[Lazarus] How to clone a component

[patspiper]

On 04/10/12 10:45, patspiper wrote:
> On 04/10/12 09:57, patspiper wrote:
>> On 04/10/12 09:19, Mattias Gaertner wrote:
>>> On Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:33:07 +0300
>>> patspiper <patspiper at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> What is the correct way to clone programmatically a component, ie 
>>>> assign
>>>> all its properties to another component of the same class (like the 
>>>> IDE
>>>> designer's copy/paste)?
>>>>
>>>> The code below used to work in Delphi but does not with Lazarus 
>>>> (result
>>>> is nil).
>>>>       RegisterClass(TMyComponent);
>>>>       Clipboard.SetComponent(MyComponent);
>>>>       Result:= TMyComponent(Clipboard.GetComponent(Self, Self));
>>> It should work in Lazarus too.
>> It does not. It seems due to the fact that TClipboard.GetComponent 
>> uses pcfComponent while TClipboard.SetComponent uses pcfCustomData 
>> instead. Substituting pcfCustomData by pcfComponent did the job, but 
>> then the copied (original) component seems to lose its events. I will 
>> test further and report.
> The copied (original) component's events are fine. However, it is the 
> clone's events which are not as desired. Its methods code+data are 
> equal to the original component's methods code+data whereas the data 
> part should point to the clone itself for proper operation of the 
> clone. Any ideas on how this should be handled?

I have gathered the following presumed bugs:

1- TClipboard.GetComponent uses pcfComponent while 
TClipboard.SetComponent uses pcfCustomData instead.

2- Clipboard.SetComponent/GetComponent do not save/restore events. 
Events are nil. This is the clipboard text of a button with an assigned 
OnClick event (note the missing OnClick):
object Button1: TButton
   Left = 24
   Height = 25
   Top = 16
   Width = 139
   Caption = 'Button1'
   Font.Height = -20
   Font.Name = 'Sans'
   ParentFont = False
   TabOrder = 0
end

Stephano