Book Image

Delphi GUI Programming with FireMonkey

By : Andrea Magni
4 (1)
Book Image

Delphi GUI Programming with FireMonkey

4 (1)
By: Andrea Magni

Overview of this book

FireMonkey (FMX) is a cross-platform application framework that allows developers to create exciting user interfaces and deliver applications on multiple operating systems (OS). This book will help you learn visual programming with Delphi and FMX. Starting with an overview of the FMX framework, including a general discussion of the underlying philosophy and approach, you’ll then move on to the fundamentals and architectural details of FMX. You’ll also cover a significant comparison between Delphi and the Visual Component Library (VCL). Next, you’ll focus on the main FMX components, data access/data binding, and style concepts, in addition to understanding how to deliver visually responsive UIs. To address modern application development, the book takes you through topics such as animations and effects, and provides you with a general introduction to parallel programming, specifically targeting UI-related aspects, including application responsiveness. Later, you’ll explore the most important cross-platform services in the FMX framework, which are essential for delivering your application on multiple platforms while retaining the single codebase approach. Finally, you’ll learn about FMX’s built-in 3D functionalities. By the end of this book, you’ll be familiar with the FMX framework and be able to build effective cross-platform apps.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Section 1: Delphi GUI Programming Frameworks
4
Section 2: The FMX Framework in Depth
13
Section 3: Pushing to The Top: Advanced Topics

Learning about Vector styles

In your Delphi installation, as said, some FMX styles are included. You can find them in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\Embarcadero\Studio\21.0\Styles folder (the actual folder may be different according to the options selected in the installation process). One file in the folder is Air.style, containing the textual representation of an FMX style named Air. This style is simple and it is platform-neutral, meaning that it does not include variations of itself to be applied to each specific target platform. It is one style definition for all platforms, delivering the same look and feel everywhere.

You may notice some differences still exist in the visuals of the application running on different platforms. Some of these differences depend on the so-called behavioral services FMX implements to keep track of the intrinsic differences across platforms, that is, the default tab position for Android is at the top of a page control while it's at the bottom for...