[Lazarus] Component palette enhancements

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Wed, 6 Apr 2022 12:56:17 +0200 (CEST)
Michael Van Canneyt via lazarus <lazarus at lists.lazarus-ide.org> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I'm probably kicking in an open door when I'm saying that lazarus
> evolves and grows. This is good news, obviously.
> 
> But I have now more tabs on the component palette than can fit on the
> screen. There is a dropdown with the tabs, but that's hardly usable
> to quickly locate a component.
> 
> I have therefore 3 propositions/requests:
> 
> 1. Currently a component is identified by its class name.
> 
>     This should be enhanced: a component must be identified with
> UnitName.Name. a unit name is a "namespace" and so MyControls.TButton
> <> StdCtrls.TButton.

Only if you want to support reading different TButton in one
application.
The IDE sets the TReader events and controls what component classes are
found.

 
>     Currently there are several component name clashes in the pas2js
> and FPC class trees.

The component clashes can be solved by solving problem point 2.

 
> 2. Similarly, it should be possible somehow to say
>     'this component is only for environment X' where X can be defined
> by the user.

RegisterComponents has the "Page".
Maybe it is sufficient to apply these environment tags to pages,
instead of per component.

 
>     When I am working on a webserver application or a service
> application, it makes no sense to show all visual controls.

Project/package needs a field to select the component environment.

 
>     Likewise, some components only make sense for a pas2js
> application.
> 
>     I am aware of the 'restrictions' on the object inspector,
>     and in a sense my proposal is to extend/generalize this.
> 
> 3. Please add a search edit in the component palette, as delphi has
> it: typing in that edit should reduce the visible tabs to show only
> tabs that have a component with the typed text in the classname, just
> like the one on the component window... (the component window is IMO
> not really usable if you are not using a docked IDE)
> 
> I would think all proposals are feasible, but I can of course be too
> optimistic :)

There will be some problems when the user opens a form from a different
environment, e.g. while a lcl project is open and user opens a web
unit+form.

Mattias