Synopse Open Source

Current version of the main framework units target only Win32 and Win64 systems.

It allows to make easy self-hosting of mORMot servers for local business applications in any corporation, or pay cheap hosting in the Cloud, since mORMot CPU and RAM expectations are much lower than a regular IIS-WCF-MSSQL-.Net stack.
But in a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), you would probably need to create clients for platforms outside the Windows world, especially mobile devices.

A set of cross-platform client units is therefore available in the CrossPlatform sub-folder of the source code repository. It allows writing any client in modern object pascal language, for:

• Any version of Delphi, on any platform (Mac OSX, or any mobile supported devices);
• FreePascal Compiler 2.7.1;
• Smart Mobile Studio 2.1, to create AJAX or mobile applications (via PhoneGap, if needed).

This series of articles will introduce you to mORMot's Cross-Platform abilities:

• Units and platforms;
• Generating the client code wrappers;
• Delphi / FreePascal clients;
• Smart Mobile Studio clients.

Any feedback is welcome in our forum, as usual!

Current version of the main framework units target only Win32 and Win64 systems.

It allows to make easy self-hosting of mORMot servers for local business applications in any corporation, or pay cheap hosting in the Cloud, since mORMot CPU and RAM expectations are much lower than a regular IIS-WCF-MSSQL-.Net stack.
But in a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), you would probably need to create clients for platforms outside the Windows world, especially mobile devices.

A set of cross-platform client units is therefore available in the CrossPlatform sub-folder of the source code repository. It allows writing any client in modern object pascal language, for:

• Any version of Delphi, on any platform (Mac OSX, or any mobile supported devices);
• FreePascal Compiler 2.7.1;
• Smart Mobile Studio 2.1, to create AJAX or mobile applications (via PhoneGap, if needed).

This series of articles will introduce you to mORMot's Cross-Platform abilities:

• Units and platforms;
• Generating the client code wrappers;
• Delphi / FreePascal clients;
• Smart Mobile Studio clients.

Any feedback is welcome in our forum, as usual!

As we already stated here, the Delphi compiler for the Win64 target performs well, as soon as you by-pass the RTL and its sub-optimized implementation - as we do for mORMot.
In fact, our huge set of regression tests perform only 10% slower on Win64, when compared to Win32.
But we got access to much more memory - which is not a huge gain for a mORMot server, which uses very little of RAM - so may be useful in some cases, when you need a lot of structures to be loaded in your RAM.

Slowdown on Win64 is mostly due to biggest pointer size, which will use twice the memory, hence may generate a larger number of cache misses (failed attempts to read or write a piece of data in the cache, which results in a main memory access with much longer latency).
But in Delphi, apart from the RTL which may need more tuning about performance (but seems not to be a priority on Embarcadero side), is also sometimes less efficient when generating the code.
For instance, sounds like if case ... of ... end statements do not generated branch table instructions on Win64, whereas it does for Win32 - and FPC does for any x64 platform it supports.

We got a very instructive discussion in our forums, with Silvio, the maintainer of the Brook Framework.
Brook is a nice framework for writing web applications using Free Pascal.

It comes to my mind what mORMot can offer.
We did not want to compare the features or say that one framework is better than the other, but it appeared to me that a lot of object pascal programmers are tied to 20th century programming model.

In fact, to embrace the potentials of mORMot, you need to switch your mind, and enhanced your RAD and OOP background, into 21th century SOLID model.

We all know that the first Delphi for Android was just released...

I just found out an amazing alternative, using native Android controls, and FPC/Lazarus as compiler and IDE.

It creates small .apk file: only 180 KB, from my tests!

It makes use of direct LCL access of Android native controls, so it is a great sample.

It is a strong-typed, compiled, cross-platform, and concurrent.
It features some nice high-level structures, like maps and strings, and still have very low-level access to the generated code: pointers are there, in a safe strong-typed implementation just like in pascal, and there is even a "goto", which sounds like an heresy to dogmatic coders, but does make sense to me, at least when you want to optimize code speed, in some rare cases.

It is created/pushed by Google, used internally by the company in their computer farms, and was designed by one of the original C creators.

Here is some unbelievable news retrieved from "Te Waka o Delphi" blog:

From XE3 onwards, your Delphi Professional EULA will prohibit you from using Delphi Professional for anything other than local data access.
If you want to build client/server database applications using Delphi Professional, you will be required to purchase a “Client/Server Add-On” pack.

This goes beyond the fact that you do not get (or can otherwise use or install) client/server drivers for the DBExpress or other “built in” data access frameworks, but extends even to 3rd party data access technologies.
That is, whatever you may be able to do or achieve – technically – using some 3rd party component or library with you Delphi Professional compiler, you cannot legally create a client/server application.
Never mind any 3rd party components or libraries, this same prohibition will apply even if you are using naked, unadorned Microsoft ADO.

Damn show-stopper for me.
Embarcadero is killing Delphi.

Our very own mORMot Open-Source framework is fully Client-Server oriented, and allow creating scalable Client-Server applications even with an Oracle DB system back-end, even with XE2 starter edition (direct access, without any DB.pas / DBExpress layer).

Everybody is buzzing about FireMonkey...

Our little mORMot will like FireMonkey!
Here is why...

Speaking about [upcoming] 64 bit Delphi compiler, I did forecast they will surely release their compiler 5 years later than FPC's... hoping they will follow the FPC way, just as Intel did about 64 bits instructions, against AMD.

What I was referring to is that AMD was the first to publish a 64 bit x86 CPU, with a new instruction set. Intel released somewhat later their own 64 bit x86 CPU, following the same instruction set.
There are some variants between AMD and Intel CPU, some dedicated instructions or implementations.
But most instruction set is perfectly compatible.

And I suspect the more it gets, the less compatible FPC and Delphi will be.

The main difference between Delphi and FPC is that the first is a business company project (Embarcadero), the second an Open Source solution. They are not two billions dollars companies fighting each other, with some state-level institutions watching about any unfair competition or monopoly... FPC compiler is technically a great and robust project, but EMB follows business rules. I don't think anyone will play "Anti-monopoly" in favor of FPC.

In a recent thread in the Embarcadero Discussion Forums, Vedran Vuk posted some questions about object keyword.
His purpose was to use object instead of class to improve speed and memory consumption: 

I do use classes. I just want to use objects on smaller classes that don't really need initialization or RTTI. Plus, I can directly operate on it like a record with no need for constructors and it can be sealed and has inheritance. Every byte matters in this case.