[Lazarus] TSplitter

[Bernd Kreuss]

On 21.08.2010 20:42, Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:

> The coordinates and sizes stay valid until the extent of the container 
> control changes.

But this is of no interest for the one designing the layout. The
absolute coordinates have no meaning for the form design at this moment.

It should display what the user has set the coordinates to be and this
is either a number through direct positioning or something like alLeft
if the user has chosen to not use absolute positioning.

Likewise if the user has chosen to anchor it at a sibling for the left
coordinate then it should display that instead of the unaffectable ent
product of the calculation.

It should always display what is relevant in the current context and
state of the control.

> A form designer is not a tutorial for creating layouts.

Nobody demanded this. I suggested replacing some of the displayed
information in the hints with more relevant one if the control is in a
state that makes other information more relevant. Aside from that: Good
software actually IS a tutorial for itself by simply being as intuitive
as possible.

I don't understand why parts of the Lazarus community seem to be so
rigorously against usability improvements and also try to keep this
whole thing as "closed", hidden and unaccessible as possible. I keep
hearing things like (analogous and slightly exaggerated to improve
vividness): "I have practiced doing it [the old complicated delphi way]
for 12 years and therefore it is [now] intuitive [for me [and anybody
else]]" or "Everything that Delphi has done is intuitive by definition"
or "500k Lines of undocumented code document themselves [if you have
written them yourself]", "Documentation obfuscates", "A program should
not give hints about its own usage [instead it must be so complicated
and give misleading or meaningless hints that only its programmers can
"intuitively" understand what it is doing and why]" etc.