[Lazarus] Setting TStringGrid row/col border styles
I'm new to Lazarus/FPC but had a lot of Delphi experience over 20 years ago. I'm baffled finding help for customizing stringgrid to use different row/col border styles, etc.. I understand that I need to use the OnPrepareCanvas and OnDrawCell events and have made some minor progress setting custom row heights and grid colors but I don't seem to be able to find help on the various object properties that I need. I do see the popups for object properties in the source editor, but then I can't find anything on parameters, etc.. Any suggestions about finding help and recommendations on properties would be appreciated. Specifically, I need to change the penstyle and weight of row/col borders. -- View this message in context: http://free-pascal-lazarus.989080.n3.nabble.com/Setting-TStringGrid-row-col-border-styles-tp4036389.html Sent from the Free Pascal - Lazarus mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] Setting TStringGrid row/col border styles
Thank you for your help Reinier and Howard. Let me give you some background. I'm evaluating Lazarus/FPC to convert a large Excel engineering scheduling VBA program (16K lines of code x 3 similar modules) to Pascal. I developed it in VBA for a friend because Excel's formatting and shape controls made it easy to prototype the look and feel he wanted. Unfortunately, we can't use Excel to distribute it commercially because of it's lack of security and the need to revise it to run under constantly changing MS Office. The program is stable in 32 bit and we'd like to have it run on other platforms. Besides that, I really loved Delphi when I used it years ago and have converted one engineering program with Lazarus already. Our program does not need spreadsheet calculation capability since almost all data is entered directly, or pasted from form and shape controls. From what I see so far, Lazarus will let me do everything once I learn the finer details of existing controls and relearn how to build components. On the stringgrid, I should have said that I specifically need to change SOME cell's attributes, such as cell borders, and I think it will need to use DrawGrid. I have read everything I can find find, such as the grid reference you recommended, but this old brain has the remnants of too many languages in it to sort it out quickly. It's gotten too used to IDEs that step you through object properties, events, etc.. From what I've read in the archives, the standard procedure is to go to the Lazarus source code and track down undocumented parameter and type requirements. I hope I'm missing some documentation. I intend to pursue the Lazarus solution and would be glad to do what engineers do - tabulate my findings. If someone can tell me how to post a .png image to the forum I can show you the stringgrid format I need. It's not complicated, but I need to duplicate what we've created. Any help is appreciated and I will reciprocate any way I can. Gary -- View this message in context: http://free-pascal-lazarus.989080.n3.nabble.com/Setting-TStringGrid-row-col-border-styles-tp4036389p4036405.html Sent from the Free Pascal - Lazarus mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] Setting TStringGrid row/col border styles
Thanks Howard. I did as you suggested. I also did some more searching and found the Lazarus Component Library help file (lcl.chm) which gives me the component spec's I was looking for. Gary -- View this message in context: http://free-pascal-lazarus.989080.n3.nabble.com/Setting-TStringGrid-row-col-border-styles-tp4036389p4036407.html Sent from the Free Pascal - Lazarus mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] learning advice for FPC/Lazarus noob
Hi Gour, I've been programming for 53 years, learning everything from machine and assembler languages to various OOPs. When Delphi first came out I used it for four or five years and liked it. After retiring I was hired to write a program to run on multiple platforms. I settled on FPC and elected to use the Lazarus GUI before trying anything else in order to learn Lazarus's limitations. I purchased the "Lazarus, the Complete Guide" and "Learn to Program Using Pascal" package. I refer to the guide when exploring methods, but find myself reaching most often for Howard Page-Smith's "Learn to Program Using Lazarus". It has excellent examples and got me going in a hurry. Like any language where you can get to the guts of things, the learning curve can be long, maybe even continuous. The forum is also an excellent resource when you need a question answered. I do Google searches starting with "Pascal Lazarus" and usually end up finding the answer in the forum. I got "The Blaise Pascal Magazine" going back a bunch of issues as a bonus when I ordered the package and found many excellent articles in them. Gary On 8/3/2015 3:58 AM, Gour wrote: Hello, after (too) much time exploring/evaluating different languages, I’ve finally decided to use use FPC/Lazarus to write open-source multi-platform desktop GUI app… It would be kind of semi-hobby project and the reason why I took so long to decide about Pascal is that I was using it long ago (>20yrs) while studying software engineering on the University (we had to write some compiler using TP, so I thought that some better language did evolve. :-) Of course, there are some interesting *languages*, but I simply do not buy what web+JS is the only way to go to write app these days, and that’s where FPC/Lazarus are shining very brightly!! However, in the meantime, programming did not become my bread’n’butter, so although programming is not strange/new thing to me, I need some refreshment and looking for adequate literature/docs to equip myself to use FPC/Lazarus for my GUI project… I there is a ’bundle’ http://www.blaisepascal.eu/index.php?actie=./subscribers/lazarusbookinfoEnglish offering to buy Lazarus Complete Guide and get Learn to Program Using Lazarus as downloadable PDF, so I wonder if it is good-enough for learning FPC and start with Lazarus? I’m aware there are lot of online docs available, but I am simply accustomed to use/hold concrete books (if possible) and reduce my time of starring at computer screens to save my eyes a bit. Another option which I’ve found is: “Getting Started with Lazarus and Free Pascal: A beginners and intermediate guide to Free Pascal using Lazarus IDE” (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1507632525/ref=rdr_ext_tmb) but it seems it’s more into web development than writign desktop GUI apps? Besides that, one Delphi/Lazarus user suggested to get some of the “Marco Cantu's mastering.. series of older versions”, but not having *any* experience with neither Delphi nor FPC/Lazarus, I’m looking for some helpful hints which path to go? Sincerely, Gour p.s. I sent the same message from Gmane-subscribed group, but never received its authorization message and it seems that the message went to /dev/null, so, please, if anyone can check whether the information at http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.ide.lazarus.general is correct since the “requires subscription to mailing list to post” status usually means it should be possible to post for subscribed users, while my experience is more like “posting isn't allowed”? -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
Re: [Lazarus] learning advice for FPC/Lazarus noob
On 8/4/2015 12:14 PM, Gour wrote: Is the magazine mostly about Delphi (my conclusion based on free issue) or not? Sincerely, Gour Yes, the magazine has more Delphi than Lazarus, but the older issues in the bonus have some good Lazarus stuff. Eventually, I want to convert some of my engineering software to smartphones so I enjoy those articles too. And I can use the Delphi stuff. Gary -- ___ Lazarus mailing list Lazarus@lists.lazarus.freepascal.org http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/lazarus
