Hi,

I found this 121 page document on the Internet, but I don't understand Russian (or whatever it is written in). I seems to cover a lot about X Windows programming in FPC.

Anybody know if there is an English translation floating around somewhere?

I have the document in PDF format called xwinfpc.pdf (unfortunately I never saved the original download link). I also found the html version at:

http://pascal.sources.ru/graph/xwinfpc/index.htm

Regards,
Graeme.

Try this link, http://world.altavista.com/. It's not perfect, but it helps. ;)

Darius

I actually just found that myself. :-) Previously I only looked at Google which doesn't support Russian - never even crossed my mind to Darius! Now to get permission to translate and publish it...

Regards,
Graeme.

I speak russian, can you send the PDF to me ?

It will be interesting reading material.

Looking at the introduction, it's the "translation" of a C book to Pascal.

Michael.

It looked interesting to me as well ;-)
Might be a worthy addition to the rest of the documentation you wrote. Could you let me know if it will be worth the time translating?

I'm sending the PDF now...

Regards,
Graeme.

to help in creating a LCL widget set on top of X, but the question is who has the time for this... I certainly don't :(

Michael.

Michael Van Canneyt wrote

>From my point of view it is worth it - it would be great material to help in creating a LCL widget set on top of X, but the question is who has the time for this... I certainly don't :(

I am currently busy creating a FPC widget set (based on Qt, fpGUI and lptk), hence my interest in this document. The widget set uses Windows GDI and XLib directly, no underlying 3rd party widget set requirements. Integration with Lazarus will have to wait until the widget set is more robust, but that is one of my goals.

I will start the translation - just wanted to know if it would actually be worth the effort. I couldn't judge before, because I couldn't understand the content.

Would you mind if a asked you a few things in case AltaVista didn't do a good job with the translation and I couldn't figure it out myself?

Regards,
Graeme.

I absolutely don't mind, but tonight I leave on a holiday for a week, so you won't get any response before the 7th of august, as I will not have access to internet.

Michael.

Michael Van Canneyt wrote

I absolutely don't mind, but tonight I leave on a holiday for a week, so you won't get any response before the 7th of august, as I will not have access to internet.

Thanks Michael. Enjoy your holiday...

Graeme.

Hello Graeme,

Friday, July 28, 2006, 12:16:00 PM, you wrote:

GG> I will start the translation - just wanted to know if it would GG> actually be worth the effort. I couldn't judge before, because I GG> couldn't understand the content.

GG> Would you mind if a asked you a few things in case AltaVista didn't do GG> a good job with the translation and I couldn't figure it out myself?

Just in case, I (natively) speak Russian too :)

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Thanks for the offer Alexey. I will definitely contact one of you in case I get stuck.

Regards,
- Graeme -

Careful, Alexey is apparently from Ukraine, and speaking Russian in the Ukraine can be considered harmful for his health under the current government ;-)

(just kidding, I'm sure there is no danger provided you don't discuss terrorism ;))

Michael.

Hi all,

Michael Van Canneyt wrote

>From my point of view it is worth it - it would be great material to help in creating a LCL widget set on top of X, but the question is who has the time for this... I certainly don't :(

What happened to the fpGui and fpGfx projects? I thought (back then) they were coming along nicely.

Ever since I saw Pixel, I've been constantly bugging Pavel Kanzelsberger to release eLiquid but so far no luck. He is too busy with Pixel :-(

Cheers,
Krishna

Krishna wrote

What happened to the fpGui and fpGfx projects? I thought (back then) they were coming along nicely.

The first version of my widget set was based around a heavily modified LPTK. I then discovered the discontinued fpGUI and fpGFX projects. I tried to contact the original author to no avail. The fpGUI code hasn't been touched since early 2002. After studying the code for a few weeks, I came to the conclusion that fpGUI is much closer to what I strived to accomplish with my modified LPTK. A lot was still missing from fpGUI though.

After a long and hard think, I decided to start my widget set again, but this time based on the work done in fpGUI and fpGFX (after all, why reinvent the wheel). I also added to the mix some good ideas I saw in Qt. So far I have completed quite a few things missing in fpGUI and created a TODO list of things outstanding which should get it to a usable level. I also added a lot of documentation as I go (hell yeah, a programmer that documents... smile) as there was no documentation included with fpGUI and fpGFX.

So I guess you can say I am doing a version 2 of fpGUI. :-)

Regards,
Graeme.

Hi Graeme,

Why don't you release the code yet? Put a notification somewhere on the wiki with a download link, or even better ask nicely to the Lazarus or FPC crew to add it to SVN as a subproject. I'm shure they don't mind ;) Perhaps one or two will join you and you will get more done in less time.

Darius

My first thought was to get a few more things done before releasing any code. I would like to get a solid base for others to start on. Also I want to get a few more themes, demos and documentation completed.

The widget set will be used for my next company project, so I need to get a move on. The project must be completed in a year and will also be an excellent testbed for the widget set under Linux and Windows.

For now I will keep hosting the project on my server as I do frequent updates, but maybe posting a notification somewhere on a wiki with some screenshots and feature list might not be a bad idea. Start fishing for some potential developers... :-)

Regards,
Graeme.

Hi Graeme,

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

For now I will keep hosting the project on my server as I do frequent updates, but maybe posting a notification somewhere on a wiki with some screenshots and feature list might not be a bad idea. Start fishing for some potential developers... :-)

Do you have a snapshot that I can pull and try it out? Also some screenshots please... :)

Cheers,
Krishna

I will create a web page containing info on the project and post a link during the weekend to the mailing list.

Regards,
Graeme.

It is not specifically pascal, but the X distribution itself contains a good set of documentation (maybe optionally installed), on my local machine it is found there:

$ ls /usr/X11R6/share/doc/X11/PostScript/
DPMS.ps ctlseqs.ps shapelib.ps DPMSLib.ps ddx.ps tog-cup.ps ICElib.ps evi.ps widgets.ps LocaleDB.ps fontlib.ps xc-misc.ps SMlib.ps fsproto.ps xdmcp.ps XIMTransport.ps i18nFramework.ps xfs-design.ps XiLib.ps icccm.ps xim.ps XiPorting.ps ice.ps xlfd.ps XiProtocol.ps intrinsics.ps xlib.ps Xtrans.ps mit-shm.ps xmu.ps appgroup.ps proto.ps xsmp.ps bdf.ps record.ps xtest.ps bigreq.ps recordlib.ps xtestlib.ps buffer.ps rstart.ps
ctext.ps shape.ps

Especially the documents "intrinsics.ps", "proto.ps" and "xlib.ps" may be of some interest for you AFAIR.

HTH,
Marc

You know MSEgui?
That project looks with your, therefore access straightly X-Window without others widgets and is very in advance.
Access http: //mypage.bluewin.ch/msegui/. Perhaps you can join forces.

regards,
Wanderlan

Thanks Marc... My current source of documentation has been the Man pages for XLib on some internet website. Other than that, Google is my friend! Maybe installing the complete X11 Dev man pages locally is a good idea.

Regards,
Graeme.

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

Thanks Marc... My current source of documentation has been the Man pages for XLib on some internet website. Other than that, Google is my friend! Maybe installing the complete X11 Dev man pages locally is a good idea.

These are *not* man pages but really well done "article"- or "report"-style docs. Get one of them (from the CVS of X[.org|free86] ?) and see for yourself.

If you like to. ;)

Marc

Thanks, will do...

Graeme.

They normally get installed with the X11 dev packages. No?

Graeme, you can also use SDL as a portable windowing system. The upside is you get a lot of flexibility with the passing of events (eg: you can pass it down the widget tree) . The downside is sometimes the apps look imprisoned inside the SDL window especially in the presence of a floating tool bar. Pixel though looks great on three major platforms :)

Cheers,
Krishna

What are your thoughts on msegui, also a gui
library on top of xlib and gdi ?

It would be nice if an xlib expert would join Martin :-)

kind regards,

Den Jean

Graeme, you can also use SDL as a portable windowing system. The upside is you get a lot of flexibility with the passing of events (eg:

Is that what eLiquid and Pixel uses?

Regards,
Graeme.

What are your thoughts on msegui, also a gui library on top of xlib and gdi ?

To be honest, I haven't really looked at it much... maybe I should look at it again. The bit I did see, it looked to alien (different) compared to the native looks on different platforms. It does support themeing, so that might be able to sort that problem.

The other thing is that I really like Lazarus. I feel very at home with it, as I come from a Delphi background. As I mentioned earlier, I have a long term goal of incorporating my widget set into Lazarus. The way msegui was designed (not based on VCL at all - which is not a bad thing in itself) it will be a nightmare to try and integrate into Lazarus.

One thing I can say - I take my hat off for Martin and what he has accomplished all on his own.

Regards,
Graeme.

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

> Graeme, you can also use SDL as a portable windowing system. The > upside is you get a lot of flexibility with the passing of events (eg: Is that what eLiquid and Pixel uses?

Yes! . I think that is one reason why Pixel is able to run on so many platforms (fpc is another ;) )

Cheers,
Krishna

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

One thing I can say - I take my hat off for Martin and what he has accomplished all on his own.

The feature list is impressive indeed. Downloaded and tried the win32 version. On a 1280x1024 screen, the widgets look very small and the widget colors looks very dull in comparison with other controls on XP. Martin, how difficult it is to change the looks? Personally, I like the BeOS look.

Cheers,
Krishna

As promised... Below is a link to a web page showing some screenshots (under Linux) and information on the widget set. I typed it out really quick, so am pretty sure I forgot some stuff in the feature list. At a later date, I will create a full web page and put the documentation online.

http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/FreepascalWidgetSet.html

Regards,
Graeme.

Very, very nice.

One question: Will eventually be able to reposition objects when the form size is changed? For example: A line has two Edits + Label. When the form is diminished horizontally, and the two edits no longer fit the the same line without violating their minimum sizes, will the second be moved under the first? Something like word-wrap, but with component groups.

Regards,
Andreas.

That shouldn't be to difficult to add. All TWidget (most basic control class) decendants have a CanExpandWidth and CanExpandHeight property, including all Layout Managers. All it would need is a bit of tweaking with the layout mode for that to happen. I will add it to the todo list.

Regards,
Graeme.