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Jerry Dodge
Jerry Dodge

Reputation: 27276

Should I use TMainMenu in Firemonkey to support both Windows and OS-X?

I'm reading the documentation for menus in Firemonkey desktop applications. It explains that there are two completely different menu components, one is to be used for Windows (TMenuBar) and the other is to be used for OS-X (TMainMenu).

Further, it also explains that a TMenuBar does not display on OS-X (nonstandard for OS-X), and that a TMainMenu is placed in the non-client area of the Windows form (nonstandard for Windows)

It's my understanding that Firemonkey is supposed to be one code-base for multiple platforms, but it appears they want me to separate the two. I can understand the menus work differently across both platforms, but it seems like an unnecessary pain to implement two different main menus (and conditionally show/hide them depending on the platform). I have no intention of using the special capabilities of menus specific to either platform. Not to mention the TMenuBar is completely ugly.

Since the TMainMenu also shows on Windows, but yet also claims it's "nonstandard for Windows", can I assume that the TMainMenu is sufficient for both? Or do I really need to implement a separate TMenuBar just for Windows? What are the implications if I don't separate them?

I saw this video, but It's for Delphi XE2, and I can't find such an option in the Delphi XE8 TMenuBar control. And again, the TMenuBar is very ugly and doesn't work like typical menus, like the TMainMenu does. I'm confused why they would advise to use this TMenuBar at all.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 820

Answers (1)

Chris Rolliston
Chris Rolliston

Reputation: 4808

The help page linked to is wrong if being 'FireMonkey-native' (so to speak) is not a concern (for what I mean by that, see below). TMainMenu is not 'non-standard' on Windows - it wraps the Windows native menu bar API like the VCL equivalent. TMenuBar, in contrast, is completely custom.

That said, in general the fashion has been to use custom menu bars on Windows since Office 97 did so way back nearly twenty years ago, however the original menu bar API is still fully supported and used by (e.g.) Notepad in Windows 10. Further, writing a decent custom menu so that it fakes a real one properly - as well proving the additional functionalty that led to not using a real one in the first place - takes a fair bit of effort and detailed API knowledge. Unfortunately it might be doubted whether the FMX offering enjoyed this, which isn't to say it won't get better in the future.

One caveat - one reason to use TMenuBar might be if you are using FMX's custom styling options, and want your menu bars to fully participate.

Upvotes: 2

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