[Lazarus] Does Lazarus have "sizer" or "layout" objects?

[Pavel Řezníček]

Hi all,

I code also in wxPython and I use its sizers quite often. I think they 
are a great idea and they are what I almost always miss in the Pascal world.

One advantage of the sizers is the cross-platformity of your layout. 
There are predefined sizes of every control for each platform, depending 
on the default font size, icon size etc. so when you don't force the 
sizes you can expect a reasonably good look on every computer you 
application can run on. You have the chance to express yourself in the 
terms of percentage or ratio but you can still specify fixed 
measurements if you insist. And you can add margins around the laid out 
controls (widgets, components).

I must agree: I also never became familiar with the more complex sizers, 
e. g. the grid sizer or flow sizer. I always build my layout out of 
simple horizontal or vertical box sizers. Don't ask me why but maybe I 
don't like things that pretend to be more clever than me ;-) On the 
other hand, I'm a bit lazy to cope with that more advanced sizers. I 
tend to build up structures of primitive sizers so I can hold control 
above them.

Still, though untouched by the more complicated sizers, I find them all 
an advantage because of the flexible and instant layout features they 
provide.

There is always a way how to prevent ugliness when you use sizers: you 
can set the minimal possible size of the entire form as a size 
constraint and also the maximal size.

Pavel