[lazarus] Some Bugs found

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, Michal Bukovjan wrote:

> Michael A. Hess wrote:
>
> >Michal Bukovjan wrote:
> >
> >>Gnome as is available under Win32 and supported by Delphi:
> >>
> >>- manipulation of desktop files and icons, desktop integration
> >>- help system integration
> >>- printing, paper and printer setup, PostScript utilities
> >>- sound playing
> >>- mime type handling, file launching, common dialogs
> >>- configuration registry backend
> >>- stock icons / resources
> >>
> >>we can rewrite some of these things from scratch, some of these things
> >>may not be needed, but I think there are things we cannot ignore to
> >>provide an alternative to Deplhi.
> >>At this point, there are more important bugs to fix, but we will have
> >>to decide in these issues later anyway.
> >>
> >>So to say, never say never :-) I would like your (developers) opinion
> >>on how we could possibly solve the above issues, or possibly other
> >>issues I forgot.
> >>
> >
> >Will it be possible to do these things with LCL and FPC? Yes of course.
> >Will it be required to use these to do anything with LCL and FPC? No.
> >That is what we are refering to. We do not want to require you to have
> >to install Gnome to run the IDE or build something with Lazarus and FPC.
> >You will be able to use Lazarus and FPC to build something else that
> >requires the use of Gnome or whatever but the LCL itself will not
> >require it. We do not want to force anyone into a specific widget to be
> >able to use the LCL.
> >
> >The IDE itself is an application that uses the LCL. Right now they are
> >building the IDE using the GTK version of the LCL because that is the
> >most complete widget set currently in the LCL. However as more widget
> >set interfaces are developed you will be able to use the IDE in the
> >environment of your choice to them build applications in the environment
> >of your choice.
> >
> >Following your examples above, the IDE will not need sound support.
> >Applications it builds will need it and those applications could be
> >built with the Gnome widget set which has that feature. The Gnome
> >interface of the LCL would work with and understand this Gnome feature
> >and how to use it. But the LCL or IDE isn't tied to it in anyway.
> >
> >Delphi and Kylix are built to a specific environment. You can still
> >write applications for different environments with them but you have to
> >use the environment that they specified if you want to use Delphi and
> >Kylix. They don't give you a choice. Lazarus does/will give you a choice
> >as to what environment you actually want to work in. After that you will
> >be able to build whatever for whatever.
> >
> Ok, I understand. The IDE itself can indeed do without the above
> features, perhaps except printing.
> Has anyone thought about this issue? Any ideas?

X provides a rudimentary printing mechanism, based on PostScript.
I would therefore definitely suggest to go the PostScript way, as on
Linux it seems the only way.

Finally Printing support is no more than providing a TCanvas which
allows to draw - but the output is postscript. I think that this should
not be hard to realize, with the possible exception of font metrics,
which are always hard to tackle...

I think you would have to go to the level of GDK to implement this, to
be able to let all your widgets 'draw' themselves on the printer.

Maybe having a look at the Gnome printing object can give some ideas ?

Michael.