Re: [lazarus] Re: PDAs, Smartphones and form design
> Also, thinking some more I think that I can design various GUIs for > the same app just using some IFDEFs on the main program unit. > > About form resizing. To make it easely integratable maybe we could > have a function (or method of TForm or TApplication) that if called > will adjust the components of the form to fit the screen so we don't > impose this. One can call this function on the OnCreate event. I think, only extremly small tools can have the same gui for pocket devices and pc in bigger apps the functionality and the gui must be rewritten for pocket devices, so a seperate project is the "way to go" in most cases i think. Christian Ulrich _ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
Re: [lazarus] Re: PDAs, Smartphones and form design
On 4/28/06, roozbeh gholizadeh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I dont think this solution is a good one. As we are talking to ease things not to make them harder,or create a new interface, we can easily achieve this becouse interfaces are each designed for specific os,so we can say in wince this button with that x,y being drawned to another x,y. But the problem is: How can this x,y conversion be done? And will it always result on something valid and easy to use? Maybe we can have both options. Auto-ajust the GUI and alse be able to draw many GUIs. Take for example Skype for Windows CE: http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4128389613.html You can see that it's GUI is very different from the Desktop version: http://www.skype.com/download/screenshots.html Another example. Opera on Windows CE: http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=2588 Opera on Desktop: http://www.opera.com/docs/screenshots/800/01/ They are extremely different and on both cases. Also, thinking some more I think that I can design various GUIs for the same app just using some IFDEFs on the main program unit. About form resizing. To make it easely integratable maybe we could have a function (or method of TForm or TApplication) that if called will adjust the components of the form to fit the screen so we don't impose this. One can call this function on the OnCreate event. -- Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho _ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
Re: [lazarus] Re: PDAs, Smartphones and form design
roozbeh gholizadeh napisał(a): On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 09:41:54 +0330, darekM <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho napisał(a): Hello, I´ve being talking to roozbeh about adding Smartphone and PDA support for Lazarus. Bellow I will try to summarize some problems and give a possible solution. Please contribute with your own solutions or other problems I haven´t thought of. Just my solution I start write GUI with TurboPower library for DOS (under TurboPascal 3) any control on Form is added by function like this AddStringField(label, posLabelX, posLabelY, mask, posFieldX,posFieldY ... ect. when I port my application from DOS to windows I used the same code, but I write my interface between TurboPower API and VCL. For example, I recalculate pos of Label and Field : in Dos pos was in chars, in VCL and LCL is the same, its simple multiple by height of line. Now I hav'nt problem with different shape of controls, different size of fonts under different OS. Now I don't use visual part of Delphi (nor Lazarus), all controls are added by command (functions), and then I can everything change in runtime. I dont think this solution is a good one. As we are talking to ease things not to make them harder,or create a new interface, we can easily achieve this becouse interfaces are each designed for specific os,so we can say in wince this button with that x,y being drawned to another x,y. I'm not force my solution, its only example, and my experience with porting application to different OS, code pages, fonts, size of screen etc. I talk about idea and possible solution. The problem is we have wince interface,which it also varies a lot,so if your solution is choosed,it means to have seperate lcl interfaces for pocketpc,smartphone and so on. I have one program (one source) which work with Delphi, Turbo Pascal and Lazarus. And I'm not have separate LCL. It's only one more abstract layer above LCL and VCL Darek _ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
[lazarus] Re: PDAs, Smartphones and form design
I think wince disscussion are very important for lazarus,as it can become the only development tool in this field which is a real rad tool. Currently the only alternative is evc3 for 2002 oses,evc4 and visual studio 4 for higher versions.Or bds 2005/bds 2006 for .netcf If not choosing .net(.net compact),in win32 or native code,you have lots of difficulties to program any good ui. On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 03:04:12 +0330, Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Problem 1 - We want the same application to run on everything. Like Skype and Opera run on desktops, run on PDAs and run on telephones. And in this case we will want to reuse the non-visual code. My solution: Have a way to create various versions for the same form. We could have the Desktop version, the PDA version and the Phone version. And then I can choose which one to link to my executable. Another option is to create a new project for each new GUI set. If project groups are implemented then this becomes a good solution. Problem 2 - The Screen size varies greatly with manufacturer. Solution: Ummm don�t know maybe create various versions of the form again??? Another possible solution is to have positions on the form as percentages % instead of hard numbers. Both solutions are good. With visual studio,for supporting different resolutions,diffrent resources are used within the program,and being choosed depending on what os or resolution it has. I think we can have some kind of mirror forms,which is designed for different resolution or user interfaces(maybe even created by lazarus)and simply assign events to the original form.Although it can also be achieved by user code for now. Percentage wont work,becouse in 240x320 you can barely fit anything,so how you going to fit that to 176x220 of smartphones! I think smartphones have to always have different desings,but somehow we can do something to not require programmer to write event codes twice. Problem 3 - Some things only exist on Phones, like a 2 options menu to be clicked and various communication things. Solution: Create a Telephone Tab with components that only exist on telephones. Yes we really need that. Problem 4 - Various things don�t exist on a device without touchscreen or have no use on them. Phones and some PDAs don�t have pointing devices and this makes many widgets created with a mouse in mind completely useless. Some examples are: Huge main Menus, Notebooks, spin edit, etc. Solution: Just don�t support those widgets for phones. Problem 5 - The whole interface on a device without touchscreen must be navigatable with only the limited keys on a phone. And worse. The available keys varie a lot with the manufacturer! If you use those uis stated in windows user interface desing it wont be a problem. For more infos: Developing Orientation and dpi Aware Applications: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppcgen/html/developing_orientation_and_resolution_aware_apps.asp Developing Screen Orientation-Aware Applications: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppcgen/html/screen_orientation_awareness.asp Introduction to User Interface Controls in a Windows Mobile-based Smartphone: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppcgen/html/installation_with_dpi-specific_resources.asp -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ _ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
[lazarus] Re: PDAs, Smartphones and form design
On Fri, 28 Apr 2006 09:41:54 +0330, darekM <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho napisał(a): Hello, I´ve being talking to roozbeh about adding Smartphone and PDA support for Lazarus. Bellow I will try to summarize some problems and give a possible solution. Please contribute with your own solutions or other problems I haven´t thought of. Just my solution I start write GUI with TurboPower library for DOS (under TurboPascal 3) any control on Form is added by function like this AddStringField(label, posLabelX, posLabelY, mask, posFieldX,posFieldY ... ect. when I port my application from DOS to windows I used the same code, but I write my interface between TurboPower API and VCL. For example, I recalculate pos of Label and Field : in Dos pos was in chars, in VCL and LCL is the same, its simple multiple by height of line. Now I hav'nt problem with different shape of controls, different size of fonts under different OS. Now I don't use visual part of Delphi (nor Lazarus), all controls are added by command (functions), and then I can everything change in runtime. I dont think this solution is a good one. As we are talking to ease things not to make them harder,or create a new interface, we can easily achieve this becouse interfaces are each designed for specific os,so we can say in wince this button with that x,y being drawned to another x,y. The problem is we have wince interface,which it also varies a lot,so if your solution is choosed,it means to have seperate lcl interfaces for pocketpc,smartphone and so on. -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ _ To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject archives at http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailarchives
