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RAD Studio 13 Florence has been released

Exciting times being a Delphi developer! Embarcadero has just released RAD Studio 13 Florence, bringing a host of new features and improvements to the Delphi and C++Builder development environments. This release focuses on enhancing developer productivity, improving application performance, and expanding platform support.

Here is a list of my favorite new features in RAD Studio 13 Florence:

  • Database magic with FireDAC: FireDAC gets several practical improvements — better type support (unsigned BIGINT, improved PostgreSQL array handling), smoother drag-from-fields behavior, OAuth for Oracle, and parallel Firebird backups, plus many smaller fixes. RAD Studio still ships with InterBase 2020 Developer and now includes a license for the upcoming InterBase 15 Developer edition.

  • Ternary Operator: RAD Studio 13 finally brings the much‑requested ternary operator to Delphi — written with the if keyword so you can use concise in‑expression conditionals.

  • Language improvements: The update also adds handy language tweaks across Delphi targets: NameOf, {$PUSHOPT}/{$POPOPT} as new compiler directives, implicit Self in record class operators Initialize and Finalize, is not / not in operators, a noreturn directive, and tighter generic constraints — small changes that make everyday code cleaner and clearer.

  • 64-Bit personalities: So far, all 64-Bit personalities had been in Preview. RAD Studio 13 includes a full-featured 64-bit IDE for Windows x64 that's now part of the core installer (no separate add-on). Compared with the 12.3 initial release it adds full Delphi and C++ build/debug support, C++ tooling via Visual Assist, COM/ActiveX/type-library support, Live Templates (Ctrl+J) and the Surround menu, plus various quality improvements.

  • WebStencils and WebBroker enhancements: In recent blog posts, I explained that I mostly focus on the backend these days. Most of my frontend work is done with React and Next.js. I only have a few VCL and FireMonkey applications that I maintain. WebStencils turns RAD Studio’s web stack into a proper server-side framework, adding scripting, session/auth support, dataset access controls and a new switch statement. RAD Studio 13 also extends WebBroker with session management, improved logging and better Apache/Nginx integration — together these updates make building data-driven sites and secure web APIs much faster and easier.