[fpc-pascal] Free Pascal widget set

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 22:24:33 +0200
"Graeme Geldenhuys" <graemeg.lists at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 8/18/06, Darius Blaszijk <dhkblaszyk at zeelandnet.nl> wrote:
> > Just a note, but the "auto-sizing" of components as depicted in the
> > fig2. example is perfectly possible with Anchoring already. There's
> > no need for a layout manager for that functionality.
> >
> > Darius
> 
> Lazarus has much better anchoring support that Delphi, I have to
> admit.  But "auto-sizing" is just one of the things the Layout
> Managers do.  It also aligns the components, positions them, prevents
> them from being clipped (setting minimum allowed size) when the form
> is resized, etc...  All this by just creating a layout manager and
> inserting widgets into it.
> 
> Take a look at the attached screenshot.  This is how most of the
> dialogs in Lazarus look to me.  It is compiled with Gtk1.  Most of the
> captions are clipped, group boxes don't align...  It doesn't resize
> the controls when the dialog resizes.

Right. This dialog is not using all LCL abilities.


>  Those problems will never
> happen in fpGUI, no matter the language, resolution, dpi setting, etc.
>  Yes, I have tried to recreate that exact screen using Lazarus with
> all its anchoring features and alignment features.  I never got it to
> work 100% and it wasn't easy at all.
> 
> Good news is, if you don't like the Box and Grid Layouts, you can
> always use the Fixed Layout, which then allows you to place component
> anywhere without auto-align and positioning.

yes, both approaches have their pros and cons. The rule based Box/Grid
layout is never overlapping, but more work to setup and is more
difficult to change. While the 'fixed' layout is quite the opposite:
Easy to learn, easy to setup, easy to change and easily overlaps.
The never overlapping feature is important for platform/theme
independent software, while the other approach is more comfortable for
the rapid application goal.
The LCL has already Boxes and simple Grids. Complex Grids are missing.
You can use the autosizing properties to prevent overlapping, but then
you loose the ability to easily change the layout.
I think, best would would be the 'fixed' layout editing plus automatic
anti overlapping and some properties to fine tune the automatic.
Delphi has Scaling, which is easy to implement, but does not work for
different languages.
It should more work like: If a control overlaps, then the
overlapped controls must be moved and maybe the parent enlarged.


Mattias