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unit QRCompatPatch; interface
implementation
He leaned back, the ergonomic chair groaning in sympathy. The problem wasn't just that QuickReport was broken. The problem was that QuickReport was abandoned . The last official update for Delphi 11 had been a community patch held together with duct tape and anonymous FTP links. The official Qusoft site hadn't been updated since 2015.
He recompiled the entire QuickReport source with this patch injected. The E2003 vanished. But then came the avalanche: E2010 Incompatible types: 'HPEN' and 'TFont' in QRExpImg.pas . The image exporter was trying to use GDI pens on GDI+ fonts. UPD’s updated TMetafile handling had stricter type checking. Quickreport For Delphi 11 Alexandria UPD
The upgrade to "Alexandria UPD" (Update 2, to be precise) had seemed harmless. The release notes promised better high-DPI support and a more modernized VCL. What they didn't promise was that QReport’s ancient TQRPrinter component would suddenly decide that the default paper size was "User Defined," effectively rendering every invoice as a blank, 0x0 pixel void.
Marco wasn't just a developer; he was the caretaker of legacy. He’d inherited the Silverpoint Logistics codebase from three generations of programmers who had all sworn the same oath: “Don’t touch the reports.”
His hands hovered over the keyboard. He could rewrite the entire reporting module in FastReport. That would take three weeks. He could export everything to PDF via a third-party library. That would take two days, but the client’s internal audit required raw, printable QRP formats. The last official update for Delphi 11 had
function TQRPrinterHack.GetCanvasHack: TCanvas; begin // Delphi 11 UPD changed TPrinter.Canvas to strict private. // We bypass using the original Win32 DC handle. Result := TCanvas.Create; try Result.Handle := GetDC(Printer.Handle); except Result.Free; raise; end; end;
It was a memory leak waiting to happen. He didn't care. It was 1:30 AM.
type TQRPrinterHack = class(TQRPrinter) private function GetCanvasHack: TCanvas; public property CanvasHack: TCanvas read GetCanvasHack; end; The E2003 vanished
Marco picked up a red marker, crossed it out, and wrote underneath: "No. We can't even migrate it to a patch."
Marco exhaled. He saved the modified QuickReport source to a new folder: QuickReport_D11_UPD_Stable . He zipped it. He uploaded it to the company’s internal NuGet-style Delphi repository. He added a single comment in the team’s commit log: Patched QuickReport for Delphi 11 UPD. Replaced direct Canvas access with Win32 DC handle hack. Disabled GDI+ type checking in QRExpImg. Use {$DEFINE DELPHI11_UPD} in project settings. Works on my machine. Don't touch. He closed the IDE. The clock on the wall said 5:14 AM. He had just enough time for a double espresso before the client’s 8:00 AM validation call.
At 12:03 AM, Marco opened the source. Not the application source—the QuickReport source. He’d kept a copy of the full source code for QuickReport 6, a relic from the CodeGear era. He dropped the QR6 folder into his project’s search path, bypassing the precompiled DCUs provided by the GetIt package manager.
{$IFDEF DELPHI11_UPD} // Use legacy GDI calls for backward compatibility DrawTextA(Canvas.Handle, PAnsiChar(AnsiString(Text)), -1, Rect, DT_LEFT); {$ELSE} // Normal modern code Canvas.TextOut(X, Y, Text); {$ENDIF} At 3:45 AM, the compile succeeded. No errors. No warnings. The EXE was built.
Marco Santini stared at the Delphi 11 Alexandria IDE, the blue glow of his monitor the only light in the office at 11:47 PM. The deadline for the accounting module’s reporting suite was 8:00 AM. And QuickReport—the venerable, crusty, old-warhorse reporting engine—was throwing a fit.