Is it expected that all the units of a Project Group in Delphi 7 to be in one folder?

Question

Maybe this applied to other Delphi's (I've only used 7). We've got our code broken up so that nearly every DLL in our fairly massive app is in a different folder.

99% of the open source stuff I've downloaded to plug into Delphi have had all their source munged into one folder.

It seems like this was an assumption that the developers of Delphi made about the coding practices of it's users that may be non-obvious.

Answer 1

I don't think so. In fact, In more recent versions they've added features to the project manager to make it easier to deal with the fact that code is spread around different directories (such as the flatten directories option), so I think it is accepted that this is how many people organize their code.

I suspect it's more to do with projects growing organically over time, and whether anyone takes the time to tidy up.

Answer 2

I for one definitely do not put all the sources into one directory but rather keep them in groups that have something in common. e.g. I use subversion externals quite extensively (see http://www.dummzeuch.de/delphi/subversion/english.html , the section about externals).

Answer 3

I prefer different modules to be hosted on different folders, then have a common folder for units that is shared among different modules, makes management easy. e.g

myClientServerApp:(parent) Client folder :(child) server filder (child) lib - (child)

Answer 4

Back in DELPHI 7 I also had all files in one folder. It has easy for small projects, but very hard for med to big one. So I began to create a folder structure for all DELPHI projects small or big. Over the year I am trying to improve, this folder structure, and every new project I make a small improvement so that it is simpler, logical, and more organized. This day I am trying to make some parts of it sharable to several project. Its work in progress.

Answer 5

It would seem that having all the units in one folder would save you headaches in doubly named units.

On the other hand, it might be handier to keep your projects in different folders when checking in and out of your version control.

On the other hand it really doesn't promote code reuse to have them separated out like that.