A very basic app , with no debug is 19 meg.. any way to make is smaller?
Or, is that just the way it is..
I guess, being new to IOS.. I wonder, what is the big difference between native and normal xe5 components? Is it size of app? Performance? Or is it about the same?
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First of all, the main difference between the normal XE5 components (which uses Firemonkey) and the DPF iOS Native ones, that the Firemonkey doesn't create real controls. Image it as your whole app is only a canvas and the Firemonkey's engine draws everything on it. It draws the buttons, lists, edits, and so on. The Embarcadero has copied the design of the native iOS styles and use Firemonkey styles to mimic the native OS look and feel. But there is a lot of problem with that. First of all, its very slow, lagging and has a lot of rendering bugs. Moreover it doesn't have a lot of functions, effects and controls that the iOS has. This is where DPF Native Controls come in. These are not mimics, there are real iOS controls. A button is a real button, not a bitmap. Every control has 100% native iOS look, feel and speed. These controls also have all the effects, that iOS can do with great performance. So what's the point in the first (Firemonkey) approach? It can be compiled to Win32, Mac, iOS and Android, while the DPF controls can only be used in iOS. But think of it, when do you create the SAME app for these 4 platforms with one code base? Mobile development has a lot of differencies compared to the Desktop one. You'll need a totally different GUI for a Desktop app, than for a Mobile one. I think it can't be done with one code base. So if you're going to develop for mobile, I think you should choose the native components instead of Firemonkey.
Greetings
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The size of the App is so large because Delphi include all the Firemonkey's libraries and RTL in it. Now the Form and App creating is based on the Firemonkey code, so we can't leave it out. On the net you can find example apps that written in pure pascal (Freepascal, Delphi) without Firemonkey for iOS and it has a very small size (about 200 Kbytes), but in that case you can't use the Delphi IDE for GUI designing, you should create every controls at runtime, and build your whole app with code. You can find a sample here. Use Google translate, but the code can be read without it.
Regards
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Thanks for the lesson, that helps.. So my last question is..
Even though the app is large, does it have similar performance to a free pascal app? I mean, I dont care so much that its large.. I care more about speed.
If the speed is the same, I dont care too much about size..
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
You'll notice that it will load a bit slower, because the Form creating and App starting is based on Firemonkey, but if the app is running, the performance is the same.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
A very basic app , with no debug is 19 meg.. any way to make is smaller?
Or, is that just the way it is..
I guess, being new to IOS.. I wonder, what is the big difference between native and normal xe5 components? Is it size of app? Performance? Or is it about the same?
Welcome Gordon!
First of all, the main difference between the normal XE5 components (which uses Firemonkey) and the DPF iOS Native ones, that the Firemonkey doesn't create real controls. Image it as your whole app is only a canvas and the Firemonkey's engine draws everything on it. It draws the buttons, lists, edits, and so on. The Embarcadero has copied the design of the native iOS styles and use Firemonkey styles to mimic the native OS look and feel. But there is a lot of problem with that. First of all, its very slow, lagging and has a lot of rendering bugs. Moreover it doesn't have a lot of functions, effects and controls that the iOS has. This is where DPF Native Controls come in. These are not mimics, there are real iOS controls. A button is a real button, not a bitmap. Every control has 100% native iOS look, feel and speed. These controls also have all the effects, that iOS can do with great performance. So what's the point in the first (Firemonkey) approach? It can be compiled to Win32, Mac, iOS and Android, while the DPF controls can only be used in iOS. But think of it, when do you create the SAME app for these 4 platforms with one code base? Mobile development has a lot of differencies compared to the Desktop one. You'll need a totally different GUI for a Desktop app, than for a Mobile one. I think it can't be done with one code base. So if you're going to develop for mobile, I think you should choose the native components instead of Firemonkey.
Greetings
The size of the App is so large because Delphi include all the Firemonkey's libraries and RTL in it. Now the Form and App creating is based on the Firemonkey code, so we can't leave it out. On the net you can find example apps that written in pure pascal (Freepascal, Delphi) without Firemonkey for iOS and it has a very small size (about 200 Kbytes), but in that case you can't use the Delphi IDE for GUI designing, you should create every controls at runtime, and build your whole app with code. You can find a sample here. Use Google translate, but the code can be read without it.
Regards
Thanks for the lesson, that helps.. So my last question is..
Even though the app is large, does it have similar performance to a free pascal app? I mean, I dont care so much that its large.. I care more about speed.
If the speed is the same, I dont care too much about size..
You'll notice that it will load a bit slower, because the Form creating and App starting is based on Firemonkey, but if the app is running, the performance is the same.