Over the last year, there has been an increasing push in the development of source code editors and even full development environments based on portable code and available on multiple platforms, including Mac OS X. Here are some notes about my experiments with Object Pascal enabled editors on the Mac.

As a side note, most of this editors are based on HTML + JavaScript (and variations like TypeScript), but there are some exceptions. And before you ask, Embarcadero is not currently officially endorsing any of these solutions, but we are looking into this area to understand how valuable this would be for Delphi (and C++) developers.

How to build mac app on windows? Rad Studio - Delphi Creating simple firemonkey desktop application. There may be some hope for the future for Delphi and the Mac. The Podcast at Delphi.Org reviewed the closing keynote at CodeRage III (Dec 2008) when Embarcadero’s Wayne Williams talked about the Future. It said this: I think the most exciting part of Wayne’s talk was the slide marked “The Future” which listed some of the company wide research initiatives underway. It took a lot of tweaking to get things working again. I uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times and finally got the MacOS 64 platform to show up for new projects. My main project still was missing all platforms and that Delphi.Personality. I finally just restored the.dproj.

Visual Studio Code

Microsoft entrance into the area of cross platform hosted development tools made a significant splash last year. Visual Studio Code is a very interesting project, mainly oriented to development with scripting languages and web technologies, but with capabilities that go well beyond those of an editor. While not a replacement of Visual Studio for C# development, it works pretty well on Mac OS X and has a couple of Object Pascal language extensions (among many others). Being backed by Microsoft, makes this project highly visible. Some links:

  • The main Visual Studio Code page is at code.visualstudio.com/
  • The OmniPascal plugin is available at https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Wosi.omnipascal and more information is available on the project web site at www.omnipascal.com/. The main limitation is that all of the features beyond syntax highlighting currently work only on Windows (and they also don't support fhe full Delphi Object Pascal language)
  • The simpler Language Pascal plugin offers only core features and is available at https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=alefragnani.pascal.

Below is a screenshot of some Delphi code on my Mac in Visual Studio Code.

Atom

Another very interesting open source and cross platform editor is Atom, which is backed by GitHub. Atom is more of an editor than a full development environment, is focused on customization (or hack-ability), and is extremely fast. There are Object Pascal language bindings also for it (done by the same developer of the Pascal VSCode plugin). Links:

Delphi 7 For Mac Osx

  • Atom main site is at atom.io/
  • A very nice overview is at www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/16/atom-my-new-favorite-code-editor/
  • Atom Pascal bindings can be found at github.com/alefragnani/atom-language-pascal

And here is a screen shot, with the same Delphi source code file.

Trolledge

This is not such a popular editor, but a very interesting one for me. In fact, rather than in JavaScript/HTML technologies it is written in Delphi and uses FireMonkey for the user interface. Trolledge comes natively with Delphi support, and it is available (not surprinsingly) for Windows and Mac. It does support many different programming languages, though, from JavaScript to C#. Links:

  • Trolledge site is www.trolledge.com/
  • The source code repository is at github.com/FMXExpress/Trolledge

As you can see in the image below, opening a form automatically opens the matching designer in a second text editor. This is the only editor with a core knowledge of Delphi and its language and architecture.

Delphi 7 For Mac Os

What's Your Take?

So, what's your take on these editors and IDEs? I end up using Delphi code editors on the Mac almost only for reading code, as writing in the Delphi editor is significantly better. But I increasingly use these editors for my HTML and JavaScript work. While the lack of designers and other integrated tools severely limits their scope, for the developer who are focused mostly on code writing and those using operating systems other than Windows, these editors can be handy.

Have you used any and what's your experience? Which one do you like most? And do you think taht Embarcadero as a development tools company should invest in this area alongside with improving and modernizing the RAD Studio IDE on Windows?

Delphi 7 For Mac Os Versions

Mac OS

Building your app in RAD Studio eliminates the need to engage in multiple development efforts for the same application on multiple devices. This means you get to market faster on multiple devices for the first release – and every release after that – while keeping costs down.

Create your apps once and click to compile to Android, iOS, Windows & macOS

RAD Studio speeds and simplifies macOS application development for Windows developers. Delivering a macOS version of your FireMonkey application is as simple as choosing macOS as an additional target platform and clicking to compile – no other development team required!

Fast Data on your Mac.

Delphi 7 For Mac Os 10.13

Data is an essential part of any business application. Ensure your data is accessible and always available with the cross-platform InterBase. InterBase is a developer’s dream, offering award winning business grade capabilities in a fast, small footprint, ideal for use on any device.
FireDAC offers cross-platform database components to developers for use on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux with RAD Studio. Simplify your database connectivity and connect to your data on any platform that offers supported drivers. (including ODBC, JDBC)

Enhanced User Experience

Delphi 7 For Mac Os High Sierra

Give your Mac users the experience they expect with a native user experience built from pixel perfect native GPU drawn controls.
FireMonkey enhanced styles and effects enable developers to deliver user experiences that look right and feel right down to the pixel level, but also have improved usability built in, such as indicating a required field with a color glow to speed up usability. Choose from over 50 no-code effects for both images and components.