FireMonkey information links/info

I checked out today’s webinar on FireMonkey and collated a bunch of links and facts that came up during the presentation. Anyone looking at FireMonkey and wanting to get some background and foundation on the subject should check these out:

• FireMonkey marketing page
• FireMonkey blog
• FireMonkey quick start guide
• FireMonkey information
• FireMonkey architecture schematic poster (PDF)
• How to write custom shaders for FireMonkey
• Q&A from a Sep ‘11 FireMonkey webinar
• VCL to FireMonkey source code converters: Mida and MonkeyGroomer.
• White paper: Integrating FireMonkey into Existing VCL, C# and C++ Applications by Stephen Ball
• MathViz 1.0 FireMonkey app approved and available in Apple’s App Store, by Anders Ohlsson
• Visualising 3D mathematical functions using FireMonkey in Delphi, by Anders Ohlsson
• Visualising wave interference using FireMonkey in Delphi, by Anders Ohlsson
• Visualising wave interference using FireMonkey in C++Builder, by Anders Ohlsson
• Bezier Surface Visualization in Delphi, by Pawel Glowacki
• Biz Flow – 3D Fish Facts Editor for FireMonkey, by Stephen Ball
• Search context demo, by Stephen Ball
• FastReport FMX is a FireMonkey-oriented professional report generator for Mac OS X and Windows. Demos are available now and full version expected this month (May 2012)
• TMS Pack for FireMonkey: a cross-platform component suite
• TMS Instrumentation Workshop for FireMonkey: a cross-platform component suite for instrumentation and multimedia applications

Random information picked up during the webinar:

• Delphi’s library delay loading is available on Windows but currently not on Mac.
• C++Builder can readily consume a Delphi unit. Add the Delphi unit to the C++Builder project, then right-click on the file in the project manager and choose Make to produce a suitable C++ .hpp header file for inclusion elsewhere in the project.
• Unlike the old Kylix project, Delphi & C++Builder in RAD Studio XE2 are both solely Windows applications. However Mac apps can be run and debugged across a network link using PAServer, which ships in the box. PAServer works on a specific port (64211 by default) so should be easy to configure in the context of a firewall.
• Android support being looked at. When it is ready, your FireMonkey code will pay off and be usable on the Android platform.
• Older toolbox code with assembly code needs work before it can be used with FireMonkey for cross-platform. Realistically it would be best re-written in high level Pascal code. Alternatively you would need to conditionalise and re-write for the various architectures (Mac, Windows 64-bit, Windows 32-bit), which presumably would involve a lot more work.
• In FireMonkey control parents do not constrain the view of their children. A button on one side of a form can be a child of a control on the other side of the form, no intersection at all is required.
• Frames. Create a form with all required controls, which in VCL might be done as a frame. At run-time add a layout on the form and set the parent of the would-be frame form to be the layout. The Biz Flow demo shows this in use.
• David I is a big fan of the TMesh FireMonkey component.