Brian Prentice wrote:
My point about showing the differences in the dialogs, one acceptable
and one clearly not acceptable, is that the solution seems to require
the construction of two dialogs one for OS X and one for WindowsXP.
Perhaps I'm wrong here but if I'm right this violates the Lazarus and
FPC goal of write once. I don't want to start a war here but as you
probably know Java has solved this problem nicely with layout
managers. If layout managers were implemented in Lazarus the IDE
would also be simpler, an additional advantage.
Answered inthe mean time by others => use anchors
Earlier in this thread it was stated that when designing an
application consideration should be given to the differences in the
underlying operating systems. This might be true but if you do this
you severly weaken the stated goal which would then read something like:
'Lazarus and Free Pascal aim to be write once, compile anywhere for
those programs which only use the supported operating system features
that share a common design'.
Surely a better approach for Lazarus and FPC is to hide operating
system difference from users.
Yes and no.
Lazarus aims to hide those differences. Examples:
- automatic placements of the about menu in different main menus (Mac vs
Windows)
- automatic showing/hiding of Icons on buttons, depending on the OS default.
The difference to Java is. Lazarus offers both:
1) Functionality available on all OS
2) Functionality available on selected OS only.
Java only offers the first. And yes of course, that is easier for
someone new to cross-OS develpment, because it protects you from errors.
Lazarus does not protect you from doing things that are not portable. On
the other hand it offers additional features for people who only need
one OS.
As far as components go, restrictions can be seen in the Object
inspector. As far as source-code goes: Lazarus can not warn you. (This
would require intelligent analysis of the source, something that only
humans can do)
Conclusion:
Java forces you do do portable code
Lazarus offers this do you
Martin
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