Under Windows (XP SP3) the Version page of Lazarus' About dialog does not display correctly, with 'Lazarus' text obscuring 'Free Pascal' (see attached screenshot).
By amending the OnPaint method of the PaintBox1 control in \lazarus\ide\aboutfrm.pas
as follows:

procedure TForm1.PaintBox1Paint(Sender: TObject);
begin
  with PaintBox1.Canvas do
  begin
    Font.Color:= RGBToColor(63,97,197);
    Font.Size:= 14;                           // Font.Size:= 16;
    TextOut(66,0, 'Free Pascal');  // TextOut(55,0, 'Free Pascal');
    Font.Size:= 24;                          // Font.Size:= 36;
    Font.Style:= [fsBold];
    TextOut(51,20, 'Lazarus');     // TextOut(5,10, 'Lazarus');
    Brush.Color:= clRed;
    Pen.Color:= clRed;
    Rectangle(60,63,170,81);
    Font.Color:= clWhite;
    Font.Size:= 10;
    TextOut(90,63, 'Project');
  end;
end;

the page displays correctly in Windows.
Presumably the developer of this bit of the ide tried it on his Mac or Linux system and it displayed OK as coded in the repository.

Is there a cross-platform way to code such fancily formatted strings which would ensure they are centred and non-overlapping and so avoid altogether the need to hard-code pixel positions and text lengths?

yours

Howard
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Changed now !

2009/11/2 Howard Page-Clark

2009/11/2 Howard Page-Clark :

Is there a cross-platform way to code such fancily formatted strings which would ensure they are centred and non-overlapping and so avoid altogether the need to hard-code pixel positions and text lengths?

Yes, it's called "layout managers". Something most Linux & all Java widgetsets support, and something that will be well worth implementing in LCL. MiG Layout might be the best candidate of them all.

http://www.miglayout.com

Download the Swing demo and give it a try. It has awesome features and NO nested layout managers. All you need for any dialog is one instance of MiG Layout.