How to create a form before the MainForm?

Question

I want to create a splash screen (before the main form) that will be shown for x seconds but I don't want to delay the creation of the main form with x seconds.

So, I create the splash screen form, create the main form then after x seconds I close the splash form.
From what I understand the first form created with CreateForm is the main form. Is this right?

begin
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.MainFormOnTaskbar := FALSE;
  Application.Title := AppName;
  frmSplash:= TfrmSplash.Create(NIL);         <----- not main form??
  Application.CreateForm(TfrmMain, frmMain);  <----- main form??
  frmMain.LateInitialization;
  frmMain.show;
  Application.Run;
end.

Closing the splash form
The splash screen has a TTimer. The timer does some animation in the splash form and after x seconds it closes the form:

procedure TfrmSplash.CloseSplashForm;
begin
 Timer.Enabled:= FALSE;
 Close;        <-- I do see the program reaching this point
end;

However, the application leaks mem at shutdown:

5 - 12 bytes: TMoveArrayManager x 4, Unknown x 2
13 - 20 bytes: TObservers x 1, TList x 3, Unknown x 3
21 - 36 bytes: TComponent.GetObservers$942$ActRec x 1, TPen x 2, TIconImage x 1, TPadding x 1, TBrush x 3, TTouchManager x 2, TMargins x 2, TSizeConstraints x 2, TList x 4, UnicodeString x 3, Unknown x 6
37 - 52 bytes: TDictionary x 1, TPicture x 1, TGlassFrame x 1, TFont x 4
53 - 68 bytes: TIcon x 1
69 - 84 bytes: TControlScrollBar x 2
85 - 100 bytes: TTimer x 1
101 - 116 bytes: TControlCanvas x 2
149 - 164 bytes: Unknown x 2
437 - 484 bytes: TImage x 1
917 - 1012 bytes: TfrmSplash x 1

It looks like the frmSplash is not actually freed.

How to create a form before the MainForm?

3 Answers