Improving Lazarus IDE...

[kamrava]

Hi there

The Lazarus hasn't a pretty IDE. Each form is seperately from main form. It's not interesting.
Object Inspector , Source Editor , Messages , Current Form,... It's look messy

If Lazarus IDE become like RAD Studio Or Visual Studio Or ... it will be much better.

Thank You
Regards

[JanRoza]

This subject has been discussed over and over again. Have you looked in this forum for other discussions about the look of the IDE?
Everyone has his own taste of what is a good IDE. I personally am more interested in functionality than looks. And if you want a Lazarus IDE with docked panels you could always try a component like kzdesktop or wait until CodeTyphon 4.30 comes out which will give you more options like the modern Delphi IDE has.

[snorkel]

The IDE can be completely docked except for the forms.
I for one would love to be able to dock the forms to the editor tab they belong to.
It's far easier that way especially on a single monitor.  the f12 key doesn't really work that well.
I have to hit it at least twice to get the form to come up, even if I select the actual editor tab, not sure if that is somehow related to
the IDE being docked vs undocked.

UPDATE:
F12 works fine when the IDE is not using a docking package.  The issues arise only when the IDE is docked.

[typo]

It is noticeable the amount of posts about these matters.

[Zoran]

I am very surprised to see that many people doesn't like this look. It is a matter of taste. I would never use docked windows.

[snorkel]

having docked windows is quite a time saver especially on a single monitor PC, it's far easier to manage forms in Delphi XE, when you want to edit your form you simply click the design tab, want to go back to code, click the code tab.

Once you get used to a fully docked IDE your don't want to go back to the floating forms..

[JanRoza]

I am used to docked IDE's (NetBeans, VisualStudio) but feel just at home in the undocked Lazarus IDE.
Like I said before it's al a matter of taste. Some can't live without docked IDE's, others hate them and others don't care.

[Giu]

having docked windows is quite a time saver especially on a single monitor PC, it's far easier to manage forms in Delphi XE, when you want to edit your form you simply click the design tab, want to go back to code, click the code tab.

Once you get used to a fully docked IDE your don't want to go back to the floating forms..

What's the problem with F12? I developed too much years with a single 15" monitor and I was very productive. (from Delphi 1 to 7)

All who thinks it's better docked, I suppose is because it's not accustomed

[vfclists]

The F12 key is definitely buggy. I don't know if it is that way all the time or it is because I am using the anchordockingdsgn package.
It seemed to work quite well on 0.9.30

I created a topic earlier today on the issue - http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/board,10.0.html

What's the problem with F12? I developed too much years with a single 15" monitor and I was very productive. (from Delphi 1 to 7)

All who thinks it's better docked, I suppose is because it's not accustomed

[Giu]

The F12 key is definitely buggy.

Had you tried without anchordocking?

[vfclists]

The F12 key is definitely buggy.

Had you tried without anchordocking?

Not yet, but I need anchordocking. Developing without it is even worse.

One thing I have to say that I don't like in the Linux/Open Source environment is the way which features which have proved their worth in Windows are considered optional or unworthy just because they prove difficult to implement in Linux. The worse thing for me about the undocked nature of Lazarus or the SDI interface is the way in which background Windows which are not part of the IDE are visible and easily clickable when developing.

e.g. just this afternoon I was running 2 versions of Lazarus at the same time and realized that when I clicked on a form in one of them the other windows stayed in the background instead of coming to the front in the z-order. Can't the MDI interface be implemented in Lazarus?

[taazz]

well eliminating the need to use 2 instances of lazarus for developing would be better in my opinion. that means a project group where multiple projects can be open and worked at the same time. That will cut the resources requirements to half as well.

[Giu]

The F12 key is definitely buggy.

Had you tried without anchordocking?

Not yet, but I need anchordocking. Developing without it is even worse.

Just curious, why? It's the environment I think more comfortable.

Controls panel at top, code editor maximized. F12 changes between code and form, F11 property inspector.
Dont know what more you need.

Apologies for my brevity, writing from celular.

[marcov]

having docked windows is quite a time saver especially on a single monitor PC, it's far easier to manage forms in Delphi XE, when you want to edit your form you simply click the design tab, want to go back to code, click the code tab.

I've used both  (D7 and BDSD2006+ versions) for multiple years each, and never saw something fundamentally better. Yes. If you are used to one system, it is hard to change.

[Chronos]

I've used both  (D7 and BDSD2006+ versions) for multiple years each, and never saw something fundamentally better. Yes. If you are used to one system, it is hard to change.

It is quite obvious where advantages are:

• You don't have to adjust windows size and position with docked id, it simply fills all assigned area. with docking you can very simply divide working area to needed regions
• If you are working with remote desktop from multiple computers (remote desktop or nx desktop) you have to deal with changing desktop size and need to adjust all non docked forms to fit it
• If you use non docked forms you often either saw desktop and other windows in blank space between forms or your undocked forms are lay over others
• Docked system have usually ability to pin/unpin windows in tabs and able to simply and effectively pop out windows temporary. it is handy features mainly on small size monitors.

Then you should simply agree that it is better and only state that nobody have time to implement it so far as usual.
Eclipse, Netbeans, Visual Studio, Monodevelop, Codeblocks, Monkey Studio, Embarcadero RAD Studio, mikroelekronika IDE and many more already proved it is better.

I tried to implement it for myself and found out that there are move obstacles to deal with. To name some: weird forms auto size mechanism which sometimes leads to infinite loop and error message, multiplatform support for vertical tabcontrol (gtk2 not support such), use somehow theme manager for consistent look & feel with multiplatform aspect, and other. Yes, it is bit difficult piece of technology. There are some delphi examples on torry site and also source of JEDI VCL docking implementation to learn on inspire from.