[Lazarus] What is the future of NoGUI widget set?

[michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be]

On Tue, 25 Jan 2011, Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 10:33 AM, Graeme Geldenhuys
> <graemeg.lists at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I have to agree with Michael. I also can't understand the point of the
>> 'nogui' widgetset.  An application is or GUI or non-GUI (latter
>> requiring no widgetset at all).
>
> Does it need to have a point? Some people find it useful, so there is
> no harm in including it. It has zero effects on the code of people
> that don't use it.

It must somewhere have a point, because it certainly has lots of disadvantages:

a) It deceives people. You'll get run-time errors if at any point you try to do
    something GUI related such as showing a dialog or getting a font metric.

b) It encourages people to write bad code. Example: the well-known EpikTimer.

    It is a perfect example of a badly written component. It includes
    Forms, Dialogs and whatnot in the uses clause, when there is
    absolutely no need for them. But by doing so, it creates a dependency on
    a GUI when there is no need for one.

c) It creates larger binaries.

d) The widget set - like any other - requires maintenance.  If it isn't
    there, there is no work needed.

Plenty of reasons for not having it.

Michael.