There are 5 InteractiveGestures: zoom, pan, rotate, two finger tap and press and tap. Responding to an InteractiveGesture is as simple as adding an event handler for the OnGesture event.

   

 

The event handler is passed a TGestureEventInfo record which contains information about the gesture, such as location (point), angle, distance (between points) and inertia vector. When the option igoPanInertia is selected, OnGesture is called repeatedly with synthesized locations that gradually get closer together to simluate gravity when you let go.

Here’s an example of how to implement panning for a custom control:

 

By default VCL handles multi-touch panning in scrollable controls, including forms. The code snippet above is taken from TScrollingWinControl, and any descendant controls will automatically respond to panning when the AutoScroll property is True.

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Most controls now have a Touch property, which hosts everything related to gesturing and touch.

 

The platform independant gesturing framework uses a mouse, pen or (single) touch and contains over 30 standard gestures (such as Left, Right, Up and Down). You can also record your own custom gestures using the Custom Gesture Designer.

 

There are 5 interactive multi-touch gestures (such as zoom, rotate and pan). Just like standard and custom gestures, interactive gestures are handled in the new OnGesture event.

 

The VCL includes dedicated gesturing components to integrate gesture recording and management into Delphi applications. These are the same components we’ve used in the designers.

 

The VCL also includes the super-cool touch keyboard control, allowing Delphi applications to be truly touch enabled and free from physical keyboards.

 

To be continued…

 

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In the mean time be sure to check out these Tiburón posts by fellow CodeGear bloggers:

Tiburón - String TheoryÂ
Here Comes Tiburon
Don’t Get Caught with Boxes
Tiburon’s LoadFromFile and SaveToFile for Unicode characters

  Â

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After reading Chris Bensen’s recent post about naming variables, I came across the following that made me smile:

  FIsNotXP := not CheckWin32Version(5, 1);

Later on FIsNotXP is used like this:

  if (not FIsNotXP) and FInAnimation then
 

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One of many new features in Delphi 2007 for Win32 is improved Vista support in VCL. New applications get these improvements by default, but what about existing applications? There are three easy steps you can take to make your application more Vista-like:

1. Theme your application
   This will change the appearance of most controls, rendering them using the currently selected Windows theme. From the Project menu, select Options, navigate to the Application page and check "Enable runtime themes".
   
   
2. Use the MainFormOnTaskbar property
   When running under Vista’s Aero theme you need to display the application’s main form on the taskbar rather than the application window. This is required to correctly handle taskbar thumnbails, Flip3D and transition effects when minimizing the application. To control this behaviour, a new property has been added to TApplication. From the Project menu, select View Source. Locate the line "Application.Initialize;" and add the following on the next line: "Application.MainFormOnTaskbar := True;"
   
   
3. Compile and run
   The best part is that none of these changes are Vista specific and your application will run just fine on all Windows platforms.
   

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It’s taken a while, a long time in fact, but I’m finally ready to join the party, the blogging party that is. With the release of Delphi 2007 for Win32, I can’t think of a better time to get this blog started.

I work on the Delphi/BDS products, primarily on the VCL framework. Those who tried to watch my CodeRage presentation last week know that all too well. The pre-recorded presentation restarted after 4 minutes 20 seconds, then again after another 4:20, and so on until the presentation could be re-mastered. Just enough time for introductions and a teaser about what was to come. I guess it would be foolish to think Mr. Murphy would pass up an opportunity to participate in an event like CodeRage. For those who were unable to stick around to the end, or experienced any of the other reported technical issues (once again our sincerest apologies for the mishaps), a replay of the session is available for download here.

Stay tuned as I’ll be blogging about some of the new VCL features in Delphi 2007 for Win32 in the very near future…

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