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I've heard that Delphi's NEW Rad Studio XE2 has something called FireMonkey that will allow the same code to build Windows 32, Windows 64 and MacOS applications.

If this is true, this is huge. Where can I get the technical documentation that talks about FireMonkey?

EDIT:

I'm interested in the MacOS. Several people have asked me when I'm releasing a Mac version of my software and I keep telling them I'm not. I asked this question back in March (4 months ago) and no one said anything about FireMonkey. What version of Delphi will let me create software that runs on a Mac?

MODERATOR QUESTION:

Should this be a wiki?

Community
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Michael Riley - AKA Gunny
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  • You don't need fire monkey to build 64 bit windows apps, VCL ported to win 64. – David Heffernan Aug 03 '11 at 18:06
  • I'm interested in the MacOS... see new edit. – Michael Riley - AKA Gunny Aug 03 '11 at 18:13
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    All speculation but I'd guess porting a complex VCL app to this fire monkey thing would essentially require a rewrite of all GUI code. – David Heffernan Aug 03 '11 at 18:16
  • I'm there right now... that's why I upgraded to Delphi 2010. I'm still learning my way around the thing. It's quite a jump to go from D5E to D2010Pro. – Michael Riley - AKA Gunny Aug 03 '11 at 18:18
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    In the trademark registration, FireMonkey is described as "Computer software for providing a cross platform graphics engine and component library for generating graphical user interfaces and skinning engine, and for providing controls representation, styles, graphics and effects, animation, 2d and 3d effects" – mjn Aug 03 '11 at 18:31
  • @Cape You can edit and tag your own question, no matter how much rep you have – David Heffernan Aug 03 '11 at 18:41
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    Anyone else think that FireMonkey is a really lame name? – David Heffernan Aug 03 '11 at 18:41
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    @David: Agreed. Sounds like a web browser add-on. – Andreas Rejbrand Aug 03 '11 at 18:48
  • @Andreas They could equally have called it TraceFox! – David Heffernan Aug 03 '11 at 19:18
  • @Cape Nobody said anything 4 months ago about FireMonkey because it wasn't announced and those in the know would have been subject to NDA. But there were answers on that Q stating that Emba were working on supporting Mac. – David Heffernan Aug 03 '11 at 19:24
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    Maybe this should be labeled as community wiki? – Wouter van Nifterick Aug 03 '11 at 19:31
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    THE FIRE MONKEY 1956 AND 2016 Fire gives the Monkey extra determination. It gives him stamina and strength and durability. These people want the upper hand at all times, even in relationships. These Monkeys can also be fickle when choosing a partner, but once they do, their partners will fall fast in love with them. They will continue their climb to the top of the ladder util they get there and are generally well-liked among co-workers and friends. Hopefully it will live up to the name! – HMcG Aug 04 '11 at 10:49
  • @Cape - rather flagged as not constructive or speculative than community wiki. I'm wondering it has 7 votes at this time. What this question will be for after XE2 release ? –  Aug 05 '11 at 14:17
  • I agree with @daemon_x. This shouldn't be a wiki. SO is for Q&A, this is all about speculation. I'd be inclined to close vote this as not constructive. – David Heffernan Aug 05 '11 at 14:28
  • In short, FireMonkey is awesome sauce. Mac OSX and iOS support. The only downside, it is very new, we will probably only use it on new smaller projects that really need iOS for now. We first need to wait for our favourite component developers to catch up with the new framework, FBX, so I would say 2013 for us for full adoption, I hope. – Marthinus Aug 08 '11 at 05:37
  • I changed your title because this site is about asking and then FINDING questions later. If someone else asks what FireMonkey is and where it came from, the new title is more useful than "has anyone heard of", which sounds like it might collect "close votes". – Warren P Jan 13 '12 at 15:25

9 Answers9

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FireMonkey comes from the former DXScene library, which has been acquired by Embarcadero.

You've plenty of information and screenshots in this blog site: http://ksdev.blogspot.com/

Eugene wrote in his forum that all registered users (like me) will get the Embarcadero version "for free"...

Here are the features of DXScene - working with FreePascal compiler to run under Linux or Mac OS X:

DXScene is 3D hardware accelerated graphics library Delphi/C++ Builder/Lazarus.

  • Hardware accelerated graphics on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
  • 3D and 2D graphical editor integrated in IDE
  • Powerful 3D layer containing items such as Cube, Sphere, Cone, Plane, Mesh, free Camera and Lights
  • Mesh object have WPF mesh data format, DXScene have advanced import tool which support - GLSM,WRL,TIN,STL,SMD,Q3BSP,BSP,PLY,OCT,OBJ,OBJF,NURBS,NMF,MS3D,MDC,MD2,LWO,GTS,GLM,GLX,GLA,B3D,MD5MESH,MD5ANIM,MD3,3DS,PRJ file formats
  • Powerful 2D vector engine like Adobe Flash or Microsoft WPF includes high quality shapes and controls like window, label, button, checkbox, textbox and more
  • Advanced GUI engine - window, button, textbox, numberbox, memo, anglebox, list box and much much more
  • Advanced skinning engine based on vector graphics styles. Cool exists styles - Dark, Modern, Vista.
  • DXScene can be used to create hardware accelerated 2D applications with cool animation like CoverFlow, layer and more
  • Easy to use time-based animation and transition effects
  • Layered windows, Jpeg, Png, Tiff and Gif format read/write support, fast thumbnail creation
  • Realtime mode for games and realtime simulations
  • DXScene can be used as development tools for SCADA, GIS, CAD and KIOSK applications
  • DB-Aware controls - TvxDBNavigator, TvxDBLabel, TvxDBTextBox and more Multilanguage engine, editor and examples
  • Physics simulation using Newton Game Dynamics
  • Cross-platform solution available on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X and Linux

We can guess that FireMonkey will have some of these features, depending on the new Delphi XE2 cross-compiling features. Will it build OSX, iOS, Linux apps? Does it require XCode?

In short, FireMonkey will allow you:

  • To build 32 bit and 64 bit Windows or 32 bit Mac OS X native applications, and debug them from the Delphi IDE, running in Windows - but you need a Mac computer to run remotely the OSX app;
  • To build iOS native application, with XCode-based debugging - in fact, the iOS simulator in OSX runs in x86/x64 mode, and the FreePascalCompiler is used to create ARM applications;
  • Applications may be 2D (with controls) or 3D (using DirectX under Windows or OpenGL under Mac);
  • To build DB-related applications, using the new Live Bindings feature.

But FireMonkey is not compatible with the GUI part of the VCL. It's a brand new library, with its own architecture, which is indeed based on the former DXScene.

All details available at http://www.deltics.co.nz/blog/?p=735

I think Mac OS X support is reduced to 32 bit version, because FireMonkey uses the Carbon API, which is 32 bit only. See http://developer.apple.com/carbon It’s worth saying that making a Mac OS X 64 bit version will need to use an "Objective C" syntax (or linking) and direct Cocoa. Some additional work…

I’m still waiting for the Linux version. FireMonkey ancestor (aka DXScene) was already Linux ready (using GTK/Pango/Cairo/OpenGL), and they already have an ELF linker in-house (the one from Kylix, which was very good). I understand that Mac OS X had a higher priority in the list, since it’s a more common platform for desktop computing. But for server applications, Linux is a most have. In XE3, may be?

Edit: previous "pessimistic" version - extracted ;)

Edit: I’ve made some screenshots of DXScene components demo - it may help you have a better impression on what FireMonkey will be.

Arnaud Bouchez
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  • Your last two paragraphs seem pessimistic given the press releases, blogs etc. – David Heffernan Aug 03 '11 at 19:22
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    Indeed. It looks as if OSX with FireMonkey will be supported in XE2. – Rudy Velthuis Aug 03 '11 at 19:56
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    Your wrong, look at the blog posts in the other answers. OSX will be supported. – Robert Love Aug 03 '11 at 21:14
  • Some people might know more and not be saying anything because of non-disclosure agreements. – Warren P Aug 04 '11 at 02:00
  • @Robert In the blog posts, it's written: "Build 64-bit Delphi applications to take advantage of the latest hardware + Create a single application and target both Windows and OS X". What does "target" mean? It is not the same as "Build"... You may target OS X, when the compiler will be able to build for OS X. But [this blog post](http://sourceitsoftware.blogspot.com/2011/08/delphi-for-ios.html) tends to deny it: "Delphi XE2 has some nice features (x64, OSX, FireMonkey) and iOS"... Proof-of-concept or feature to be released in XE2? EMB never spoke of an ARM version of the Delphi compiler... – Arnaud Bouchez Aug 04 '11 at 05:45
  • XE2 compiles for win32, win64 and OSX. And according to this post http://www.delphifeeds.com/go/f/82666 it can create an iOS apps. – Andrej Kirejeŭ Aug 04 '11 at 08:49
  • Am I right in thinking that FireMonkey will produce apps that are not native? So it won't look like a Windows app on Windows, not like a Mac app on Mac and so on. This isn't meant as criticism mind you, I understand why achieving that would be hard. – David Heffernan Aug 04 '11 at 08:58
  • @David - You're right. David I's first comment on the blog post mentioned in Serg's answer says two of the styles that will be shipped will be Windows and Macintosh style. So native look will be emulated. – Sertac Akyuz Aug 04 '11 at 09:08
  • @Andrei I've updated the answer to reflect the latest news. It's indeed very impressive and a great news for all Delphi developers! I'll adapt my OpenSource framework to all those new nice features ASAP - I think the Starter edition will be enough for this purpose. – Arnaud Bouchez Aug 04 '11 at 09:19
  • It's unbeliveable: for iOS support, it uses the FPC compiler, in order to compile into ARM... Was I right one year ago? http://blog.synopse.info/post/2010/08/14/FPC-and-Delphi%3A-toward-a-%22fratricidal-war%22 :) – Arnaud Bouchez Aug 07 '11 at 08:30
  • The FPC compiler is a temporary solution to get iOS support out the door fast. It will be replaced as soon as the Delphi iOS compiler is ready. – Misha Aug 10 '11 at 09:23
  • @Misha Yes, as soon as the Delphi compiler will be "Objective C" and ARM ready, we will get both iOS direct cross-compiling and Mac OS X 64 bit. – Arnaud Bouchez Aug 11 '11 at 08:18
  • @ A.Bouchez: finally did you ever get a free version from EMB ? I used to be a reged user at ksdev too...If I was able to apply latest bugfixes from FM to vgScene during the beta I've never get something else since... – az01 Dec 15 '11 at 08:19
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You can't get any technical documentation yet because XE2 has been announced but not released.

David Heffernan
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Rad Studio XE2 Launch Event Report

Summary from the blog

• FireMonkey – a scalable vector graphics based GUI framework exploiting GPU capabilities for hardware accelerated cross platform GUI’s.

• Cross-Platform support – Target Win32 and Win64 with single-source VCL applications or Win32, Win64 and MORE using FireMonkey.

• iOS support for native code FireMonkey apps !! – Yes folks – use Delphi to build iPhone and iPad apps that even Steve Jobs will be happy to have in his Store!

• LiveBindings – a way to create ‘live” relationships not just between objects but between individual properties of objects.

• Native Android apps – using PhoneGap in RadPHP

• Native Android apps – to come in the future for Delphi (as well as Linux)

• DataSnap client proxy generation – for Android, .NET, Objective-C, Blackberry, iOS etc etc

• Starter Edition will be available right from the start along with Pro, Enterprise and Architect.

• ALL platforms supported by the cross-platform capabilities will be in ALL editions, including Starter!

Edit

Firemonkey in Action Video

Orhan Cinar
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I think the only "official" bit of info about FireMonkey now is the recent Andreano Lanusse blog post

kludg
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At least on David Intersimone's blog, it says that the Firemonkey lib would do exactly that: Win32, Win64 and Mac OSX and iOS. Relevant extract from the blog post:

  • Create GPU-powered FireMonkey applications that will keep your
    customers engaged
  • Build 64-bit Delphi applications to take advantage of the latest
    hardware
  • Create a single application and target both Windows and OS X and iOS

But I agree with David Heffernan that no technical information is available now, just sales talk.

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Fabricio Araujo
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Not much has been said publicly about it yet, but it looks like FireMonkey is the name of the new cross-platform GUI library, analogous to the VCL but not tied to Windows. A lot of people have been speculating that it's based on the KSDev technology that Embarcadero bought a while back, but I don't know if this has been confirmed or not. Any further details will probably have to wait until we get some official word about it.

EDIT: Looks like Andreano Lanusse just posted a bunch of official preview info about the library. See http://www.delphifeeds.com/go/s/82632 for details.

Mason Wheeler
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    KSDev worked on a GPU acceletated control library (some even called it the "native WPF"). Now Emba show an multiplataform GPU accelerated GUI lib? So much coincidence.... ;-) – Fabricio Araujo Aug 03 '11 at 18:20
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Also note - the Delphi XE2/FireMonkey product launch was in Auckland yesterday, so info is now public.

Not only does FireMonkey do native Win32, Win64 and OSX - but also native IOS!. This is huge.

Techovator
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If you want to make an OS X version of your app you can also take a look at FreePascal.

Birger
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We are not allowed to talk about it (NDA) ... but testing showed that FireMonkey apps work on my OS X machine :-P

Stefaan
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