Subject : New to lazarus, various problems

[BrunoK]

I have decided to get a bit serious using Lazarus, but find some things not working as I would expect.
My usual object development IDE is Borland Dev Studio 2006.
Machines and OS’es on hand :

Language : French (but I don’t think it matters)

On my left a laptop :
- Linux Debian Wheezy with LXDE/Openbox, AMD sempron 3000
- FPC 2.6.2 and Lazarus 1.0.6 with GTK2 widgets build from sources (being new to Linux, it took me a lot of time to get it working).

In front of me :
- Windows XP PRO, 2 screens, aging Intel DUAL core  2Ghz
- FPC 2.6.2 and Lazarus 1.0.6 for Windows, build from scratch from the download I copied from the Linux Laptop.

The most annoying problem is that Accelerator Characters do not work properly on Windows. For example in a form :

    Label1: TLabel;     // .Caption := La&bel1 ; .FocusControl := Edit1;     
    StaticText1: TStaticText; // .Caption := Static&Text1; .FocusControl := Edit2;
    Edit1: TEdit;
    Edit2: TEdit;

Either Alt+b or Alt+t just produces a beep with no change of focus.  In fact it does not work either in various Lazarus MS-Windows IDE forms.

???? Can someone confirm/infirm this please ????   (I’m investigating nasty WndProc).

It works correctly in Win BDS2006 and Linux Lazarus GTK (IDE and programs).


Other small nuisances of the IDE that I may investigate are :

Windows and Linux: when an error is found, and you click on the “Message” window, it comes up on top, but  sometimes when you release the button the program editor hides immediately the “Message” window. It is not very convenient regarding program correction. One gets used to that.

Linux GTK : when the IDE gets Hidden, for example by the Web browser, and a Modal form was visible, for example “Information sur FPC utilisé”, it is not restored on top of the IDE when Lazarus is reactivated from the task bar giving the wrong impression that Lazarus is hanged. That may be a problem with ShowModal and GTK, I don’t know.

Anyway Lazarus IDE and FPC works fairly well and lots of facilities (for example to go from variable/procedure to declaration wherever you want) are really fantastic. Debugging is OK, maybe not as good as Delphi, but it remains a feat to get all these things working in a free development environment.

Some of the optional packages are a bit puzzling because it is not clear what they are supposed to really do. For example I have not figured out what the JEDI formatting is supposed to do.

Thank you all very much.

Regards,
Bruno.

[BigChimp]

Merci Bruno for your clear post - and glad you like some things about Lazarus.

I totally agree about the messages window. IMO it is better if it were (by default or via an option) docked/locked to the source editor window so it doesn't disappear.

Don't have a solution for your problems at the top of my head, but if you took the trouble of compiling Lazarus 1.0.6+FPC 2.6.2 on Windows, you might go all the way and compile Lazarus trunk as there are quite some fixes in there (I *think* I saw some fixes with accelerator keys come by but not sure and not sure if they're not in 1.0.6)

If you have nothing in your c:\development directory and enough space on your disk, you could try ludob's and my fpcup tool to automatically get a side-by-side install (so it doesn't bother your existing Laz installation or settings) of Lazarus trunk + FPC fixes (=FPC 2.6.2 + bug fixes).

[Leledumbo]

Windows and Linux: when an error is found, and you click on the “Message” window, it comes up on top, but  sometimes when you release the button the program editor hides immediately the “Message” window. It is not very convenient regarding program correction. One gets used to that.

That's why I install one of the available docking solution to make it docked to source editor.

Linux GTK : when the IDE gets Hidden, for example by the Web browser, and a Modal form was visible, for example “Information sur FPC utilisé”, it is not restored on top of the IDE when Lazarus is reactivated from the task bar giving the wrong impression that Lazarus is hanged. That may be a problem with ShowModal and GTK, I don’t know.

It's the window manager, AFAIK. In my Kubuntu (Lazarus Qt interface) it happens that way.

Some of the optional packages are a bit puzzling because it is not clear what they are supposed to really do. For example I have not figured out what the JEDI formatting is supposed to do.

Welcome to open source world, where some important things are missing and you may have to dig in to figure out what some things do. JEDI formatting is code formatter, to make your code follows certain rules regarding indentation, use of whitespace, line wrapping, etc. Everything is configurable in the options.

[BrunoK]

Bigchimp : thanks

lelumbo : Back to basic question

    Label1: TLabel;     // .Caption := La&bel1 ; .FocusControl := Edit1;     
    StaticText1: TStaticText; // .Caption := Static&Text1; .FocusControl := Edit2;
    Edit1: TEdit;
    Edit2: TEdit;

Either Alt+b or Alt+t just produces a beep with no change of focus.  In fact it does not work either in various Lazarus MS-Windows IDE forms.

???? Can someone confirm/infirm this please ????   (I’m investigating nasty WndProc).

>>>>>>>>>>>>> YES or NO <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

The rest works well enough. Should I do a private open stuff branch to work with Open Lazarus.

I, actually, I’m trying to debug and correct the stuff. Would you say that GTK behaviour is appropriate or should I try to mimic DELPHI. 
There is some handling in DELPHI 2006 for this.

The meal (and WINE, not the one that isn’t what is emulated but works fairly well) is finished and I’m not as efficient with a mouse as with the keyboard (including shortcuts of course).

In the bug tracker it has been marked (very many times) as solved. But it is clearly not so in MS Windows. I don’t find any code that addresses this in the source code.

I think that solved matters in the bug tracker should be briefly described as what unit was modified and minimal information about the changes.

Regards;
Bruno

[BigChimp]

The bugs may indeed be fixed. Check in the bugtracker in which revision they were marked fixed.

Then compare with help/about in your Lazarus screen. Hint: Laz 1.0.6 is a stable/release version, it is not the newest version.

Fixes go to the development, "trunk" version of the repository. Releases get split off. Some releases may get backports of important fixes, some fixes may not be backported.

If you want to improve Laz/send in patches, I would strongly suggest having trunk Lazarus so you don't submit patches for things that are fixed, or submit patches for code that has since been changed.

[Leledumbo]

???? Can someone confirm/infirm this please ????   (I’m investigating nasty WndProc).

>>>>>>>>>>>>> YES or NO <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I don't use Windows anymore, so I can't help. Sorry...

[BigChimp]

???? Can someone confirm/infirm this please ????   (I’m investigating nasty WndProc).

>>>>>>>>>>>>> YES or NO <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

USE TRUNK AND TEST YOURSELF!

(Or read what I posted and try to understand subversion revision numbers)

Sorry to be a bit rude here, but if you don't want to take advice, why are you posting?

[gulyone]

ah ben dis donc poto, et si tu m'expliquais tout ça dans la bonne vieille et irremplaçable langue de Molière

send me a pm , in your language because it is also mine as you can see

et fais pas gaffe à l'autre banane là , il a une dent de naissance contre les fr mdrrrr

[BigChimp]

Gulyone, I'd suggest you try and answer people's questions instead of saying what you think that others think.

Thank you.

[gulyone]

Gulyone, I'd suggest you try and answer people's questions instead of saying what you think that others think.

Thank you.

I just told the author of the poll that i will help him at max by pm because he is like me french minded.

I suggest you to avoid paranoia , as long as u can !!!

BooOOOO !

[BigChimp]

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean in the context of

et fais pas gaffe à l'autre banane là , il a une dent de naissance contre les fr mdrrrr

Goodbye.

[gulyone]

Goodbye.

bye Rude banana

[Bart]

Works as expected in trunk on Windows (Lazarus 1.1 r40492 FPC 2.6.2 i386-win32-win32/win64).

Bart