Alcinoe is a library of visual and non-visual components for Delphi. The components can be used in commercial as well as shareware and freeware and open source projects without cost.
Alcinoe is compatible with Delphi RIO 10.3.3
Please "star" (like) this project in GitHub! It's cost nothing but help to reference the code
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJzEuZTSXDI&vq=hd2160
- iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1420049759
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=club.kiskis.app&hl=en
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALWinHTTPClient/win32/ALWinHTTPClientDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALWinInetHTTPClient/win32/ALWinInetHTTPClientDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALSortedListBenchmark/win32/ALSortedListBenchmark.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALCipherDemo/win32/ALCipherDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALJsonDoc/win32/AljsonDocDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALNNTPClient/win32/ALNNTPClientDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALPhpRunner/win32/ALPhpRunnerDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALPOP3Client/win32/POP3ClientDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALSMTPClient/win32/ALSMTPClientDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALSqlite3Client/win32/ALSqlite3clientDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALStressHTTPServer/win32/ALStressHTTPServer.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALStringBenchmark/win32/ALStringBenchmark.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALWebSpider/win32/ALWebSpiderDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALXmlDoc/win32/AlXmlDocDemo.exe
- https://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/demos/ALLiveVideoChat/server/Win32/Release/ALLiveVideoChatServer.exe
- https://tinyurl.com/zoxavr9 (ALFmxControl.apk)
- https://tinyurl.com/yd7c4ofk (ALFirebaseMessagingDemo.apk)
- https://tinyurl.com/y9gzos9f (ALFacebookLogin.apk)
- https://tinyurl.com/yaft2wxr (ALFmxEffects.apk)
- https://tinyurl.com/ydymo23w (ALLiveVideoChatClient.apk)
Please ask apple how to do
If you don't plan to use any Alcinoe visual components at design time, then you don't need to install anything, just add {alcinoe_rootdir}\source\ in the search path of your project.
If you plan to use visual components at design time then you need to install the bpl. Launch Delphi and go in component > Install Packages... > and choose the BPL located in {alcinoe_rootdir}\lib\bpl\alcinoe\Win32\rio\Alcinoe_rio.bpl (if you are in delphi Rio else choose the directory that correspond to your Delphi version). You still need to add in your search path {alcinoe_rootdir}\source\
Alcinoe use sometime some advanced functions that need to patch the delphi RTL. For this you need to include in your project search path ALL the directories located under {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\patched\ (if you are in delphi Rio else choose the directory that correspond to your Delphi version) like for exemple:
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\patched\fmx
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\patched\rtl\ios
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\patched\rtl\android
If after this you have error like (for exemple)
[dcc32 Fatal Error] FMX.Types3D.pas(1023): F2051 Unit FMX.Materials was compiled with a different version of FMX.Types3D.TMaterial. then you need also to include in you search
path non patched units (here FMX.Materials.pas for exemple) that are located
in your C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\20.0\source\ directory
You can copy thoses files in (for exemple)
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\originals\fmx
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\originals\rtl\ios
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\originals\rtl\android
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\originals\rtl\osx
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\originals\rtl\net
- {alcinoe_rootdir}\references\embarcadero\rio\10_3_3\originals\rtl\common
and then you need to add also all thoses directories to your project search path (add them AFTER the previous entries you just made for the patched version)
ALVideoPlayer will render a video to a TEXTURE. This is really important because you can fully integrate the video in the Delphi form and you can place any controls you want on the top of it as it's support Z-ORDER. Official Delphi video player are just native video player window on the top of the form and thus not supporting Z-ORDER.
Under android I use ExoPlayer. ExoPlayer supports features like Dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH), HLS, SmoothStreaming and Common Encryption, which are not supported by MediaPlayer. It's designed to be easy to customize and extend. Under iOS I use AVPlayer with support also HLS like ExoPlayer does
WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is a technology which enables Web applications and sites to capture and optionally stream audio and/or video media, as well as to exchange arbitrary data between browsers and mobile applications without requiring an intermediary. The set of standards that comprises WebRTC makes it possible to share data and perform teleconferencing peer-to-peer, without requiring that the user installs plug-ins or any other third-party software.
TALWebRTC component makes it easy to add video and audio chat into your applications, which opens up a whole new world of interactivity
The spirit is to mix FireMonkey control with native platform control when the functionality on such control starts to be very hard to implement (like webbrowser, edit, memo, datepicker, etc.). But it's not to make several distinct forms for several platforms like offer for example http://www.turbococoa.com/ (but this option is also a good alternative in some way, it's up to you to decide)
In Delphi (berlin) their is already IOS platform control that was quite well implemented but close to none android platform control and so I start to build native android/iOS controls like TEdit/TMemo. These control work mostly like some windows that are placed on The top of the form (so off course no z-order with FireMonkey control)
- Rectangle
- Circle
- Text (Can also draw html text on iOS/android/win/macOS)
- Glyph
- etc.
Painting of FireMonkey controls can be sometimes slow, or say differently, not sufficiently fast for a fluid scrolling. For example if you simply look the basic TRectangle with round corners, the paint procedure can take around 3ms! So if you have around 20 visible TRectangles on your screen, then it's will cost you around 60ms to repaint the full screen (and normally you don't have only TRectangle, you also have TLabel, TCheckbox, etc..). After it's just math, take 100ms to repaint the screen, so you can only do around 10 frames per seconds (in reality you will have much less even) so the scrolling can't be fluid :(
I didn't want to rebuild the FireMonkey controls, it's a too huge job for me, and instead I try to find an intermediate solution. This what I find by adding "double-buffered" property to the FireMonkey controls. So instead to repaint and repaint (and repaint) the controls for every single pixels move of the scrollbox, I first paint the control on a "buffer" that I store directly in the GPU memory (through TTexture), and when the system asks me to repaint the controls instead of calling again the paint algorithm I simply redraw the buffer TTexture.
As I say before it's took 3ms just to paint a simple TRectangle with round corners. With my double-buffered property it's take now around 0.1ms! So now the scroll looks much more fluid!
Most of the basic shape (like TRectangle, TCircle, etc.) use openGL to draw. it's not very efficient, for example to draw a circle under openGL you will in fact draw 50 triangles. This result often in poor quality : https://quality.embarcadero.com/browse/RSP-15206 For roundrect it's even worse because you must first calculate the path and then later draw it (much more slow than TCircle)
Other problem is all of these draw depend of Form.quality. if you set form.quality to highquality then everything you will do on the canvas will be multisample like drawing an image for example and that could be problematic because the image will be anti-aliased. if you set form.quality to highperformance then the draw will be very rough (no anti aliasing).
To resolve this, I build the buffer of my control using NATIVE ANDROID/IOS API. In this way we will have a high quality draw at also a high speed without being dependent of the form.quality
- ScrollBox
- TabControl
- RangeTrackBar
A cross-platform method of using Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) to receive push notifications Using FCM, you can notify a client app that new email or other data is available to sync. You can send notification messages to drive user re-engagement and retention. For use cases such as instant messaging, a message can transfer a payload of up to 4KB to a client app.
The Facebook SDK for Android enables people to sign into your app with Facebook Login. When people log into your app with Facebook they can grant permissions to your app so you can retrieve information or perform actions on Facebook on their behalf.
With TALColorAdjustEffect, gorgeous photo filters with one-tap auto enhance, make your photos beautiful and expressive in just minutes!
TALJsonDocument is a Delphi parser/writer for JSON / BSON data format. it's support DOM and SAX parser (Note a better name could be SAJ for Simple API for JSON instead of SAX for Simple API for XML but as the concept of SAX is well know I keep this name), support BSON format, and use a similar syntax than TALXMLDocument / TXMLDocument. TALJsonDocument can also export Json / Bson data in TALStringList.
When it deals with parsing some (textual) content, two directions are usually envisaged. In the JSON world, you have usually to make a choice between:
- A DOM parser, which creates an in-memory tree structure of objects mapping the JSON content;
- A SAX parser, which reads the JSON content, then call pre-defined events for each JSON content element.
In fact, DOM parsers use internally a SAX parser to read the JSON content. Therefore, with the overhead of object creation and their property initialization, DOM parsers are typically three to five times slower than SAX (and use much much more memory to store all the nodes). But, DOM parsers are much more powerful for handling the data: as soon as it's mapped in native objects, code can access with no time to any given node, whereas a SAX-based access will have to read again the whole JSON content.
Most JSON parser available in Delphi uses a DOM-like approach. For instance, the DBXJSON unit included since Delphi 2010 or the SuperObject library create a class instance mapping each JSON node. In order to achieve best speed, TALJsonDocument implements DOM parser and also a SAX parser.
TALJsonDocument can also support comments inside the JSON source that is an extension to the JSON specifications
TALJsonDocument syntax is very similar to TALXMLdocument / TXMLDocument
TALJsonDocument is available in 2 variants: TALJsonDocument that is made on the top of ansiString (so UTF-8) and TALJsonDocumentU that is made on the top of unicode string (so UTF-16)
Example :
{
_id: 1, // comments
name: { first: "John", last: "Backus" },
birth: new Date('1999-10-21T21:04:54.234Z'),
contribs: [ "Fortran", "ALGOL", "Backus-Naur Form", "FP" ],
awards: [
{ award: "National Medal of Science",
year: 1975,
by: "National Science Foundation" },
{ award: "Turing Award",
year: 1977,
by: "ACM" }
],
spouse: "",
address: {},
phones: []
}
To access the document nodes :
MyJsonDoc.loadFromJson(AJsonStr, False);
MyJsonDoc.ParseOptions := [poAllowComments]; // to allow comments inside the JSON source
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['_id'].int32;
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['name'].childnodes['first'].text;
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['name'].childnodes['last'].text;
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['birth'].datetime;
for i := 0 to MyJsonDoc.childnodes['contribs'].ChildNodes.count - 1 do
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['contribs'].childnodes[i].text;
for i := 0 to MyJsonDoc.childnodes['awards'].ChildNodes.count - 1 do begin
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['awards'].childnodes[i].childnodes['award'].text;
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['awards'].childnodes[i].childnodes['year'].text;
MyJsonDoc.childnodes['awards'].childnodes[i].childnodes['by'].text;
end;
Or if you are not sure of the existence of the nodes before to access them or you don't want to check it you can also do :
MyJsonDoc.GetChildNodeValueInt32('_id', 0{default if node not exists});
MyJsonDoc.GetChildNodeValueText(['name','first'], ''{default if node not exists});
MyJsonDoc.GetChildNodeValueDateTime('birth', Now{default if node not exists});
To create the document nodes :
MyJsonDoc.addchild('_id').int32 := 1;
with MyJsonDoc.addchild('name', ntObject) do begin
addchild('first').text := 'John';
addchild('last').text := 'Backus';
end;
MyJsonDoc.addchild('birth').dateTime := Now;
with MyJsonDoc.addchild('contribs', ntArray) do begin
addchild.text := 'Fortran';
addchild.text := 'ALGOL';
addchild.text := 'Backus-Naur Form';
addchild.text := 'FP';
end;
with MyJsonDoc.addchild('awards', ntArray) do begin
with addchild(ntObject) do begin
addchild('award').text := 'National Medal of Science';
addchild('year').int32 := 1975;
addchild('by').text := 'National Science Foundation';
end;
with addchild(ntObject) do begin
addchild('award').text := 'Turing Award';
addchild('year').int32 := 1977;
addchild('by').text := 'ACM';
end;
end;
MyJsonDoc.addchild('spouse');
MyJsonDoc.addchild('address', ntObject);
MyJsonDoc.addchild('phones', ntArray);
You can also create/update nodes like this :
MyJsonDoc.SetChildNodeValueInt32('_id', 0);
MyJsonDoc.SetChildNodeValueText(['name','first'], 'John');
MyJsonDoc.SetChildNodeValueDateTime('birth', Now);
To load and save from BSON :
MyJsonDoc.LoadFromFile(aBSONFileName, False{saxMode}, True{BSON});
MyJsonDoc.SaveToFile(aBSONFileName, False{saxMode}, True{BSON});
To parse an JSON document in Sax Mode :
MyJsonDoc.onParseText := procedure (Sender: TObject;
const Path: AnsiString;
const name: AnsiString;
const Args: array of const;
NodeSubType: TALJSONNodeSubType)
begin
case NodeSubType of
nstFloat: Writeln(Path + '=' + ALFloatToStr(Args[0].VExtended^, ALDefaultFormatSettings));
nstText: Writeln(Path + '=' + ansiString(Args[0].VAnsiString));
nstObjectID: Writeln(Path + '=' + 'ObjectId("'+ALBinToHex(ansiString(Args[0].VAnsiString))+'")');
nstBoolean: Writeln(Path + '=' + ALBoolToStr(Args[0].VBoolean,'true','false'));
nstDateTime: Writeln(Path + '=' + ALFormatDateTime('''ISODate("''yyyy''-''mm''-''dd''T''hh'':''nn'':''ss''.''zzz''Z")''', Args[0].VExtended^, ALDefaultFormatSettings));
nstNull: Writeln(Path + '=' + 'null');
nstRegEx: Writeln(Path + '=' + ansiString(Args[0].VAnsiString));
nstBinary: Writeln(Path + '=' + 'BinData('+inttostr(Args[1].VInteger)+', "'+ansiString(ALBase64EncodeStringNoCRLF(ansiString(Args[0].VAnsiString)))+'")');
nstJavascript: Writeln(Path + '=' + ansiString(Args[0].VAnsiString));
nstInt32: Writeln(Path + '=' + 'NumberInt('+inttostr(Args[0].VInteger)+')');
nstTimestamp: Writeln(Path + '=' + 'Timestamp('+inttostr(int64(cardinal(Args[0].VInteger)))+', '+inttostr(int64(cardinal(Args[1].VInteger)))+')');
nstInt64: Writeln(Path + '=' + 'NumberLong('+inttostr(Args[0].VInt64^)+')');
end;
end;
MyJsonDoc.LoadFromJSON(AJsonStr, true{saxMode});
Use ImageMagick® to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats (over 200) including PNG, JPEG, GIF, HEIC, TIFF, DPX, EXR, WebP, Postscript, PDF, and SVG. Use ImageMagick to resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.
Example :
var aWand: PMagickWand;
begin
//Create the ImageMagick Library
alCreateImageMagickLibrary({alcinoe_rootdir} + '\lib\dll\imagemagick\win32\imagemagick', min(2, System.CPUCount){aThreadLimit});
try
//create the wand pointer
aWand := ALImageMagickLib.NewMagickWand;
try
//load the image
if ALImageMagickLib.MagickReadImage(aWand, pansiChar(aInputFilename)) <> MagickTrue then RaiseLastMagickWandError(aWand);
//Set the compression quality
if ALImageMagickLib.MagickSetImageCompressionQuality(aWand,80) <> MagickTrue then RaiseLastMagickWandError(aWand);
//autorate the image
if ALImageMagickLib.MagickAutoOrientImage(aWand) <> MagickTrue then RaiseLastMagickWandError(aWand);
//Resize the image using the Lanczos filter
if ALImageMagickLib.MagickResizeImage(aWand, 640, 480, LanczosFilter) <> MagickTrue then RaiseLastMagickWandError(aWand);
//save the image
ALImageMagickLib.MagickWriteImage(aWand, pansiChar(aOutputFilename));
finally
ALImageMagickLib.DestroyMagickWand(aWand);
end;
finally
alFreeImageMagickLibrary;
end;
end;
Delphi Client for MongoDB database. A Delphi driver (with connection pool) to access a mongoDB server. a connection pool is a cache of database connections maintained so that the connections can be reused when future requests to the database are required. In connection pooling, after a connection is created, it is placed in the pool and it is used over again so that a new connection does not have to be established. If all the connections are being used, a new connection is made and is added to the pool. Connection pooling also cuts down on the amount of time a user must wait to establish a connection to the database.
Example :
aJSONDoc := TALJSONDocument.create;
aMongoDBClient := TAlMongoDBClient.create;
try
aMongoDBClient.Connect('', 0);
aMongoDBClient.SelectData('test.exemple',
'{fieldA:123}', // the query
'{fieldA:1, fieldB:1}', // the return fields selector
aJSONDoc.node);
aMongoDBClient.disconnect;
for i := 0 to aJSONDoc.node.childnodes.count - 1 do
with aJSONDoc.node.childnodes[i] do
writeln(aJSONDoc.node.childnodes[i].nodename + '=' + aJSONDoc.node.childnodes[i].text)
finally
aMongoDBClient.free;
aJSONDoc.free;
end;
Example with connection pool :
aMongoDBConnectionPoolClient := TAlMongoDBConnectionPoolClient.create(aDBHost, aDBPort);
try
::Thread1::
aMongoDBConnectionPoolClient.SelectData('test.example',
'{fieldA:123}', // the query
'{fieldA:1, fieldB:1}', // the return fields selector
aLocalVarJSONDOC.node);
::Thread2::
aMongoDBConnectionPoolClient.SelectData('test.example',
'{fieldA:999}', // the query
'{fieldA:1, fieldB:1}', // the return fields selector
aLocalVarJSONDOC.node);
finally
aMongoDBClient.free;
end;
Example tail monitoring :
aMongoDBTailMonitoringThread := TAlMongoDBTailMonitoringThread.Create(
aDBHost,
aDBPort,
'test.cappedCollectionExemple'
'{}', // the query
'{fieldA:1, fieldB:1}', // the return fields selector
Procedure (Sender: TObject; JSONRowData: TALJSONNode)
begin
writeln('New item added in cappedCollectionExemple: ' + JSONRowData.childnodes['fieldA'].text);
end,
procedure (Sender: TObject; Error: Exception)
begin
writeln(Error.message);
end);
....
aMongoDBTailMonitoringThread.free;
TALStringList Work the same as Delphi TStringList except that it's allow to search a name=value using a quicksort algorithm when the list is sorted. Also TALStringList use a locale independent algorithm (based on the 8-bit ordinal value of each character) instead of the AnsiCompareText and AnsiCompareStr used by the Delphi TStringList. at the end the sort in TALStringList is up to 10x more faster than in Delphi TStringList. Also TALStringList is not an Unicode TStringList but an 100% Ansi StringList
TALNVStringList (NV for NameValue) is same as TALStringList (use also a quicksort algorithm) except that here optimization is oriented for name/value list instead of string list.
TALHashedStringList TALHashedStringList is same as TALStringList except that it's use an internal hash table instead of a quicksort algorithm. By using TALHashedStringList instead of TALStringList, you can improve performance when the list contains a large number of strings (else if you list don't contain a lot of strings the performance is lower than TALStringList because of the cost to calculate the hash)
ALPHPRunnerEngine is a simple but useful component for easily use php (any version) as a scripting language in Delphi applications. ALPhpRunnerEngine allows to execute the PHP scripts within the Delphi program without a WebServer. ALPHPRunnerEngine use the CGI/FastCGI interface (php-cgi.exe) of PHP to communicate with PHP engine.
Delphi Client for memcached database.
What is Memcached? Free & open source, high-performance, distributed memory object caching system, generic in nature, but intended for use in speeding up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load.
Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.
Memcached is simple yet powerful. Its simple design promotes quick deployment, ease of development, and solves many problems facing large data caches.
The TAlGSMComm component implements SMS text messaging through the text-mode interface defined in the GSM Technical Specification 07.05, version 5.1.0, dated December 1996. There are several variations of this spec, used throughout Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson, etc models. We have tested the Nokia 6230 in-house, but the Nokia 7190, 8890, 6210 and 9110 models should work as well. Phones from other manufacturers will also work, as long as they implement the text-mode interface. About 1/4 of the current phones are capable of being connected to a PC (through IR or serial cable), about 1/3 of those are text-mode only, 1/3 are PDU mode only, and the other 1/3 support both text and PDU mode. Some phones (such as the Nokia 5190) support SMS, but they use a proprietary protocol, which TALGSMComm does not support.
To test your phone, connect the phone to your PC through the serial cable or IR device (consult your phone's documentation for details on how to connect). Enter "AT" into a terminal window to verify the connection is established (you should receive "OK" from the phone), then enter "AT+CMGF=?". The response should contain a "1", indicating that it supports text-mode. If both of these tests pass, then your phone meets the basic requirements.
Query Sqlite3 database and get the result In Xml format or in Json/Bson format.
- CGI runner
- Http Client (WinInet/WinHTTP)
- MySQL Client
- NNTP Client
- POP3 Client
- SMTP Client
- Xml Parser
- etc ...
you can access the last svn version at: svn checkout svn://svn.code.sf.net/p/alcinoe/code/ alcinoe-code or with a web browser at: http://alcinoe.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/alcinoe/
You can also find the last version on github at https://github.com/Zeus64/alcinoe
Unfortunately, in win64 we lost all the FastCode heritage. (that was mostly based on ASM). That mean that most of the functions will be around 2x to 10x more slower. you can try to launch /demo/ALStringBenchMark/ in win64 and Win32 to see the difference in speed. Sadly this makes the Win64 support of Delphi like a "gadget", because most of the app demanding the win64 support are Server App (or dll) and this king of app need all the power. I just Hope that embarcadero will improve the speed of the win64 functions, but I doubt they want to do them in asm because they want to go in multi platform, and they not really want to do dedicated ASM for every platform, they instead want to improve their compiler. but I think it's unrealistic to think that their compiler will produce code which can compete with hand-optimized ASM.
No mistake, Unicode was necessary for a product like Delphi. But the way embarcadero decide to implement it’s questionable! Indeed they decide to migrate the 8bit string to 16bit string instead of choosing to implement Unicode through 8bit string (UTF8). This cause the migration of some Delphi app < d2009 very hard, especially on application that assume that string is 8bit. Here a very good article about why to avoid to use UFT-16: http://www.utf8everywhere.org/
The main argument of embarcadero why choosing UTF16 instead of UTF8 is because the windows API work in the background in UTF16 and better to stay in the same way as the windows API. This is still questionable when the strategy becomes to make Delphi a multi platform product.
So I was facing the need to choose: stay in D2007, move to FreePascal (that implement Unicode through UTF8) or migrate to Unicode. After studying the Unicode migration and discover that it’s will be very hard to do (even in the Delphi I discover some bugs in their own source code due to the migration from ansi to Unicode like for example http://qc.embarcadero.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=106424). Also on lot of my applications the migration to Unicode was really unnecessary, as they was already working in UTF8, receive their input request in utf8 and output their response in UTF8. Here the migration to UTF16 will mean: Input (UTF8) => UTF16 => data processing => UTF16 => output(UTF8) plus off course all the migration job (that include debugging). In fact, except the input/output to the "visual interface", most (if not all) of the input/output of most of the application will be done in 8bit string (ex: file storage, client/server protocol, HTTP, Smtp, tcp, xml, html, database, etc.). So I decide to go in Delphi Xe2 but to stay in AnsiString (8bit string). My first through was to replace everywhere in my code all the String by AnsiString. Unfortunately, most of the usefull and needed string function in D2009+ are not available in 8bit string like inttostr, strtoint, strtofloat, Tstrings, TstringStream, etc. that simply unbelievable, in their way to go in 16bit string, embarcadero remove the 8bit support ! of course we can still do ansistring(inttostr(x)) but this is very pity (and slow). So I decided to make my component like a "framework" to help fully support of 8bit string (mostly in UTF8).
I build a small application (available in /demo/ALStringToAnsiString/) to convert all string type and string function to their ansistring equivalent. The conversion reflects my programming style and quirks so you may need to tweak the output or modify the converter so you have the code. Will this work for your code? Probably not out of the Non Box but you may only be left requiring only few little tweaks.
You can also go in /demo/ALStringBenchMark/ to find an application to benchmark ansiString vs Unicode String and in /demo/ALSortedList/ to see the benchmark of TALStringList (ansiString) vs TStringList (UnicodeString). In fact, most of the Unicode function (when they are implemented correctly, thanks to fastcode) will be close to the same speed as their ansi equivalent. But no mistake, Unicode string will still use 2x more memory and depending on the application, this may be not acceptable (example application that load huge list of string in a TStringList or in an XML object).
Under D2009+, ansiString Have now a codepage, and some transliteration (OldCodePage => UTF16 => NewCodePage) will happen when assigning one ansiString with different codepage to another ansistring with another codepage. To avoid this it’s important to always set project option to the code page you want (eg. 65001 for UTF8) and also to call at the beginning of the program SetMultiByteConversionCodePage(CP_UTF8); Also it’s very important to avoid using 2 different string types (eg UTF8string and aniString) even if they have the same codepage, because compiler at compile time don’t know that codepage is the same and will do a transliteration (ex MyAnsiStringUTF8 := MyUTF8String will result in UTF8 => UTF16 => UTF8). This is why we use in all our code only AnsiString instead of UTF8String (even when we assume that string contain only UTF8 char) to avoid theses transliteration keep the rule to only use AnsiString with SetMultiByteConversionCodePage and not type like UTF8string or other
Also about the compiler warning, when he detect a transliteration you will have a warning, but he can not always detect the transliteration Ex: MyFunctionNeedPWideChar(Pointer(aPansiChar)) Here unfortunately you will not get any "warning" nor any "error" from the compiler.