Using the command-line tools for build automation

We used build events to add automation to the IDE, but we still have to start the IDE, load a project, and manually start the build. What if you want a dozen libraries and projects automatically recompiled every night? Delphi has this covered, too.

Using the IDE hides a lot of details. It's nice that most of the time, all you need to know is that there are multiple target platforms and building one produces the desired file in the right places. But a look at the Build page of the Messages pane reveals very long commands being called.

What's more is that a temporary resource script file is created and a resource compiler is called to put any icons, images, version information, and so forth into binary format. When using just the IDE, these resources are defined in various project options pages and all the details are handled for you. But when building applications and libraries yourself using the command-line tools, you...