Why does Delphi's compilation speed degrade the longer it's open, and what can I do about it?

Question

My company has been running a large project on Delphi for more than a decade. Our codebase has been growing over the years and now stands at around 4 million lines of code. Comp

Answer 1

Consider building with runtime packages in-house, then building monolithic executables when sending code to a QA department or distributing your application.

This requires extra maintenance, but the dramatic increases in build times are worth it IMO.

We have a 2.4 MLOC project with about 40-50 smaller, supporting applications. When compiled against a group of runtime packages the project builds in about 500K lines and builds about 6 times faster (15 seconds vs. 90 seconds). Many of the smaller applications compile in one second or less because so much of the packaged code is shared.

You need to be sure to test the monolithic executable, not the packaged executable. But generally you shouldn't see too many behavior differences if you follow good coding practices.