Thanks for the response AJ. The other factor that comes into play is
that we had lots of IFDEF's in our old code when we used Delphi and
Kylix. Moving over to Lazarus we had the intent of not needing
IFDEF's again as we run on mixed platforms. The above is a possible
solution, but not ideal. ;-)
Hiya Graham,
Well I wasn't actually saying it would be the answer for you right now -
but I wanted to fix the misconception - it is possible to use a custom
theme for just your program, ship it with it etc.
In fact in some earlier versions of direqcafe I did that. Nowadays I use
gtk2 for it and that nowadays already has the features I need.
As for the whole 'native-look' debate:
One thing keeps coming up in usability studies - every app on the user's
desktop should behave the same to the largest possible extent. So the
user does not need to learn how to navigate 20 types of file open
dialogs. More and more even disparate systems like Linux is pursuing
this - a kde distro will ship as few gnome apps as it can get away with
- so the apps will behave the same - ditto for a gnome one.
Now lazarus here offers the ability to create multi-platform apps that
NEVERTHELESS blend into the desktop the user is using - that is a good
thing in 99% of the cases.
In fact the ONLY use case where it breaks down is the mixed environment
- where people use the same app on many systems in the same place as a
major app. There consistency for the app across environments becomes a
higher priority.
This use-case remains however by far the minority one. This is YOUR
use-case though, and at least one other person here has the same one. So
for you - the current lazarus falls short. For the rest of us - it's
doing exactly what OUR users actually DEMAND.
But, FPgui is well on it's way to fully supporting your use-case - and
once it's LCL linked, lazarus will be able to meet either use-case.
My time is rather limited, but (although I don't need it myself) I would
like to help make this happen - so that lazarus can have yet another
major capability - native-look or app-consistent becomes a choice of the
developer based on the needs of HIS user-base.
Can you mail me offlist with some of the priority missing pieces ? Then
if I have time, I can send you back some patches to help it along.
Ciao
A.J.
--
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -
Clarke's law
"Any technology that is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently
advanced" -Gehm's corollary
"Any technologist that is distinguishable from a magician is
insufficiently advanced" - My corollary
The worlds worst webcomic: http://silentcoder.co.za/scartoonz
The worlds best cybercafe manager: http://outkafe.outkastsolutions.co.za
begin:vcard
fn:AJ Venter
n:Venter;AJ
org:Global Pact Trading Pty. Ltd.;OutKast Solutions
email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
title:Director of Product Development
tel;work:+27 21 554 5059
tel;fax:+27 11 252 9197
tel;cell:+27 83 455 9978
url:http://www.outkastsolutions.co.za
version:2.1
end:vcard
