[fpc-devel] fpdoc HTML with search feature

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

[...this is maybe not the best list to discuss this...]

On 16/08/07, Michael Schnell <mschnell at lumino.de> wrote:
> > The Lazarus LCL did not work for us.
> That's too bad !
>
> What was the problem ? (I'm asking, as I might want to use Lazarus <or a
> modification of same> for an embedded project which could need a remote
> GUI access sometimes, but not permanently)

Let me make one thing clear. The IDE is great, it's just the LCL we
have a issue with.
If you develop for a single platform you shouldn't have any issue. Our
products need to run under Windows and Linux, and this is where the
problems started.

1) We have experienced events firing in different order depending on
the platform. This makes event handling very difficult.

2) We experienced events firing multiple times on one platform, but
not on another (OnClick or OnSelect events come to mind).

3) One platform supports changing the background color of a Form, the
other platform doesn't.

... the list goes on, but I think you get the idea.

Now in some case we could create workarounds and sometimes wrap code
with IFDEF's (which defeats the point of Lazarus LCL). This all worked
fine until one of those issues where fixed, which means our code
breaks again! We got tired of going back and forwards.

Now as I mentioned, if you target a single platform, these issues
should go away.

> > fpGUI has been revived and lives on!  :-)
> >
> Is the revived version publicly available ? What are it's advantages
> over the older version and over the Lazarus RTL in detail ?

Yes it's publicly available. The project is hosted on SourceForge.
For more details on the project, advantages and features, have a look
at the project website.

  http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/


In summary.  The new fpGUI is much faster and also uses less code
because we take advantage of what the underlying windowing system was
designed to do -  handle windows, events, clipping etc. No need to
rewrite all of that again. We also needed consistency across platforms
(which the LCL lacked) as our products will run in 250+ centres which
have a mixed install base (Windows and Linux in the same centre,
slowly converting some to Linux only). Some of our products also
target school kids so tend to be more visual (graphical) and need lots
of customization. All these and more are addressed in the new fpGUI.


> Thanks for enlightenment !

Always a pleasure.  ;-)


Regards,
  - Graeme -