[Lazarus] PlotFunction patch declined?

[Werner Pamler]

Am 07.11.2017 um 13:42 schrieb Michael Van Canneyt via Lazarus:

> I don't see why you would need a separate package. fpexprparser is in the
> FCL since 10 years or so. A separate unit is definitely good so as to
> minimize the dependencies of the basic tachart unit, but a package ? 
> Seems overkill to me ?

Maybe I am paranoid here or oversensitive because it has never been 
clear to me whether "unused" code is linked into a program or not. When 
there is designtime or initialization code "unused" code may be called 
internally although it is never called explicitly by the program itself. 
To be specific: How much of the otherwise unused fpexprparser is linked 
into a program if the initialization code of the TExpressionSeries unit 
adds the series to the list needed by the series editor at designtime? 
Probably none, but I am not sure... Therefore I follow the strategy to 
keep packages as slim as possible and I want them to contain only the 
code they need for their main job. For TAChart, the main job is to plot 
data, not to evaluate functions. Therefore, the formula parser should 
stay outside the chart package in this way of thinking. In particular 
since there are other libraries to parse math expressions, such as 
"symbolic" which is distributed along with fpc as well.

Of course, runtime code should be separated from designtime code in the 
first place.

>> Michael, the expression panel allows to add identifiers at 
>> designtime. I do understand this for variables, and, in fact, this is 
>> great to parameterize the function or to use natural constants. But 
>> the IdentifierType can also be itFunctionCallBack, itFunctionHandler, 
>> itFunctionNode. Can you explain how these should be handled in practice?
>
> These values can only be handled in code. Of the three, 
> itFunctionHandler can be handled by using an event handler.
> But itFunctionCallBack,itFunctionNode make no sense in the designer.
This means: If I select itFunctionHandler then the events 
OnGetFunctionValue and OnGetVariableValue are fired? In this case 
TPlotExpressionPanel would behave like TPlotFunctionPanel?

BTW I was suprised to see a collection editor here although there is no 
explicit code defining it. But then I realized that it's just the clever 
usage of the word "published" and the selection of the specific 
inherited class which achieves this. It is amazing how seamlessly the 
design editors of Lazarus are integrated.