Release history

VCL2FMXConverter change log

A clear record of the improvements delivered in v5.0 Vanguard and v6.0 Navigator.

Version 5

v5.0 Vanguard

Established the field-tested, contract-driven engineering foundation for reliable VCL-to-FMX migration assistance.

September 2, 2026

v6.0 Navigator

Builds on Vanguard with stronger reporting architecture, designer-owned UI, mapping-pack discipline, and compiler-backed validation.

Version 5

VCL2FMXConverter v5.0 Vanguard

Vanguard established the converter's mature, field-tested, contract-driven baseline and strengthened conversion behavior across real Delphi projects.

v5.0

227Conversion contracts

Win32Release build

Win64Release build

Apache 2.0Open-source license

Contract-driven engineering

Introduced executable conversion contracts as the principal trust mechanism.
Expanded the final v5 suite to 227 expectations.
Covered Pascal rewriting, DFM conversion, project generation, reporting, uses clauses, Windows messages, graphics, data-aware controls, LiveBindings, encoding, includes, and third-party mappings.
Turned real field failures into reusable project-independent regression fixtures.

Dry-run and include analysis

Added dry-run preview without writing converted source, form, or project files.
Analyzed Delphi include files while preserving the original directives.
Copied included files to matching output locations.
Handled nested, missing, external, conditional, recursive, and UTF-8 include cases.

Pascal and project conversion

Strengthened class, record, helper, routine, attribute, overload, constructor, destructor, and parameterless-method recognition.
Corrected wrapped parameter boundaries and inline class terminators.
Improved compiler-directive, comment, string, inactive-code, and encoding protection.
Improved generated project files, unit references, conditional uses blocks, and implementation-only units.
Prevented unnecessary VCL, Winapi, and FMX unit insertion.

Windows messaging

Added category-based recognition of message APIs, message declarations, overrides, records, constants, and custom offsets.
Covered SendMessage, PostMessage, message pumps, Control.Perform, WndProc, and major message families.
Protected comments, strings, user-defined methods, and unrelated names from false positives.
Improved system-command reporting and unsupported-routine boundaries, including nested try/except structures.

Graphics and form fidelity

Converted common VCL and GDI drawing operations toward FMX canvas operations where reliable.
Added visual-review warnings where mechanical conversion cannot guarantee equivalence.
Improved pens, brushes, fonts, rectangles, ellipses, polygons, text drawing, image APIs, form dimensions, and integer math.
Added DFM/FMXL fidelity checks for missing events, objects, visual properties, captions, and child ordering.

Data and third-party components

Improved data-source, dataset, data-aware control, grid, navigator, lookup, and client-dataset analysis.
Expanded transparent JSON mapping packs for major third-party component families.
Added mapping-gap detection and starter mapping suggestions.
Distinguished converted, partial, report-only, and manual-review outcomes.

Reporting

Improved text and HTML reports, totals, grouping, issue locations, and recommendations.
Reduced duplicate or misleading issue counts.
Improved explanations for unsupported APIs, Windows behavior, mapping-pack decisions, unknown components, properties, and events.
Kept dry-run and normal conversion reporting consistent.

Field-test corrections

Corrected regressions identified through extensive real-world Delphi project testing.
Prevented database fields and application-owned forms from being classified as unknown third-party components.
Prevented SQL expressions such as COUNT(*) from being interpreted as Pascal comments.
Added large-unit coverage and corrected parser, tokenizer, report, and dry-run regressions.

Documentation, website, and distribution

Added or substantially updated the User Guide, Engineering Guide, Contracts Guide, Contract System Overview, Runtime Flow, rules and component references, mapping-pack documentation, and known limits.
Prepared Apache 2.0 source distributions while excluding executables, DCUs, build output, private tools, and temporary artifacts.
Added the home and downloads pages, canonical URLs, sitemaps, analytics, Search Console verification, and automatic translation.
Protected product names from translation and added bilingual, alphabetized language labels.

Validation completed

227 of 227 conversion contracts passed.
Win32 and Win64 Release builds passed.
Multiple independent static-review rounds were completed.
Real-project testing passed after confirmed regressions were corrected.

Known boundaries

Vanguard is a migration assistant, not a complete VCL-to-FMX compiler.
Windows behavior, GDI drawing, custom painting, and some media events may require redesign.
Include files are analyzed and preserved rather than fully inlined.
Full compiler-grade cross-unit resolution is incomplete.
Every generated project still requires compilation, testing, and developer review.

Version 6 · September 2, 2026

VCL2FMXConverter v6.0 Navigator

Navigator concentrates on maintainability, report integrity, designer-owned UI, mapping-pack discipline, and stronger proof that generated output behaves as intended.

v6.0

227Contracts passed

189Generated fixtures compiled

66Regression guards passed

63Acceptance checks passed

22Mapping packs validated

493Mapping rules validated

Navigator identity and UI

Renamed the active release from Vanguard to Navigator.
Synchronized the form caption, designer badge, source identity, project metadata, executable information, and website.
Added a per-iteration application build number, date, and time while keeping ordinary documentation build-neutral.
Moved the dry-run control and remaining visual ownership into MainForm.fmx.
Removed runtime-created visual controls and runtime-painted Vanguard branding.
Corrected badge sizing, centering, Navigator color, hero-button spacing, and Help access.
Added designer-owned minimum window constraints and UI ownership guards.

Report architecture

Captured exact normalized golden outputs for representative text and HTML reports.
Added explicit checks for totals, severity, category, file, line, ordering, escaping, recommendations, and parity.
Introduced a shared internal report snapshot and stable issue identity.
Moved text rendering to Converter.Reporting.Text.
Moved HTML rendering to Converter.Reporting.Html.
Reduced the principal report procedure to approximately 552 lines while preserving normalized output.

Deterministic JSON reporting

Added VCL_to_FMX_Conversion_Report.json.
Established schema vcl2fmx.report.v1.
Added raw issues, stable identities, risk outcomes, manual-review groups, loaded packs, mapping usage, and conversion-log entries.
Distinguished detailed, dry-run-preview, and actionable informational issues.
Protected representative text, HTML, and JSON artifacts with exact normalized contracts.

Maintainability and verified cleanup

Centralized shared lexical behavior and removed duplicate string-literal stripping routines.
Reviewed dictionary comparers individually and applied case-insensitive semantics only to appropriate Delphi, vendor, component, and path keys.
Completed the E35 reachability audit.
Removed only methods proven unreferenced and unreachable through events, published members, interfaces, pointers, or RTTI.
Added permanent guards for the verified cleanup boundaries.

Parser, generator, and mapper split

Separated DFM object parsing from FMX text generation.
Established Converter.Generator.FMX as the FMX emission owner.
Separated static mapping catalogs into Converter.Mapper.Catalog.
Preserved public parser and mapper entry points.
Added delegation guards and registered extracted units in the Delphi project.

Mapping-pack discipline

Established schema vcl2fmx.mapping-pack.v1.
Validated 22 bundled packs containing 493 rules.
Rejected invalid schemas, semantic versions, actions, modes, classes, confidence values, pack IDs, and class collisions.
Added reusable positive and negative schema validation.
Renamed bundled packs to stable, version-neutral filenames.
Changed mapping-gap export into a complete, schema-bearing starter pack with deduplicated candidates and preserved evidence.

Isolated, trustworthy validation

Added contract-runner provenance, timestamps, SHA-256 recording, and stale-runner rejection.
Moved contracts and field regressions into unique temporary workspaces.
Prevented validation from modifying tracked fixtures or accumulating generated reports.
Parsed and validated every generated JSON report and declared auxiliary JSON artifact.
Added isolated reruns for timing-sensitive large-unit analysis without weakening its budget.

Compiled generated output

Added compiler-backed validation for every eligible generated contract fixture.
Aligned Pascal filenames, declared unit names, project references, and paired form resources in isolated staging.
Required explicit reasons for malformed, missing-dependency, dry-run, or manual-review compile exclusions.
Integrated coverage enforcement, generated compilation, and both Release architectures into the acceptance gate.

Corrections discovered by the compiler gate

Corrected conditional uses-clause punctuation and bare implementation-unit normalization.
Added required FMX list, tree, tab, and action-list units.
Added required System UI, types, classes, and utility units.
Corrected case-sensitive DFM geometry and caption-property handling.
Corrected alpha-blend and dialog-border translations.
Corrected FMX canvas text and rectangle operations.
Corrected generated-project filenames, unit references, and form-resource alignment.

Documentation and release discipline

Updated active guides, references, Help Doc Creator content, PDFs, runtime flow, contract documentation, and application inventory.
Removed per-iteration build numbers from ordinary documentation.
Added a comprehensive post-coding release checklist.
Added repository-completeness, fork-readiness, graphics, artifact, documentation, website, and publication gates.
Added source-package content, exclusion, filename, entry-count, and SHA-256 verification.

Local website preparation

Prepared Navigator branding, metadata, structured data, screenshots, and responsive image behavior.
Preserved automatic translation and protected product names.
Added the BeforeYouPay.html buyer-guidance page.

Current verified release gate

227 conversion contracts passed.
189 eligible generated fixtures compiled successfully.
38 intentional compile exclusions were documented.
66 regression guards passed.
63 release-readiness acceptance checks passed.
22 mapping packs and 493 rules validated.
Win32 and Win64 Release builds passed.

Explicitly deferred research

Full Pascal and DFM intermediate models.
Compiler-grade project-wide symbol resolution.
Edit-based Pascal generation.
Conversion-confidence scoring and visual diffing.
Replay mode and telemetry.
Bidirectional FMX-to-VCL conversion.
Automatic media-notification replacement and full include inlining.

Release position: Navigator remains a migration assistant, not a one-click compiler. Its principal advance is stronger evidence that automated work is maintainable, traceable, reproducible, and honestly reported.