Installing new packages in Lazarus on Mac OS X 10.5

[babaorum]

I have the latest daily snapshot of Lazarus for Mac OS X installed and running on a Macbook with 10.5.
If I try to add packages such as SQLDBLaz (via the 'Configure Installed Packages...' menu of the IDE), when I click the 'Save and rebuild IDE' button, at some point in the compilation I systematically get the error message:
'Fatal: Can't find unit LazarusPackageIntf use by xxx'
Is that not the way to install additional package for Lazarus under Mac Os X ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Phil]

I have the latest daily snapshot of Lazarus for Mac OS X installed and running on a Macbook with 10.5.
If I try to add packages such as SQLDBLaz (via the 'Configure Installed Packages...' menu of the IDE), when I click the 'Save and rebuild IDE' button, at some point in the compilation I systematically get the error message:
'Fatal: Can't find unit LazarusPackageIntf use by xxx'
Is that not the way to install additional package for Lazarus under Mac Os X ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Does it make any difference if you install a package using the Package | Open package file and just manually select the .lpk file (for example lazarus/components/sqldb/sqldblaz.lpk)? Then click Compile to see if it compiles okay, then click Install.

I've never used Package | Configure installed packages, although I would think that it should achieve the same results. I'm using 0.9.26 and FPC 2.2.2. It's always possible that the current snapshot has broken that feature too. You could always uninstall the snapshot and try the 0.9.26 stable version. There's a uninstall.sh script in the Lazarus folder. It will uninstall only Lazarus; FPC will stay.

Thanks.

-Phil

[babaorum]

Does it make any difference if you install a package using the Package | Open package file and just manually select the .lpk file (for example lazarus/components/sqldb/sqldblaz.lpk)? Then click Compile to see if it compiles okay, then click Install.

It does make a difference because the error is now: "Cannot find unit propedits used by registersqldb.pas". But then that does not help me either.

I'm using 0.9.26 and FPC 2.2.2. It's always possible that the current snapshot has broken that feature too.

Well, you are right, the current snapshot has broken the package installation.
I downgraded to 0.9.26 and it works like a charm.
Thank you for your help.

p.s.: I now have another problem because I would like to use the latest Qt library bindings (1.68) and lazarus 0.9.26 is at 1.62.

[Phil]

Could you log the broken package installer as a bug (click Bugtracker on left)?

Is there a reason why you need Qt? The native Carbon apps that Lazarus now produces are pretty nice looking.

I'm currently using on stable releases. I reached a point last summer where I realized I was no longer getting anything done by using the SVN builds, despite the great features and fixes being added. So for now I'm staying with the stable 0.9.26. So be prepared for these kinds of problems if you use the snapshots.

Thanks.

-Phil

[babaorum]

Could you log the broken package installer as a bug (click Bugtracker on left)?

Done.

Is there a reason why you need Qt? The native Carbon apps that Lazarus now produces are pretty nice looking.

Agreed. They do look great. My only problem is that (according to the roadmap) not all widgets are implemented yet (e.g. TCalendar), or only partly supported (I don't know to what extend, e.g. TComboBox).

I'm currently using on stable releases

That is generally my approach as well. It was only to try to get the latest Qt up and running that I tried the snapshots.

[Phil]

I've been using TComboBox for quite a while. I'm not aware of anything important that's not implemented.

I see that I get an error when I try to drop a TCalendar on a form so that's definitely not working. It does appear as though TCalendarDialog is implemented though (unless it depends on TCalendar).

If you absolutely need a calendar component, you might look at the ported Orpheus package:

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/OrphPort

I didn't register the TOvcCalendar component with the package since I didn't think it was needed, but I believe it has been ported since one or two of the other controls depended on it or its unit. You could poke around there and see if it works. It would likely work cross-platform too.

Thanks.

-Phil

[babaorum]

I see that I get an error when I try to drop a TCalendar on a form so that's definitely not working. It does appear as though TCalendarDialog is implemented though (unless it depends on TCalendar).

TCalendarDialog as well as TDateEdit will create an error at runtime because they both rely on the implementation of TCalendar.

I didn't register the TOvcCalendar component with the package since I didn't think it was needed, but I believe it has been ported since one or two of the other controls depended on it or its unit. You could poke around there and see if it works.

I had a quick look at the ported Orpheus package. It seems that the calendar component has not (yet) been ported because the original Delphi sources use a form (dfm) for the visual part, for which there is no equivalent lfm in the port. The non visual part of the calendar logic is effectively available, though.
I did not yet investigate further, but maybe porting the visual part is not such a big deal... I'll see if I can find a bit of time to, at least, look at it.

We should maybe start another thread for this...

[Phil]

I believe only the calendar dialog needs an .lfm - do you need that too?

Registering TOvcCalendar is easy - just add one line to myovcreg.pas. However, it needs some additional bitmaps added to ovcreg.lrs and ovcbase.lrs (Lazarus resource files that are the equivalent of ovcreg.res and ovcbase.res) for the calendar control glyphs.

If the lack of a calendar component is a showstopper for you, I could test to see if TOvcCalendar even works and then see about adding it to the ported package.

Thanks.

-Phil

[babaorum]

If the lack of a calendar component is a showstopper for you, I could test to see if TOvcCalendar even works and then see about adding it to the ported package.

A calendar component (and/or some kind of DateEdit) is indeed a showstopper for my project. If you could test the possibility to implement the port, this would be greatly appreciated (you will be on my X-mas greeting list forever). Otherwise, as indicated, I may have a least a look myself (time permitting).

[Phil]

TOvcCalendar is basically functional. There are a few visual anomalies that I want to look into, but it shouldn't stop you from using it.

TOvcDateEdit definitely does not work since it depends on an embedded button (to display the calendar) as a child component of the edit box and this has never been supported in the LCL (see TControl.CheckChildClassAllowed in control.inc). Although testing TO32FlexEdit today (which also needs this support) seems to indicate that this support is now there for Windows, although not Carbon (get "TCarbonBitBtn.AddToWidget Error: HIViewAddSubview failed with result -30590").

You can probably bring up the TOvcCalendar manually in your own button handler, etc. Would that be good enough?

Thanks.

-Phil

[babaorum]

You can probably bring up the TOvcCalendar manually in your own button handler, etc. Would that be good enough?

Yes, it would.
Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you with this.

[Phil]

I've posted an updated Orpheus release that now includes TOvcCalendar. It's available as a .zip or via SVN:

http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/OrphPort

See the Limitations section of the notes for a couple of fairly minor workarounds that might be needed.

Let me know if there are other Orpheus controls that you need or would find useful. The complete orpheus.pdf documentation is on the original Orpheus Source Forge site.

Thanks.

-Phil

[babaorum]

Hi Phil,
Best wishes for 2009.
I just downloaded the latest version of Orpheus that you put online and tested out the calendar. Looks great, works fine for what I need.
Thanks very much for that!