FireMonkey

FireMonkey

Delphi XE2 IDE with cross-platform FireMonkey framework project loaded
Original author(s)	Embarcadero Technologies (2011)
Developer(s)	Embarcadero Technologies
Development status	Active
Operating system	Cross-platform (Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android)
Type	GUI
License	Commercial
Website	www.embarcadero.com/products/rad-studio

Not be confused with Firemonkeys Studios.

FireMonkey is a cross-platform GUI framework developed by Embarcadero Technologies for use in Delphi, C++Builder, and AppMethod with C++ or Object Pascal to build cross platform applications for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac OS X.

FireMonkey was designed by Eugene Kryukov of KSDev from Ulan-Ude, Russia as a next generation vector-based GUI framework called VGScene. In 2011 it was sold to the American company Embarcadero Technologies and included as a library with their products. FireMonkey is, along with the traditional Visual Component Library, part of Delphi, C++Builder and RAD Studio since version XE2.

FireMonkey is a cross-platform UI framework, and allows developers to create user interfaces that run on Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android. It is written to use the GPU where possible, and applications take advantage of the hardware acceleration features available in Direct2D on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, OpenGL on Mac OS X, OpenGL ES on iOS and Android, and on Windows platforms where Direct2D is not available (Windows XP for example) it falls back to GDI+.

Applications and interfaces developed with FireMonkey are separated into the two categories, HD and 3D. An HD application is a traditional two-dimensional interface; that is, UI elements on the screen. It is referred to as HD because FireMonkey is wholly vector UI library, and scales without loss of definition. The second type, a 3D interface, provides a 3D scene environment useful for developing visualisations. The two can be freely mixed, with 2D elements (normal UI controls such as buttons) in a 3D scene, either as an overlay or in the 3D space, and 3D scenes integrated into the normal 2D "HD" interface. The framework has inbuilt support for effects (such as blurs and glows, as well as others) and animation, allowing modern WPF-style fluid interfaces to be easily built. It also supports native themes, so a FireMonkey application, though usually using FireMonkey controls not platform-native controls, can look very close to native on each platform. Native controls can be used on Mac OS X, iOS and Android through third-party libraries.