[Lazarus] Indy package install

[Howard Page-Clark]

Hi Mattias,


Am Samstag, den 14.11.2009, 16:27 +0100 schrieb Mattias Gaertner:
> On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:44:37 +0100
> Alexander Kaupp <tanila at tanila.org> wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I had the idea to try to make it possible to transform an existing
> > lazarus-project to a XUL/XPCOM-Gui application.
> 
> Do you mean you want to write a converter tool to convert LCL
> apps into XUL/XPCOM-Gui apps?
> Or do you want to extend the IDE to create XUL/XPCOM-Gui apps?
> 

Hmm I am not shure what is the better/easier way to start. Would be
great to have it as a new LCL-Interface.

>  
> > So I need many informations about a Lazarus Project:
> > 
> > - forms
> > - gui-components inside a form
> > - properties of all gui-components
> > - eventhandler of gui-components
> > - ressorces (images, lanuage-files, etc )
> 
> This is more about the lfm file than about a Lazarus project.
> Take a look at lfm files: There are the components and the properties.
> The types are stored in RTTI and are accessible via the unit typinfo of
> the FCL.
> 
>  
> > So i think this work has already been done by the lazarus project
> > (Objectinspector, form-designer, etc ).
> 
> The OI and form designer are just editors. The access functions are
> part of the compiler and the unit typinfo.

ok I thought this is a part of lazarus, good to know :)

> > Now I would like to make use of this existing work. But I don't know
> > where to start :(
> > 
> > Can someone help me out, please?
> 
> I guess there are not many people here knowing how a XUL/XPCOM-Gui
> application works, so it is hard to help.
> Maybe you can give some small examples and/or start a wiki page?

I read this tut:
http://www.ar-ent.net/dar/arlib32/out/html/man/xul/index.html

tbh I dont event know really many about it. But I am familiar with
web-tech, CSS/JavaScript so the XUL-Stuff is easy for me to understand.
The Problem is how to add this features to lazarus.

>  
> > The 1st step would be to transform the lazarus-forms to XUL-Documents
> > with proper css (component positioning, etc)
> > Later on create the JavaScript stuff with XPCOM binding to the event
> > handlers.
> 
> Ehm, you know that there are more than a hundred classes and several
> thousand properties which interact in complex ways, don't you?

Yes I know ... This is one reason why I dont know where to start :)
But I think the mozilla-projects and afaik the GNOME-Projekt shows that
everything is possible with this kind of technology.

So the main-part of this work is to replace the lcl-stuff which is in
the app-binary as javascript-pendants. Because all gui-stuff is done in
this language in xul. So you could see the app as the server and the
XUl-gui-stuff as the client.

> Maybe it is easier to start with an IDE extension to write
> XUL/XPCOM apps?

If you say it is easier I will try it this way.
But I am not shure if this is possible, because the XUL-Approach is
really different to all other GUI-Designs. And I am not a really
experienced pascal-programmer tbh. Did too much web the last years :(


thanks again for the tipps and I hope to be able to create someting.

Hope I can contribute this to the project. Imo the idea is great
expecially for the lazarus-projekt.

> Since 0.9.29 the IDE can design non LCL gui components. So you can write
> your own XUL components and use the IDE as designer, including drag and
> drop, events, component editors, object inspector, visual
> form inheriting and more.
> 
> 
> Mattias
> 
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