MonkeyGroomer - Roadmap

The feedback from MonkeyGroomer has been tremendous! That, paired with the announcement of MonkeyGroomer having plans for LUA support, this aims to be a very important release for the Delphi community! Not only will you be able to migrate your VCL and VGScene applications, you will be able to script and convert your own custom components!  So, whats the plan?

This week:

• Release MonkeyGroomer with Full VGScene support (stable) for public use for free!
• Release an alpha version with limited VCL support, to test the VCL conversion engine.

Over the next month:

• Release continual updates with additional VCL and other common controls
• Set up a community for developers to discuss and share experiences on migrating their projects.

And when that's done:

• Add Lua4Delphi support
• Set up a community for developers to share and discuss migrating custom and third party components.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at thestamp@gmail.com, or follow me on twitter: @PascalCoder

Join me at my CodeRage Session: FireMonkey FireStarter

That's right! I will be doing a talk on some FireMonkey essential topics, named "FireMonkey FireStarter!"

Click here to register now!


Its my first time talking at CodeRage (or any event for that matter), so enjoy me stumbling around the virtual stage, making a fool of myself! I'll be in the official IRC chat as well (url and channel TBA), so we can chat as the session happens! It'll be a great time, see you there! 

MonkeyGroomer - Action Shots and Component List

Update: MonkeyGroomer 0.1 has been released! Download here!

MonkeyGroomer is a simple application that converts your Delphi VGScene or VCL form files to FireMonkey form files. It will also support VGScene style files.

The upcoming release of MonkeyGroomer Alpha will have support for an incredible amount of components, both for VGScene, VGScene styles, and VCL.

• MonkeyGroomer supports over 100 VGScene and VCL components
• In this release, components not supported in the selected project will halt the conversion. (with a helpful message)
• In the final release, you will have the option of removing unsupported components.
• The final release will be available as a wizard to simplify migration.
• Currently the VCL conversion converts specific properties for any component. In a future release the engine will be more discriminatory.

For more information, contact me at thestamp@gmail.com.

Action Shots

VGScene

VGScene converted to FireMonkey

VCL

VCL Converted to FireMonkey

Supported Components (so far)

VCL
(preliminary list)

• TLabel, 
• TStringBox, 
• TEdit,
• TMemo,
• TButton

VGScene
(final list)

• TvgBackground,
• TvgBitmapAnimation,
• TvgBitmapListAnimation,
• TvgColorAnimation,
• TvgColorKeyAnimation,
• TvgFloatKeyAnimation,
• TvgGradientAnimation,
• TvgButton,
• TvgStringListBox,
• TvgFloatAnimation,
• TvgTreeViewItem,
• TvgTextBoxClearBtn,
• TvgTextBox, 
• TvgMemo,
• TvgCalendarTextBox,   
• TvgComboTextBox,
• TvgPath,
• TvgImage,
• TvgShadowEffect,
• TvgInnerGlowEffect,
• TvgGlowEffect,
• TvgAngleButton, (now TArcDial)
• TvgTabItem,
• TvgRadioButton,
• TvgListBoxItem,
• TvgCheckBox,
• TvgCalendarBox,
• TvgBevelEffect,
• TvgGroupBox,
• TvgPopupBox,
• TvgBlurEffect,
• TvgCornerButton,
• TvgReflectionEffect,
• TvgSpeedButton,
• TvgDropTarget,
• TvgImageViewer,
• TvgGrid,
• TvgStringGrid,
• TvgGridLayout,
• TvgArc,
• TvgCalloutRectangle,
• TvgCircle,
• TvgEllipse,
• TvgLine,
• TvgPaintBox,
• TvgPie,
• TvgRectangle,
• TvgRoundRect,
• TvgText,
• TvgComboTrackBar,
• TvgNumberBox,
• TvgSpinBox,
• TvgStatusBar,
• TvgToolBar,
• TvgTreeView,
• TvgSizeGrip,
• TvgFramedVertScrollBox,
• TvgPlotGrid,
• TvgCalendar,
• TvgSelection,
• TvgSelectionPoint,
• TvgGridLayout,
• TvgLayout,
• TvgScaledLayout,
• TvgAniIndicator,
• TvgCalloutPanel,
• TvgExpander,
• TvgFramedScrollBox,
• TvgImageControl,
• TvgLabel,
• TvgPanel,
• TvgProgressBar,
• TvgScrollBar,
• TvgScrollBox,
• TvgSmallScrollBar,
• TvgSplitter,
• TvgTabControl,
• TvgLayout,
• TvgTrackBar,
• TvgVertScrollBox,
• TvgAlphaTrackBar,
• TvgBWTrackBar,
• TvgColorBox,
• TvgColorPanel,
• TvgColorPicker,
• TvgColorQuad,
• TvgComboColorBox,
• TvgGradientEdit,
• TvgHueTrackBar,
• TvgTrack,
• TvgBrushObject,
• TvgBitmapObject,
• TvgPathObject,
• TvgListBox,
• TvgThumb

   

Announcement: MonkeyGroomer - Convert VCL Forms to FireMonkey!

Update: MonkeyGroomer 0.1 has been released! Download here!


I am proud to announce MonkeyGroomer!

MonkeyGroomer is a simple application that converts your VGScene or VCL form files to FireMonkey form files. It will also support VGScene style files.

• An alpha version will be available shortly! Available now!
• Most VGScene components have been tested. 
• Initially, VCL support will be limited, but quickly expanded.
• A wizard is planned, to make the conversion process simple and painless!
• Most of the work was done on the form parser and conversion engine. Once support for VCL is complete perhaps this engine will be adapted to support other delphi platforms in the future, possibly using Lua4Delphi! (donate now!)

Special thanks to Simon J Stuart!

For inquiries, please contact me at thestamp@gmail.com

Syndicate: Firemonkey Styles

TLDR: Felix Colibri has posted a good tutorial on how to use Firemonkey's styles.

http://www.felix-colibri.com/papers/delphi/firemonkey_styles/firemonkey_styles.html

• abstract : FireMonkey Styles tutorial : changing styles for all or for some selected components.
• key words : FireMonkey Styles - Style Designer - .STYLE files - StyleLookup - StyleName - FindComponentResource - Predefined Styles - Delphi XE2
• software used : Windows XP Home, Delphi XE2
• hardware used : Pentium 2.800Mhz, 512 M memory, 140 G hard disc
• scope : Delphi XE2
• level : Delphi developer
• plan :
  • FireMonkey Styles
  • Custom FireMonkey Styles
  • Default FireMonkey Styles
  • .STYLE file
  • Download the Sources

Syndicate: Embarcadero Insider Reveals Update Schedule for Firemonkey

TLDR; Embarcadero employee Michael Swindell reveals that updates will be done for Firemonkey several times per quarter now, then quarterly later.


https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?threadID=60400

The product matrix shows that Firemonkey currently supports iOS 4.2. Apple will be introducing iOS 5 shortly. Will Firemonkey be updated to support newer iOS features periodically (eg., iOS 5 and possibly other things)? Or just once-a-year when Delphi is updated?  

Michael Swindell: Yes, since Firemonkey is 1.0 we're going to be updating early, often, and regularly. The first update is well underway, will address a lot of great feedback, and should be out before the end of the month. We are planning updates on a regular cadence, initially several quarterly.   

 (I'd love to see quarterly updates.)  

Michael Swindell: We'll start out updating more often than quarterly, and settle into quarterly updates eventually. Embarcadero is behind FM in a big way, there is a lot of ongoing investment going on into this release, updates, performance enhancements, and future platform/feature support.

Syndicate: TeeChart & Delphi XE2 Support Announcement

TLDR; TeeChart "TeeChart Standard" for VCL and "TeeChart Lite Chart" for FireMonkey. "TeeChart Pro" available soon.

http://www.steema.com/entry/71/TeeChart_2C_RAD_Studio_XE2__26_FireMonkey

Greetings!
Time we mentioned what we're doing with TeeChart and Embarcadero's RAD Studio XE2!


Steema has been working with the new IDE for some time, preparing both VCL and FireMonkey versions of TeeChart for inclusion in the new programming environment. Agreed versions of RAD Studio XE2 will ship with TeeChart Standard VCL and TeeChart Lite Chart for FireMonkey. Steema are preparing installers for TeeChart Pro that we expect to be ready very soon. We'll be announcing availability of the new installers here; please watch this space. To review the current different versions of TeeChart and how they relate with XE2 please see the Feature Matrix.


Regards,
Steema team