August 20, 2013

Delphi XE5 to develop Android applications

Delphi XE5 is about to be announced. I have the chance to use a preview version for several weeks now. I’m very impressed!

Using Delphi XE5 I was able to write my first Android application and deploy it to my Nexus 7 in a couple of minutes. OK, for now it is a very basic application: I just took one of the predefined application templates, added a few buttons and labels, hit F9. After a few seconds, the application was compiled and deployed on my Nexus 7 connected to my PC with an USB cable. The application was up and running and I was able to debug it. Waouw!

As you know, I the author of the Internet Component Suite (aka ICS). ICS is about internet programming according to the asynchronous non-blocking programming model. I already started porting my code to Android.

Delphi XE5 is a native compiler for Android. It means Delphi XE5 compile into ARM machine language. It is neither Java nor running under a Java Virtual Machine (Renamed Dalvik on Android). No, Delphi XE5 produces native code which runs fast.

This will help me porting ICS to Android because Delphi XE5 gives me access to the underlying operating system which is… Linux! ICS is all about low level programming and I’m very happy about how it is done in XE5.

Of course XE5 comes with the famous FireMonkey framework (FMX) which covers a lot of thing. The most noticeable is the user interface. For ICS I don’t care about the user interface but of course most application using ICS do. They will simply use FMX. And guess what? FMX is cross platform: the same components (You know edits, labels and hundreds of UI components) can be used for Windows, Android, iOS and MAC OSx.

In the upcoming blog articles, I will enter in more details about Delphi XE5. Stay tuned!

Note: This article is based on a preview version (beta). Retail product may be different. I have been given special permission from Embarcadero to speak about XE5 despite the NDA covering the beta version.

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3 comments:

GeoNomad said...

Having used ICS since Delphi 4, and still using it regularly for projects and products, I really look forward to your Android implementation.

Put me down as ready to buy XE5 when ICS is available on that platform.

When do you think it will be available.

Peter

Unknown said...

Can I develop Android application by Delphi XE4?

FPiette said...

XE4 is for Windows, MAC OSx, iOS (iPhone, iPad).
XE5 add Android.