Moving to FireMonkey from the VCL
For many years, the only GUI development platform that came with Delphi was the VCL, or Visual Component Library. The VCL is powerful and mature but is so entrenched with Windows-specific API calls that it is not practical to turn it into something else. Instead, VGScene, a cross-platform library designed by Eugene Kryukov of KSDev, was acquired in 2011, rebranded as FireMonkey, and added to Delphi XE2. And now, many iterations later, it is the foundation for all cross-platform GUI applications in Delphi.
All Mac, iOS, and Android GUI development in Delphi uses the FireMonkey framework. Windows has the option to use either FireMonkey or the VCL. So, if you're familiar with the VCL, the first step toward understanding cross-platform GUI development is to switch your Windows application development to use FireMonkey. This first section will lead you through that step.
Starting a new Windows FireMonkey project
Starting a new FireMonkey...