AW: [lazarus] Object Inspector

[Mattias Gaertner]

>I don't believe ANYTHING has really been done on it.
>Are you interested in looking at it?
>If so, we would love to help you in anyway possible.
>If you are going to look at it please meail me and I will help you.
>
>Shane

Ok, I will do it.
But first I want to discuss the basic concept.

1.
The object inspector is a single form (descendent of TForm),
a combobox at the top filled with the components of the current form,
a PageControl with two TabSheets (properties and events)
and a StatusBar.
Each TabSheet contains a list of properties of the selected component(s).
These properties are the "registered" published properties.
  Registered means: a valid PropertyEditor exists.

2.
The property editors will be very similar to the delphi ones (see
toolsapi\dsgnintf.pas).

3.
Each property in the TabSheets is shown as a pair of name and value.
Subproperties (sets and classes) are shown as a tree like structure.
Editing is possible by
-a TEdit for simple types (e.g. Left, Width)
-a ComboBox for types with value lists (e.g. Color, Cursor)
-a dialog which is activated by the ellipse button or double click (e.g.
Items)

4.
If more then one component is selected only the intersection of all
multi-selectable properties are shown.

5.
Methods:
Hmm, this is quite complex. Delphis form source code is maintained by a
FormDesigner which handles the creation, renaming, searching and deletion of
variables and methods in the code. I think, we will need such a thing too.


Did I miss something important?
Or is someone out there who dislikes some behaviour of delphis object
inspector and has much better ideas?


Mattias