[lazarus] New component...

[Tony Maro]

> There isn't really a right direction yet.. To my knowledge 
> Packages and 
> Registering aren't really supported yet.

Well that's not a surprise, really...  They don't call it beta for
nuthin!

> if its a control which is expected to be part of the LCL 
> anyway, you can 
> send it into someone who can add to CVS. I think it should go 
> in CVS, since 
> Delphi, if not Kylix, has a DateTimePicker component.. 

Mmm... Probably not.  It's a cool control, but the ultimate goal is to
make it data aware once that's a possibility, so there would be major
changes - or at least a new ancestor.  I've also made it optional to
"Americanize" dates (MM-DD-YYYY like any good human would do! ;-) and
offer different separators (MM/DD/YYYY).  I'll post the unit to my
website soon and let you guys decide.  It uses a Tcalender within it,
and I'm not quite happy with how that component functions in some ways,
so I might just copy over much of the Tcalendar code into a new object
and start it fresh (or at least inherit a different object from it, but
I think that may be dangerous considering the development status.)  I
haven't used Delphi since V4, and there was no datepicker in it.  It's
also still got an issue that I can't get fsstayontop or showmodal to
work to make it stay on top!

> 1.) Put the Source File in the LCL directory
..... Snip .....
> 8.) make clean all

Wow!  Well, I will certainly try that (except the diff part - that's
over my head.  But I can always redownload the CVS if I screw it up.)
But, I'd recommend accelerating the development of this feature.  Think
about all the user created components for Delphi.  I think Lazarus is
finally reaching a stage where user generated components could quickly
take off.  I'm already working to convert the components I wrote years
ago.  Well, all except the TDirectXPanel I did - LOL!  If I'm using the
CVS downloads and want to update - well there goes all my component
install changes, I assume.

Considering I've never programmed in Linux before - mainly because I
don't do C - I'm just eating this up!  Sure there's still a few glitches
and workarounds, but I'm already making usable software and components.
Making it easier for users to make their own components might just be a
huge shot in the arm for Lazarus.  If a user didn't have a component he
needed, he'd be more likely to go convert an old freeware Delphi
component to his uses, too.

With this in mind, it might be nice to start two lists online - one of
the "STANDARD" included components and one of the user created
components with download links.  Or at least a list of the STANDARD
components so people won't bug the developers of Lazarus about someone
else's component (well, maybe won't bug them as much.)  You might want a
standard warning too that if you inherit from any STANDARD component
don't be surprised if a later update breaks your descendant.

-Tony