On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Graeme Geldenhuys <graemeg.li...@gmail.com> wrote: > Consider saying goodbye to about 4 years of your life. :) Wouldn't it > simply be easier to work on LCL-fpGUI widgetset interface instead?
Easier, maybe yes, but: * Part of the work is to build controls to use the existing LCL apps. I need a custom drawn TTrackBar with a special skin, a custom drawn TListView and other punctual components. A new widgetset would be all or nothing, then my applications won't work until it is totally finished, but I need them now for some concrete projects... and I also need the skinning capability... summing up I need many TCD* components anyway regardless of any custom drawn widgetset. * Part of this work is aimed at making it easier to port the LCL. If I write LCL-fpgui I won't solve my problem. I'll have to port fpgui instead for new platforms. That's a huge complicator, I can't imagine how I could port fpgui to Android, I suppose that would be extremely difficult for me to adapt fpgui to atend all the particularities of the platform, but I already know the LCL very well, so here I already know everything that I need to do. But I am not worried if it turns out to be too big of a task for me, my controls can be used in existing LCL widgetsets, so my work won't be wasted. I took care of choosing the architecture very well. > From your posts of the last few months I have noticed you seem to like > customdrawn components more and more. > > Maybe now you understand my view with fpGUI. ;-) For cross platform apps, or >for total > flexibility, you can't beat customdrawn components. Short story: Microsoft killing Windows Mobile was the big motivator Actually I have since years wanted to do this, but I simply gave up on the whole idea considering it too big of a task for many years. Then I worked a lot on LCL-WinCE and what happened in the end? It was much, much worse then if I had started a custom drawn widgetset from the start. People running Microsoft (and Apple and even Ubuntu) are totally despisable. Microsoft didn't even blink while killing years of work that I put into LCL-WinCE. Apple killed Carbon and the Ubuntu guys have fun adding unfinished features that break Gtk2 apps. Writing code for APIs created by those guys is what I call putting years in the trash bin. Writing a custom drawn set of controls is something they cannot kill that easily. It will last as long as native code exists, and even in the case of a move like Microsoft did you still didn't waste that much time, all the generic work is preserved and can be reused in another platform. Native look? I couldn't care any less each day that passes with Microsoft pushing Ribbons, which actually are already obsoleted by Metro =D It is a jungle. They change their native look every couple of years. Not to mention how html apps are getting more fashionable, you can't get any less native then that. But people that want native look can always write skins. All I want is to be able to port the LCL to new platforms with a minimum of work and with a minimum of time loss when whatever bigshot director trashes the platform that I am working with now. And custom drawn is the way to go, there is no doubt about that. -- Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho -- _______________________________________________ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
