Delphi classes_(re)

Fri, 04 Jul 1997 10:19:22 -0700

At 04:27 PM 7/4/97 +0200, Frank Heckenbach  wrote:

>>    Right, only published propertied show up in the object inspector.  I
>> think for now, in GPC anyway, allow 'published' and treat it as a 'public'.
>> When GPC moves to X-windows or gains a visual/graphical development tool, we
>> should be able to utilize it better.
>
>Good idea. However, what is this object inspector, anyway? To me, it sounded
>like a development tool, but now it seems like it's something used at
>runtime, right? What do programs do with it?
>-- 
>Frank Heckenbach, Erlangen, Germany
>heckenb@mi.uni-erlangen.de
>http://www.mi.uni-erlangen.de/~heckenb/links.htm
>
The Object Inspector is a development tool that allows the developer to
'non-programaticaly' set the properties of an object before instantiation.
Here is a quick example:

...
published
   Caption : string;
   Status  : (Maximized, Minimized, DontKnow);
   SomeNum : integer;
...
Lets say the above is part of an object that can be 'dragged' onto the
desired window. (Yes, I know I am talking Windows here)  Selecting the
object after it is dragged onto the window will make the 'object inspector'
display all 'published' properties of that object.  The object inspector
will allow the programmer to enter some string for Caption, select one of
the enumerated values for Status, and an integer for SomeNum.  At run-time
the object inspector don't exist.  It is strictly part of the Delphi (and
C++ builder) development tool.  You can also attach specialized editors for
complex properties.  The inspector also allows the programmer to attach
functions and procedures to events but that is VERY windows based due to the
message passing nature of the Windows OS.

Later...
Ken L
kc7rad@vegasnet.net
klinder@hn.com

Ken Linder (kc7rad@vegasnet.net)