this is a continuation of the discussion I started here. I would like to find the best way to modularize Delphi source code as I'm not experienced on this field. I will be gratefull for all your suggestions.
Let me post what I have already written there.
The software developed by the company I work for consists of more than 100 modules (most of them being something like drivers for different devices). Most of them share the same code - in most cases classes. The problem is that those classes are not always put into separate, standalone PAS units. I mean that the shared code is often put into units containing code specific to a module. This means that when you fix a bug in a shared class, it is not enough to copy the PAS unit it is defined in into all software modules and recompile them. Unfortunately, you have to copy and paste the fixed pieces of code into each module, one by one, into a proper unit and class. This takes a lot of time and this is what I would like to eliminate in the nearest future by choosing a correct approach - please help me.
I thought that using BPLs distributed with EXEs would be a good solution, but it has some downsides, as some mentioned during the previous discussion. The worst problem is that if each EXE needs several BPLs, our technical support people will have to know which EXE needs which BPLs and then provide end users with proper files. As long as we don't have a software updater, this will be a great deal for both our technicians and end users. They will certainly get lost and angry :-/.
Also compatibility issues may occur - if one BPL is shared by many EXEs, a modification of that BPL can bee good for one EXE and bad for some other ones.
What should I do then to make bug fixes