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Custom Form Editor - Would a Fake Deisig time Form Work ?

 
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Blackpaw
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:59 am    Post subject: Custom Form Editor - Would a Fake Deisig time Form Work ? Reply with quote



As stated earlier I've implemented a CustomFormDesigner which registers
and display ok for a TBWForm descended from TComponent. However the ide
won't create any variable declarations when I drop components on it.

I was wondering if I separated my runtime and design time units and had
my designtime TBWForm actually descend from TWinControl and my runtime
descend from TComponent wether the'd be any issues with that. The
Design time form would get the TWinControl designer which is OK for my
purposes and the runtime would be the real implementation.

Does anyone see a problem with that ?

Thanks - Lindsay
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Frenk
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:03 am    Post subject: Re: Custom Form Editor - Would a Fake Deisig time Form Work Reply with quote



Form designer is just a design time representatnion of your component. So
this has nothing to do with your runtime component which you are creating. A
good example of such a work is DevEX Web development for D5-D7.
As you maybe noticed allready, IW (TIWForm) is descendant from TWinControl.
I think that the main reason is "hard to implement" own designer (with all
sreaminc and VFI capabilities) from scratch. (This is even harder because of
no documentaion at all.)
In BDS (D8 - D10) you will have even more problems, because there is no
documentanion, how to "parent" your designer into IDE surface (you will get
your form floating and endless loop of strange AVs). (Maybe that is a reason
that DevEx web tools also have no support for BDS?)

Regards,
Frenk

BTW,
your idea is a good one...

"Blackpaw" <lindsay.mathieson (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:1163804350.983763.246040 (AT) f16g2000cwb (DOT) googlegroups.com...
Quote:
As stated earlier I've implemented a CustomFormDesigner which registers
and display ok for a TBWForm descended from TComponent. However the ide
won't create any variable declarations when I drop components on it.

I was wondering if I separated my runtime and design time units and had
my designtime TBWForm actually descend from TWinControl and my runtime
descend from TComponent wether the'd be any issues with that. The
Design time form would get the TWinControl designer which is OK for my
purposes and the runtime would be the real implementation.

Does anyone see a problem with that ?

Thanks - Lindsay
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Blackpaw
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:12 am    Post subject: Re: Custom Form Editor - Would a Fake Deisig time Form Work Reply with quote



Thanks Frenk, I was wondering how a true custom ide designer would work
in D8+ Not well it would seem. I think I will definitely experiment
with the fake designer form approach.

Its a shame Borland have made extending this part of the ide so
difficult, there's room for some innovative products here if it wasn't
so unreliable. Its pushing me to .NET, DevStudio and SharpDevelop.

Cheers - Blackpaw

Frenk wrote:

Quote:
Form designer is just a design time representatnion of your component. So
this has nothing to do with your runtime component which you are creating. A
good example of such a work is DevEX Web development for D5-D7.
As you maybe noticed allready, IW (TIWForm) is descendant from TWinControl.
I think that the main reason is "hard to implement" own designer (with all
sreaminc and VFI capabilities) from scratch. (This is even harder because of
no documentaion at all.)
In BDS (D8 - D10) you will have even more problems, because there is no
documentanion, how to "parent" your designer into IDE surface (you will get
your form floating and endless loop of strange AVs). (Maybe that is a reason
that DevEx web tools also have no support for BDS?)

Regards,
Frenk

BTW,
your idea is a good one...
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Frenk
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:12 am    Post subject: Re: Custom Form Editor - Would a Fake Deisig time Form Work Reply with quote

Quote:
Its a shame Borland have made extending this part of the ide so
difficult, there's room for some innovative products here if it wasn't
so unreliable. Its pushing me to .NET, DevStudio and SharpDevelop.

I believe that there is the same story (or even harder because you are
forced to use .NET designer)...
Why don't you use a TWinControl descendant?
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Blackpaw
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:36 pm    Post subject: Re: Custom Form Editor - Would a Fake Deisig time Form Work Reply with quote

Yah, the Visual Studio designer is undocumented too, though the
SharpDevelop folks have done a good job of implementing it.


I was hoping to avoid using TWinControl because the framework will be
invoked from multiple threads from either a service or as a ISAPI DLL,
window handles in that case will be fragile and a waste of resources,
plus there's a awful lot of overhead and functionality that relies on a
functioning message loop in the TWinControl Hierarchy.

Thanks - Lindsay


Frenk wrote:
Quote:
Its a shame Borland have made extending this part of the ide so
difficult, there's room for some innovative products here if it wasn't
so unreliable. Its pushing me to .NET, DevStudio and SharpDevelop.

I believe that there is the same story (or even harder because you are
forced to use .NET designer)...
Why don't you use a TWinControl descendant?
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