Hi,

I'm glad to announce the next release of fpGUI Toolkit.

fpGUI v0.8
----------

An archived source download and pre-built binaries for DocView (fpGUI's Documentation Viewer) can be found at the following URL:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpgui/files/fpGUI/0.8/

...or clone the source code repository by using any of the following commands:

from SourceForge:
git clone git://fpgui.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/fpgui/fpgui

from GitHub:
git clone git://github.com/graemeg/fpGUI.git
or
git clone https://github.com/graemeg/fpGUI.git

Pre-built documentation in the highly optimized INF file format (for use with DocView) is also available for download in a single archive, just 1.7MB in side. The archive contains the fpGUI Toolkit API documentation, and for your convenience, I also included the Free Pascal Language Reference, FPC Runtime Library and the FPC Free Component Library.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpgui/files/fpGUI/Documentation/

For more details, please visit the fpGUI home page:

http://fpgui.sourceforge.net

The v0.8 release contains a lot of added features and enhancements. Below is just a small list of things that added or changed.

v0.8 (2011-11-02)
- New widget demos and many improvements to existing demos.
- New application examples
* Spinning Globe, show some graphics support with zooming.
* An experimental IDE called Maximus, which supports project management, compiler settings management, macro management, multi-threading enabled, fast procedure list searching, syntax-highlighting enabled text editor, OS independent file monitor support etc.
- PDF reporting engine and preview support. Thanks to Jean-Marc Levecque for this awesome contribution.
- Huge improvements and enhancements to the Treeview widget.
* massive speed improvement
* improved painting support
* extended treeview and node method calls
* state image support (eg: having checkboxes next to nodes) widget.
- Many Docview (fpGUI documentation viewer) improvements
* Bookmark support
* Improved annotation support
* Improved the text rendering and text wrapping
* Rewrote the font handling which gave a massive 200+% speed increase in startup times (depending on the amount of fonts you have installed on your system), and reduced memory usage by 50%.
- Added image support to RichView, the text viewer used by Docview.
- Two new supported platforms: OpenSolaris and MacOSX (with X11 support).
- Global keyboard shortcut support for menu items and actions.
- fpGUI API documentation has been extended and improved.
- OS independent DND (drag-n-drop) support has been implemented. This supports external application-to-application and internal widget-to-widget drag-n-drop.
- Improved the workings of implementing context sensitive help inside your applications.
- Improved fpGUI project templates for use with Lazarus IDE or MSEide.
- Included the WIPFC (OpenWatcom IPF Compiler) binaries to allow you to compile your own IPF help files into binary INF help files.
- UI Designer (the visual forms designer for fpGUI) has seen many improvements:
* new components on the component palette.
* new properties accessible in the Object Inspector
* improved dialogs for "tab order" and "widget order" changes.
* code generated can now use spaces or tab characters for indentation.
* improved File menu layout and new options.
- Improved themes support
- Experimental MDI (multi-document interface) support
- Extended the Unicode wrapper functions for the FPC's RTL file handing
functions.
- New built-in code page conversion functions have been added.
- Grid widgets have improved scrolling support options.
- Improved fpGUI language translations.
- Many, many more bug fixes and improvements. For a full list run: git log v0.8...v0.7

I have posted a 3.9 MB zip file that has a minimal distribution of the FPC 2.4.4 compiler as well as the new fpGUI v0.8 source code on this page: http://www.turbocontrol.com/easyfpgui.htm

I've also included (Synapse) SynaSer source and a serial debug terminal program I've been working on. Also new is the option of compiling the new (alpha?) fpGUI IDE.

No installation is needed! Just extract the zip into a new folder. Open a command prompt in the root folder of what was extracted. Then type "compile dbgterm" and when that finishes (give it some time) type "cd bin" and then "dbgterm" and you should be up and running the new serial debug terminal. It really is that easy thanks to the Free Pascal and other teams!

Since the earlier release on 23-Dec-2011 the file mentioned below has been updated to FPC 2.6.0 and the serial debug terminal example also has some improvements made.

Paul Breneman wrote on 23-Dec-2011:

Paul Breneman wrote

Since the earlier release on 23-Dec-2011 the file mentioned below has been updated to FPC 2.6.0 and the serial debug terminal example also has some improvements made.

Thanks Paul. I'm almost ready to push the new website live. I'll make sure I update your embedded section.

Regarding your previous message about documentation. My goal this year is to complete the API documentation, and also start writing a free "Developing with fpGUI" book. I want to split the chapters in the book into sections of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. I don't want the book to be a copy of the API documentation, but rather a more in-depth usage of various fpGUI features, and also covering the tools included with fpGUI. Including a chapter on Embedded Development is definitely a good idea, and so too are the Debugging you mentioned.

If anybody wants to contribute towards the book, feel free to contact me via private email, or via the fpGUI newsgroups.

Hi
It's possible I could help with book proofreading, and editing of content written by you or others.
I contributed in this way to the English version of "Lazarus the Complete Guide" published last year from a German original. I was able to pull together text from German, Belgian, Scandinavian, Brazilian and Dutch authors and produce reasonably fluent "UK" English with a consistent style. (I was an editor/corrector, not principally a translator). Of course some authors baulked at having their text massaged in this way, but I think the end result justified the editorial input.

yours

Howard

Howard Page-Clark wrote

It's possible I could help with book proofreading, and editing of content written by you or others.

Thanks Howard, I made a note of your email address to contact you closer to the time. I'll write the first drafts of two or three chapters, then make them publicly available for proof-reading or comments. I'll grow the book from there.

I've recently added new releases for Linux and ARM Linux on this page: http://www.turbocontrol.com/easyfpgui.htm

Also a few new releases on this page (including a note on how I recently got ppcarm 2.6.0 working for console programs on my Android phone): http://www.turbocontrol.com/helloworld.htm

Paul Breneman wrote on 4-Jan-2012:

Paul Breneman wrote

I've recently added new releases for Linux and ARM Linux on this page:  http://www.turbocontrol.com/easyfpgui.htm

Excellent stuff, thanks Paul. I am planning on getting an Android based smart phone in the next few months. I hope to start looking into Android development too. Your releases have come in very handy for WinCE, and I'm sure the same would apply for the Android platform.