[Lazarus] TSplitter

[Bernd Kreuss]

I didn't want to push any priority, I simply wanted to write it before I
forget it again. Probably some clearly written and easily accessible
documentation could prevented this in the future and I am glad that I
can use the anchors and free positioning even with splitters and am not
forced to use the Align property which would be diametrically opposing
the visual GUI design paradigm.

On 21.08.2010 18:56, Martin wrote:

> Anchors to me are same as (if not even more) confusing as the align method.

Can you remember what exactly it was that confused you?

I have seen a lot of approaches to GUI design and GUI designers with
other toolkits, they all use either a set of sizers of varying
complexity for certain purposes (box, grid, gridbag, etc) and you are
supposed to study and learn all their advantages and disadvantages and
detailed behavior and experiment a lot before you are able to make even
the simplest hello world form with only a label and two buttons and
usually most of the time you are more effective when doing it manually
because they all inherently resist the usage of a visual GUI designer,
most GUi designers that let you design with these sizers literally suck
comets through drinking straws.

And then there is the gigantic do-it-all-sizer-that-fits-all-needs
approach of for example netbeans that lets you easily design a form with
a real visual designer that really deserves its name but the code it
produces looks extremely complicated.

I don't know who exactly invented the way the form designer and the
sizing with the anchors works like it is now in Lazarus but I must say
that its invention was truly a masterstroke. I can hardly imagine any
way to achieve more flexibility with less complexity. I don't see any
complexity at all. Components can be placed and sized freely and each
side can additionally be anchored to something or left alone and thats
already all there is to it. How can this be perceived as more complex
than the usual two dozen different nested sizers hell that is used in
many other toolkits?

I personally find the form designer and the anchoring is one of the best
inventions since the invention of sliced bread.

Bernd