[fpc-devel] Re: [fpc-pascal] Should TObject or TComponent have a Comment property?

[vfclists .]

On 12 July 2013 09:01, Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, 12 Jul 2013, vfclists . wrote:
>
>
>>
>>
>> On 12 July 2013 08:18, Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>       On Thu, 11 Jul 2013, vfclists . wrote:
>>
>>             Should TObject or TComponent have a Comment property?
>>
>>             I think they should. One for the design itself and one for
>> describing the usage at design or runtime.
>>
>>
>> No. It takes memory and needs management. Putting this in a basic class
>> such as TComponent is not an option.
>> Your suggestion to 'not store it in the final executable' is not even
>> remotely possible.
>>
>> You can put a comment in front of the object or any of its properties,
>> and the lazarus IDE will display this comment for you.
>>
>> It does not take memory, and performs the same function. The only reason
>> the smalltalk people didn't take that approach, I suppose, is because they
>> don't have an intelligent IDE.
>>
>>
>> LOL. The Smalltalk IDE "IS" the original IDE and over 30 years later it
>> is yet to be matched for functionality and practicality.
>>
>
> Yet they didn't find it possible to intelligently make use of comments in
> code ?
>
>
The comments are stored directly with the code itself and the IDE is
designed to extract them automatically. The execution environment and the
development environment are the same thing. A shipping system can be purged
of unnecessary information for delivery to the customer but they are
virtually the same, or compiled to machine code if so desired.


> Curious, to say the least ?
>
>
>
>> This comment issue is like approaching a person on the street and asking
>> him "What is your occupation?" -  and he doesn't can't tell you. You can
>> only look at his name badge if he is wearing one, and find
>> out from some authority who he might be, assuming you know who and where
>> to ask.
>>
>
> What kind of remark is that ?
> His occupation is none of your business to begin with.
>
>
Say it was a factory you owned and the person is from some department or a
job agency. Could you even call them your employees? Where is the immediacy?



> In each case, a) Your proposal will not be done for sound technical
> reasons.
> b) The Lazarus IDE offers an excellent alternative.
> c) The new property would be useless if people don't use it, and
> backfitting the many thousands of components so
>    it actually uses the new property is a huge task, which I do not see
> happening anytime soon.
> d) You can perfectly create a descendent of TComponent that introduces it
> and use it in all your projects.
>
> Michael.
> _______________________________________________
> fpc-devel maillist  -  fpc-devel at lists.freepascal.org
> http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-devel
>
>
At the end of the day there is a deeper philosophical issue here. An IDE
user is like a spreadsheet user, he is both a developer and consumer and he
shouldn't have to revert to primitive or external tools to customize or
gain immediate functional insight the very tools and program libraries he
is working with.

-- 
Frank Church

=======================
http://devblog.brahmancreations.com
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