[lazarus] Add lcl component

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 10:54:28 +0300
Àíäðåé Âåëèêîðåä÷àíèí <andrew at rodtext.indi.ru> wrote:

> Hi, All!
> 
> I download lcl component "TCheckbook" as "checkbook.pas" file. What I 
> mast be do for include this component in component tool bar?

There is no easy way to do it.
Lazarus has still no package system, because the freepascal compiler does
not yet fully support dynamic libraries.
So, the only possibility is to change the IDE source and compile your
component in.

Probably the package system will not be available in the next few months, so
perhaps we should make it more easy to add components:
- adding a new directory 'components/custom' where the pp/pas 
  files of the extra components should be placed.
- When the flag CustomIDEComps is defined, the IDE uses a unit
  'CustomIDEComponents' and calls 'RegisterCustomIDEComponents'.
  We will provide a template file for this unit, but the unit itself
  will not be in the cvs sources. So users can create it and update
  cvs without overwriting their changes.

By adding the new directory to the lazarus search paths, all makefiles and
rebuilding mechanism will work as if the units are part of the normal
sources. For example: 'Build Lazarus' will rebuild everything including the
new custom components and will jump to errors in the sources if any. 

So, for instance, Tony can add a new section to his page: How to use
TCheckBook in the lazarus component palette. Users will copy the
checkbook.pas and customidecomponents.pas to the components/custom
directory, add -dCustomIDEComps to the 'Configure Build Lazarus' dialog,
then do a clean rebuild, restart the IDE and voila: TCheckBook is available
in the form editor.
  
Comments?!


Mattias