to safety and privacy concerns in the AI-powered functionality of Smart CodeInsight.
Ever find yourself knowing the function or class," he asks, "but not the unit or header it belongs to? Smart CodeInsight 'find unit' will tell you where that function can be found, what to include or add to a uses clause - all while keeping your data confidential and safe.
64-bit IDE "Initial Release" for RAD Studio (both personalities)
RAD Studio 12.3 introduces the Initial Release of a 64-bit IDE. While this Initial Release is limited in terms of available features, offering support only for the 64-bit Windows target platforms, it's a very important milestone for the product.
A 64-bit IDE offers almost unlimited memory space for the IDE itself, including the components installed and the designers open in the editor, and for the integrated compiler when building very large projects. In addition, a 64-bit IDE allows design time access to databases offering only a 64-bit client driver.
Finally, a new native Delphi debugger experience is being built for the 64-bit IDE based on LLDB, which, over time, will offer much better features than the current remote debugging of 64-bit applications from the 32-bit IDE.
The Initial Release of the 64-bit IDE is installed side by side with the 32-bit IDE, which is still the default version. Developers can use either or both at once.
Delphi 12.3, Marco Cantù notes:
offers another big step in our transition towards 64-bit versions of our compilers and tools. Not only we have the 64-bit version of the Delphi windows compiler and a 64-bit version of the Delphi LSP engine for Code Completion available in the 32-bit IDE (and available to all of our customers), but with the Initial Release of the 64-bit RAD Studio IDE we are starting to build a new experience for Delphi and C++Builder developers -- no more memory limits, integration with 64-bit database client drivers, and a step towards the future.
Senior Product Manager David Millington notes that:
as an Initial Release, the new 64-bit IDE opens up new possibilities for our developers. Whether it's massive memory space for ultra-large Delphi projects, or using 64-bit database drivers, everyone targeting 64-bit Windows will benefit. It's a 64-bit world, and so are we. This Initial Release is a wonderful step forward, and demonstrates our commitment to modernity, and we're very excited to share it.
As the Initial Release, the 64-bit build of the IDE also does not yet feature-match the 32-bit build of the IDE. The vast majority of features are present and it can be used as a 'daily driver' for Win64 development, with VCL and FMX design, coding, and debugging, including database support. However, in the initial release, developers can target Win64 but not other platforms (the 32-bit IDE of course continues to support all platforms); Visual Assist for C++ is not present; Type Library support (i.e. ActiveX and COM libraries) are not yet supported; and Delphi Refactorings and Metrics are not supported.
Separately, RAD Studio 12.3 includes also in the Professional edition the 64-bit binary version of the Delphi Win32 and Win64 compilers, offering the ability to build extremely large applications as a single executable from the 32-bit IDE. They were introduced in 12.2 in the Enterprise and Architects editions only, but are now available in all paid editions.
The new 64-bit IDE, Ian Barker adds:
is an initial release, but our beta testers LOVE it. Paving the way for huge projects plus cool things such as being able to view MySQL 8.x data LIVE AT DESIGN TIME; it's very nice to have." RAD Studio 12.3 "12.3 unveils our first look at the new 64bit IDE, another step in the right direction, another tick on people's wish lists.
C++Builder Modern Toolchain
Following the release of the new Clang-based C++ compiler for Win64 in RAD Studio 12.1 and its significant improvements in 12.2 (including consumption and production of runtime packages; CMake support; and parallelized CPU-saturating batch compilation, giving incredible compile performance), the new 12.3 release offers additional quality improvements and some enhancements, including the official support for modern instruction sets up to AVX2 and even better compiler performance. C++Builder 12.3 also helps developers improve their C++ code safety and quality by integrating Clang "sanitizers", specifically the Address sanitizer and the Undefined Behavior sanitizer, which help catch problems in C++ code. These are highly useful for safe C++.
The C++ Modern toolchain, David Millington notes:
which we first shipped just one release ago, keeps growing in leaps and bounds. Now in C++Builder and RAD Studio 12.3, we've enabled ultra-fast optimized code on a wide range of CPUs via support for six new CPU instruction sets, plus runtime safety analysis enabling customers to feel confident in their software's safety and stability. Every one of these opens up new possibilities to our customers, whether in confidence or performance or both and demonstrates yet again just how much every C++ developer should be using the new Modern compiler.
Android Target API Level 35 for Delphi
RAD Studio version 12.3 is updating to level 35 in the target API level for Delphi for Android, a requirement for Google Play Store apps by August 2025. While the primary goal is to target the new API level, the changes encompass multiple technologies and include a new NDK target, support 16 KB page sizes, new provisioning options and permissions. Overall, these improvements enable Delphi developers to continue building state-of-the-art Android apps targeting the most recent version of the Android OS.
"We updated the Android SDK ahead of time," Ian Barker points out, "so you're more than ready for Google Play's mandatory changes in August 2025 to ensure we offer state of the art Android development."
FireDAC and Database for RAD Studio
In terms of FireDAC and database access in general, the 12.3 release adds improvement to the filtering of SQL query from the TFDTable component and support for migrating from IBX to FireDAC with the Refind utility. It also adds specific support for 64-bit drivers access in the 64-bit IDE.
In terms of specific database drivers, RAD Studio now officially supports:
- Microsoft SQL Server 2022 (plus support for sequences and stored procedures in MSSQL with multiple TVP parameters)
- MongoDB up to version 8.0 (also with new connection parameters for MongoDB Atlas)
- MySQL 8.4
- Oracle DRCP (Database Resident Connection Pooling)
WebStencils Improvements for RAD Studio
RAD Studio version 12.2 introduced WebStencils, a server-side script-based integration and processing of HTML files to the WebBroker and RAD Server technologies. This flexible feature empowers you to develop modern websites based on any JavaScript library, powered by the data extracted and processed by a RAD Studio server-side application.
WebStencils' main goal is to help with navigational websites based on RAD Studio web technologies (WebBroker, DataSnap, RAD Server) and providing server-side scripting: You can use WebStencils to generate HTML pages adopting any CSS and JavaScript libraries while retaining the generate the actual data in the pages (like the result of a database query) using Delphi or C++Builder. In addition, WebStencils can be a good foundation for HTMX as a web development solution.
In RAD Studio 12.3, WebStencils has been extended with access to nested objects and sub-tables in nested datasets, with a more flexible processing of the "@" symbol when unrelated to a WebStencils directive, and improvements in handling UTF8 characters.
BLE and Bluetooth for RAD Studio
The 12.3 release improves the quality of Bluetooth and BLE support across all RAD Studio target platforms. The changes include also a new event, called when the BLE transmission configuration changes.
Delphi LSP
The Delphi Language Server Protocol engine powering CodeInsight has been further expanded in terms of quality and stability, improving the handling by the compiler when parsing code for LSP. In addition, both the 32-bit and the 64-bit IDE offer the ability to use the 64-bit version of the DelphiLSP engine for Windows targets, which offers better support for large codebases, having no memory limits. In 12.3, this 64-bit version is now available in all paid editions, including the Professional edition.
According to Ian Barker, the Embarcadero team "continued to address as many issues as possible, particularly for LSP, where we worked directly with customers with large codebases to help us squash bugs and improve the quality."
Delphi RTL, VCL, and FireMonkey Quality for RAD Studio
RAD Studio 12.3 has dozens of improvements to the core Delphi RTL (beside the Bluetooth changes mentioned earlier) and to both the VCL and FireMonkey UI libraries. Worth calling out are the VCL quality work around VCL styles, HighDPI and other general UI quality improvements in VCL controls, and enhancements to the TImageCollection editor.
For FireMonkey, the new release adds a new tool to generate FireMonkey styles from VCL styles, an upgraded Skia4Delphi version, additional improvements to TMemo, to the dynamic style loading on non-Windows platforms, and to the Z-Order Manager on Windows.
With 12.3, RAD Studio continues to deliver significant quality improvements to both of the UI libraries included in RAD Studio, addressing customer reports and proactively reworking the internal implementation of core and commonly used components to offer better performance and stability overall.
RAD Server Improvements for RAD Studio
Since 12.2, RAD Server offers WebStencils integration, which adds Web development to the Web Service development capabilities of RAD Server. In addition, in 12.3, RAD Server improves the date and time formatting in JSON responses, includes an option to obfuscate the values for MasterSecret and Appsecret in emsserver.ini, adds the concept of instance-wide custom variables and a new EndpointHide attribute to hide endpoints.
With 12.3, Ian Barker concludes:
we've continued to target improved quality, better performance, solid stability, rather than pile on features for the sake of a glossier brochure. It's what you wanted - and we want what you want. Will 12.3 be the last version we release? No. Is it the best version we have released so far? Yes.
For a detailed list of new and enhanced features in RAD Studio 12.3, including Delphi 12.3 and C++Builder 12.3, view the Feature Matrix here.
How to Find Out More
For more information contact Embarcadero through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. More information is also available on the What's New in RAD Studio page on the Embarcadero website.
About Embarcadero Technologies
Embarcadero builds tools that solve productivity problems for application developers. The company's products allow users to design, build, and run applications from a single code base across all platforms. Ninety of the Fortune 100 companies and a community of more than three million C++ and Delphi users worldwide rely on Embarcadero's award-winning products to deliver critical enterprise applications. Embarcadero is a division of Idera, Inc.
To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com.