New "TOSVersion" type in Delphi XE2

Delphi XE2 is probably the most significant release since Delphi 1.  The number of new features is amazing and probably the biggest, most important one is FireMonkey – a brand new business application development platform that let you use Delphi or C++ to write applications that natively run on Windows and Mac OS.

If you are writing an application that is designed to run on Windows and Mac it can be very useful to be able to programmatically check what operation system the application is running against.

Delphi XE2 adds new "TOSVersion" record type to "System.SysUtils" unit that can be used to retrieve information about platform, architecture and version numbers of the underlying OS.

type

  TOSVersion = record

  public type

    TArchitecture = (arIntelX86, arIntelX64);

    TPlatform = (pfWindows, pfMacOS);

  private

    class var FArchitecture: TArchitecture;

    class var FBuild: Integer;

    class var FMajor: Integer;

    class var FMinor: Integer;

    class var FName: string
    class var FPlatform: TPlatform;

    class var FServicePackMajor: Integer;

    class var FServicePackMinor: Integer;

    class constructor Create;

  public

    class function Check(AMajor: Integer): Boolean; overloadstaticinline
    class function Check(AMajor, AMinor: Integer): Boolean; overloadstaticinline
    class function Check(AMajor, AMinor, AServicePackMajor: Integer): Boolean; overloadstaticinline
    class function ToString: stringstatic
    class property Architecture: TArchitecture read FArchitecture;

    class property Build: Integer read FBuild;

    class property Major: Integer read FMajor;

    class property Minor: Integer read FMinor;

    class property Name: string read FName;

    class property Platform: TPlatform read FPlatform;

    class property ServicePackMajor: Integer read FServicePackMajor;

    class property ServicePackMinor: Integer read FServicePackMinor;

  end

The "TOSVerison" is a record type, so there is no need to instantiate it before accessing its members.
Note the "TArchitecture" and "TPlatform" enumerated types are nested within "TOSVersion" type. I like this approach, where it is obvious where these two enumerations logically belong.
Hey! Let's give this new type a try!
1. Create a new "Delphi FireMonkey HD Application"
2. Press "Ctrl + ." to bring up "IDE Insight". Start typing "TPanel" and add it to the form. Set its "Align" property to "alTop", so it is aligned on top of the form.
3. Add "TMemo" to the form and align it to "alClient".
4. Add a "TButton" to the panel, double-click it and enter the following code into the "OnClick" event handler:
uses

  uOSVersionUtils;



procedure TFormOSVersion.ButtonGetOSInfoClick(Sender: TObject);

begin

  with MemoLog.Lines do

  begin

    Clear;

    Add(TOSVersion.ToString);

    Add(''
    Add('Architecture: ' + OSArchitectureToStr(TOSVersion.Architecture));

    Add('Platform: ' + OSPlatformToStr(TOSVersion.Platform) + IntToStr(PlatformFromPointer));

    Add('Build: ' + IntToStr(TOSVersion.Build));

    Add('Major: ' + IntToStr(TOSVersion.Major));

    Add('Minor: ' + IntToStr(TOSVersion.Minor));

    Add('Name: ' + TOSVersion.Name);

    Add('Service Pack - Major: ' + IntToStr(TOSVersion.ServicePackMajor));

    Add('Service Pack - Minor: ' + IntToStr(TOSVersion.ServicePackMinor));

  end
end

5. As the last step add a new empty Delphi unit to the application, save it as "uOSVersionUtils" and replace its content with the following code that contains two utility functions to convert "TArchitecture" and "TPlatform" values to strings:
unit uOSVersionUtils;



interface



uses

  System.SysUtils;



function OSArchitectureToStr(const a: TOSVersion.TArchitecture): string
function OSPlatformToStr(const p: TOSVersion.TPlatform): string
function PlatformFromPointer: integer;



implementation



function OSArchitectureToStr(const a: TOSVersion.TArchitecture): string
begin

  case a of

    arIntelX86: Result := 'IntelX86'
    arIntelX64: Result := 'IntelX64'
    else

      Result := 'UNKNOWN OS architecture'
  end
end


function OSPlatformToStr(const p: TOSVersion.TPlatform): string
begin

  case p of

    pfWindows: Result := 'Windows'
    pfMacOS: Result := 'MacOS'
    else

      Result := 'UNKNOWN OS Platform'
  end
end


function PlatformFromPointer: integer;

begin

  Result := SizeOf(Pointer) * 8;

end


end.


When I run this application on Windows, after clicking the button, it looks like this:

When I run it on Mac OS it looks like this:

Using the methods and properties of the new Delphi XE2 "TOSVersion" you can make decisions in your code depending on the version of the underlying operating system your FireMonkey application is running against. That's powerful stuff!
Delphi and FireMonkey programming is real fun!
The source code of the "OSVersionApp" demo is available for download from Embarcadero Code Central: http://cc.embarcadero.com/item/28481