Date: 29-Feb-2000 [History List] 
 

Contents

General
New Components (Preview Release)
Enhancements
Important Bugfixes
 

General
There are several drastic changes in version 5 of the LMD-Tools component suite:

• New component tabs were added and several components were moved to a new location.
• Almost all components were moved to new units files. Reasons for this change:
• the size of your application will be smaller (if you don't use package files)
• it is much easier now to find and to modify the sourcecode of a component
• it is much easier now to update single components

But: Please make a copy of your current projects before trying out this new version!!

Further on (as ever) we added many new components and improved our existing ones. We think it is 'worth a look' as never before.
The suite contains more than 200 components. But even this number does not represent the various possibilities of LMD-Tools components! For example TLMDDBSpeedButton contains about 20 different styles (like next, prev, ...) or TLMDSimpleLabel can be used to as an 'URL label' or to execute applications.  Besides that e.g. the Edit controls are independent from the windows edit controls, because they are recoded from scratch on. This means that most of our components are simply derived from VCL base classes - they are really new and have plenty of new possibilities. Drop a component on your form and click right mousebutton to have a look at all the extensions to the components context menu we added.

New

New controls in LMD Tools 5 (R1, list not finished)

TLMDSimpleLabel/TLMDLabel/TLMDDockLabel
Now supporting blinking!

TLMDExtSpinEdit
This control is a spin edit control derived from our own edit classes. It supports transparency, bevel, several number formats and much more.

TLMDCaptionButtons
Just add some more buttons to your forms captions. Supporting transpareny, flat, font effects ,...

TLMDInputDlg
Bored about the the default InputBox? Just try this one - all features of our custom dialogs are supported! (Positioning, back, ...)

TLMDCalculator
Add a calculator panel to your application to make them more user friendly. You can setup many different things (like button style, bevel ,...)

TLMDCalculatorDlg
This small dialog displays a calculator and returns a value. Further on you can set a start value and all features of our custom dialogs are supported (positioning, back, ...)

TLMDCalculatorEdit
This edit control is a descendant of our maskedit and has a 'build in' calculator button.

TLMDStackComponent
With this component you can add a stack to your apps without writing much code.

TLMDListComponent
With this component you can add a simple list to your apps without writing much code.

TLMDQueueComponent
With this component you can add a queue to your apps without writing much code.

TLMDButtonPanel
This component may be a help for you if you want to add a lot of equal looking buttons. Further on these buttons are 'auto aranged' -> from Delphi 4 on especially useful in connection with the floating bar style.

TLMDStaticText
This component is a label with font effects, ... which has a windows handle.

TLMDFontListBox
This component gives you the opportunity to add a font list box to your applications (like you are familiar with from the default font dialog).
Further on it supports transparency, font effects, ...

TLMDFontSizeListBox
This component gives you the opportunity to add a font size list box to your applications (like you are familiar with from the default font dialog).
Further on it supports transparency, font effects, ...

TLMDColorListBox
This component displays a list of colors. The color dialog is supported like you know from the TLMDColorComboBox.
Further on it supports transparency, font effects, ...

TLMDDBMaskEdit
This is the datasensitive version of our MaskEdit. This means that this control supports transparency, font effects, bevel, ...
Further on many masks are already implemented and ready to use for your database app.

TLMDExtSpinEdit
This component is a replacement of our old TLMDSpinEdit. This new name had been choosen for beeing as compatible to older versions as possible. This component supports transparency, font effects and many different number style (float, integer, currency, ...)

TLMDDBExport
This small non - visible component exports all records of a connected datasource to plain text, html text or html - tables. You can choose between SaveToStream, SaveToFile or SaveToStringList method. Many things (like exporting bitmaps) are customizable.

TLMDTxtPrinter
This small invisible component is for printing any (ASCII, plain) text files. You can setup many different things like rows and columns of the sheet, auto page numbering, lines after each row, row background color, font, wordwrapping or linecounting. Further on you can decide where to place the page numbers, whether wrapped lines shall be counted as well or not and whether the line numbering should be reset at each new page. Through events it is possible to add any page header or footer.

TLMDTextEditDlg
This invisible component will popup a full plain text editor. Just place this component on a form and your users will be able to save, load, edit and print any plain texts with the most common editing functions (like search & replace, copy, paste, ...)

TLMDImageListConnector
This component has been built to extend the possibilities with our controls. Usually our controls use our own BitmapList / ImageList with their special abilities (like compression, ...). But this is somewhat problematic if you want to use controls from other companies as well. They often only support the default imagelist. Now it is possible to use this imagelit with our controls as well.

TLMDCalendarCombo
This control is a combo box which will show a calendar for date selection if opened.

TLMDCalculatorCombo
This control is a combo box which will show a calculator for quick value calculation if opened.

TLMDGraphicList
From now on you can store any picture in this new container component and use them with our controls.

TLMDGenericList
This containers is able to hold any files.

TLMDSendKeys
Send any key combination to any running windows application.

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Enhancements (not completed)

This section summarizes all enhancements added to existing controls. For full description please refer to the helpfile.

TLMDFont3D, TLMDFontFX (used in many controls)

• added styles outline, extrude and extrude enhanced

TLMDGradient

• Added two new styles (topleftdiagonal, toprightdiagonal).
• Added possibility to create gradient between more than two colors.

TLMDRegion

• Extended ability to add custom point lists for creating any edged shapes.

TLMDCustomControl (=> all panels, edits, ...) [TLMDEdit, TLMDMaskEdit, TLMDExtSpinEdit, TLMDTrackBack, TLMDScrollBar, ...]

• property BackFX added, now supporting special image effects on transparent backgrounds (e.g. alpha blending, brightness, ...)

TLMDNImage

• property BackFX added -> add several image effects to the displayed image (e.g. alpha blending, brightness, grayscale, invert, ...).

TLMDScrollBar

• Several 'Thumb' properties are added to our scrollbar. Now you can change the style of the thumb in many different ways.

TLMDRegion (=> TLMDWndButtonShape, TLMDShapePanel, TLMDFormShape)

• Added several region shapes. Improved algorithm for creating bitmap regions.

TLMDBaseEdit

• Added property Alignment (=> now supported by all LMD edit controls)

TLMDMaskEdit

• Changed behaviour concerning wrong date input.
• Now correct currency handling (windows settings used - or user defined settings - if prefered).
• Now supporting Int64 (from Delphi 4) on. Introduced two new mask styles : meFloatFixed, meFloatNumber. Therefore added property Decimals.
• Introduced several new mask symbols (! = char has to be entered; # = +/- or number; * = +/- or number (without 0))

TLMDFileGrep

• Now case sensitive/insensitive search!

TLMDSplitterPanel

• Now transparent slider - bars are possible
• Now resize buttons on the splitters possible

TLMDCalendar

• Header: added properties ButtonFont, ButtonFontFX, ButtonWidth
• Added event for simple, restricted custom changes for each day painting
• OnYearChange event now executed if month toggles from 12 to one (through btns in header)
• property MarkedDay2, Marker2CellStyle (second marked day => now it is possible to mark up to two days like saturday and sunday e.g.)
• Added 2 procedures for simple changes to any special dates:
•     procedure SetSpecialDateDescription (groupIndex, dateIndex : Integer; des : String);
•     procedure SetSpecialDateDT (groupIndex, dateIndex : Integer; dt : TDateTime);

• Form autodocking extended!
• select sides user is allowed to scroll out of the screen
• select whether your form is already docked to the screen border during movement or afterwards

• Now it is possible to mark several parts of your scrolling text bold. Just use ther well - known tags <b> and </b> to make words bold.

• Now supporting: Transparency, FillObject (whole back or only back of the clock)
• Time offset (add, subtract any amount of days, hours, minutes, seconds to the displayed time)
• Fixed time (display only a fixed date and time)

TLMDBrowseEdit, TLMDCalendarDlg

• event OnExecute added. Now it is possible to access the displayed controls and change them (like control settings or dialog settings)

TLMDTipDlg

• 255 tips limitation fixed
• new property: FirstHintNumber

TLMDButtonBar
Introduced vertical/horizontal style property.

TLMDCheckBox, TLMDCheckGroup, TLMDRadioButton, TLMDRadioGroup
Now supporting flat glyphs + behaviour through an extended glyphimage.

String functions / procedures
Our string functions (which formally had been in several units) are now gathered together into LMDStrings.pas.
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Important Bugfixes (not completed)
 

TLMDAniCtrl
Bugs concerning Framenumbers>255 for StartFrame/EndFrame fixed.

TLMDCheckGroup, TLMDRadioGroup
OnChange works now correctly if keyboard is used

TLMDCheckBox
Modified OnClick event, so that setting Focus to another component is possible (within this event).

TLMDFontComboBox
Example problem concerning ExampleHint and several charsets.

TLMDEdit
Fixed flicker due to selecting the whole text from left to right.

TLMDMemo
Fixed row height problem with some fonts.

TLMDCalendar
Header: month display now off if heMonthName not selected (heYear lead to a month name in the header anyway)

TLMDScrollText
Fixed bug concerning transparency + bevel, fixed bug concerning ExecuteEnh (Pos > 255) ...

TLMDSplitterPanel
Fixed memory leak during ini read.

TLMDFormDisplay
RemoveForm bug fixed.

TLMDWndButtonShape
Fixed several bugs (e.g. Caption movement).

TLMDSpinButton, TLMDScrollBar
Fixed timer - related problem (if many instances of these controls existed).

TLMDTrayIcon
Fixed memory leak - occured iff animation is enabled.

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©  2000 by LMD Innovative Germany
All other trademarks are acknowledged.