Had to give up on Lazarus [SOLVED]

[jmLandsvik]

-Wiki pages...
just a small sample...

(I tryed some samples from the Office Automation page today, and Part 1 worked. (Still, I wonder if the code was tested, it was missing a ";")
Then the next part of the example ended in SIGSEGV,,,)

Did you fix it?
It's a wiki, everyone can contribute.

I will when I figure out why it is not working...

//JM

[Martin_fr]

I meant the ";" that was missing.

The rest will of course be appreciated too.

[picstart]

New users of Delphi got good help support. Strangely Lazarus offline help is difficult to install. It is a paradox that help should need it's own wiki help files to install it. Sure the online help is there with the official install.Yes there are the downloads for off line use but navigating the install and praying it just might work; often will be too much for new users. I know those who write perfect code don't need any help from help That's fair enough but for others I think the help download shouldn't be just get the files place them somewhere like lazarus\docs\html then navigate the environment options to set up paths etc. It should be download either html or chm then install it like it was a component. New users are very likely to need help the most, some not getting the kind of help system Delphi VB etc provide will select against Lazarus thinking only those that won't ever need help can use it.  Cars have oxygen sensors but most don't need to know where it is placed under the hood to pick their kid up from school.

For lazarus you need to know where the oxygen sensor is
Ex. here are the instructions for a new user first installing html help

HTML documentation of Lazarus
=============================

This directory contains the tools to create the HTML documentation for lazarus.
The documentation is stored in fpdoc format in the docs/xml/ directory.

For UNIXes:

The script build_html.sh will automatically create the whole HTML
documentation.

For Windows:

Build the project build_lcl_docs.lpi, fix the PATH in the build_html.bat batch script to your local instalation and then run the script, or run build_lcl_docs.exe directly.

[LuizAmérico]

@Dave:

This is a misuse of TDBListBox. You must fill the Items property in design or at runtime

See http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=14827

If you want to fill a list from another database use TDBLookupListBox

I did some fixes in svn version in both controls

[Robot]

@ picstart :
i think installing offline help in lazarus is very simple.
indonesian student can visit my blog at http://blog.umy.ac.id/robi/2011/05/06/setting-context-help-di-lazarus/
sory i cannot explain in english.

[jmLandsvik]

I meant the ";" that was missing.

The rest will of course be appreciated too.

Yup, done...

But the rest... I did try it on wife's laptop, with office 2003 on, and it still did not work!
Could the person that wrote that sample please contact me?
(or anybody else that have it working)

AND, why, put up sample code when it is not complete?
No declarations, and still we expect newbies to get it working?

have a nice->day
WriteLn('Jan Magne') ;

[Marc]

This is an interesting case...

With that I mean:
-The installer could be more "intelligent", (automatic downloading by config selections)
as mentioned above, upgrading can be a risky bussiness. (I have a Linux box where after upgrading the components are completely *messed* up)

If you, who knows what system he is running and what packages are installed, messed up an upgrade, how should an installer know this for all possible installed packages, for all possible linux distros and for every available version ?
Each installation has it's own different settings which cannot handled simply by an all covering installer.

[davesimplewear]

Thank you Luiz for your comment, I simply forgot that is the way you use it.

Rgeards
Dave

[jmLandsvik]

I meant the ";" that was missing.

The rest will of course be appreciated too.

Well, finally, I just migth be able to do that too... 
(Fix the excel stuff on this page that is: http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Office_Automation )

I just found out that the link (http://tcoq.free.fr/composants.html) to ExcelInterface is outdated.
The right link is: http://www.tcoq.org/composants
AND the package/component has changed name to SpreadSheetInterface.

So, after 3 days of struggle, and 10 mails with Thierry (tnx for the time man), 5 mins. ago, I was able to poplate 3 cells in excel, and change bgcolor on the second one... 

oki, nuff... anybody can tell/PM me where to also put this informations. (my head is lost by all this back and forth)

----------
inc(days) ;
inc(recompile) ;
success.add('Working!') ;
exit('have a nice day') ;

[PaulW]

As the original poster to this thread, I thought I'd post a follow-up.  Having read early comments and suggestions, I decided to keep plugging away with Lazarus.  I found the solution to a couple of my problems and am a bit encouraged.  Part of my problem has to do with the lack of documentation.  Sure, the three .chm files help; but, I found nothing that, for example, explained all the properties for a TDBGrid (just an example).  I've looked for reference books like the ones I have for MS-Access and VB but found none at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.  I'll hang in there for a while and see how it goes.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.  Looks like the content of this thread has digressed from my original post.

[NelsonN]

Part of my problem has to do with the lack of documentation.

When you get stuck use Google. Make sure you be specific on your search and use keywords for what you are looking for specifically. I fyou get error message, use parts of the message you know can be found thru Google using a quoted string.

Even though there are differences, you will find a lot of info on Delphi components and codes that will help you with your FPC coding. Older Delphi programming books are great for references and ideas (I use them).

When searching in a specific site with Google use "site:".

For example:

array site:delphibasics.co.uk

Here a few sites I found with Google over the months I have been developing with FPC:

http://www.friends-of-fpc.org/view/

http://www.delphibasics.co.uk/index.html

http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/en/Working_with_controls_Index

http://users.iafrica.com/d/da/dart/zen/Articles/TTreeView/TTreeView_Main.html

[Ñuño_Martínez]

I'm confused.  If I remember correctly, I did wrote a post here, didn't I?

[Marc]

I'm confused.  If I remember correctly, I did wrote a post here, didn't I?

I vaguely recall something yes.

[NelsonN]

I'm confused.  If I remember correctly, I did wrote a post here, didn't I?

No, I am confused. What link? Please provide the post, thank you.

[SteveF]

As the original poster to this thread, I thought I'd post a follow-up.  Having read early comments and suggestions, I decided to keep plugging away with Lazarus.  I found the solution to a couple of my problems and am a bit encouraged.  Part of my problem has to do with the lack of documentation.  Sure, the three .chm files help; but, I found nothing that, for example, explained all the properties for a TDBGrid (just an example).  I've looked for reference books like the ones I have for MS-Access and VB but found none at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.  I'll hang in there for a while and see how it goes.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.  Looks like the content of this thread has digressed from my original post.

I'm also here from a MS Access/VB background, and have sometimes run into similar roadblocks.  One thing I've learned is that the "Lazarus/Delphi way" to interface with databases is not the same as the "Access/VB way"; the basic concepts and approaches seem different.  It reminds in some ways of the shift in thinking that dBase/FoxFro developers have to undergo to maximize their efficiency when working in Access: yes, they can continue with the same old techniques and bang their head against the wall; or embrace the "Access way" and have a much smoother road ahead.

One site I found very useful in wrapping my head around such things is delphi.about.com, run by Zarko Gajic.  He has an extensive section on database development which I found very useful.  Things I learned there enabled me to quickly and easily set up DBGrid components which look and behave the way I'd expect ListBox controls to behave in Access.

Finally: don't overlook third-party alternatives to native Lazarus components.  I've relieved much of my initial head-banging pain in setting up database connections and building reports by using ZeosLib components for the connections and FortesReport for report writing.  I turned to these after getting very frustrated with the native Lazarus equivalents not working as I expected -- OK, maybe they work for others, and maybe there's some obscure setting that I missed that would make them work for me, but that was exactly the problem: it was so obscure that I couldn't find it even with some support from the forum here.  The third-party stuff worked "out-of-the-box" as the available documentation said it should; no obscure settings needed.

Steve