How autocomplete in delphi? - delphi

I am using Delphi 7, when I write code in the unit, I want autocomplete the words of the tree's objects.
For example, I have the next objets: LabelName, LabelEdge, LabelWindow, I want start write LabelN and have the possibility of autocomplete to LabelName.
Is it possible?

As David Heffernan said in the comments you need to press the CTRL+Space key in order for code insight to provide you with available choices for auto-completion.
The available choices then depend on the part of the component name, method name, variable name, or constant name you have already written.
They also depend on your current code scope which means that code insight won't provide you choice to use some method, variable or constant if it can't be accessed from the method you are writing code in (local variables/constants that belong to other methods, private members of a different class, etc.)
You can invoke code insight to provide you choices even when you haven't written any partial name. In this case code insight will show you all available methods, variables, constants and objects (both components and classes) that can be accessed from within the current code scope. This is most useful when you are searching for specific method but you can't remember its name.

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Using Dart as a DSL

I am trying to use Dart to tersely define entities in an application, following the idiom of code = configuration. Since I will be defining many entities, I'd like to keep the code as trim and concise and readable as possible.
In an effort to keep boilerplate as close to 0 lines as possible, I recently wrote some code like this:
// man.dart
part of entity_component_framework;
var _man = entity('man', (entityBuilder) {
entityBuilder.add([TopHat, CrookedTeeth]);
})
// test.dart
part of entity_component_framework;
var man = EntityBuilder.entities['man']; // null, since _man wasn't ever accessed.
The entity method associates the entityBuilder passed into the function with a name ('man' in this case). var _man exists because only variable assignments can be top-level in Dart. This seems to be the most concise way possible to use Dart as a DSL.
One thing I wasn't counting on, though, is lazy initialization. If I never access _man -- and I had no intention to, since the entity function neatly stored all the relevant information I required in another data structure -- then the entity function is never run. This is a feature, not a bug.
So, what's the cleanest way of using Dart as a DSL given the lazy initialization restriction?
So, as you point out, it's a feature that Dart doesn't run any code until it's told to. So if you want something to happen, you need to do it in code that runs. Some possibilities
Put your calls to entity() inside the main() function. I assume you don't want to do that, and probably that you want people to be able to add more of these in additional files without modifying the originals.
If you're willing to incur the overhead of mirrors, which is probably not that much if they're confined to this library, use them to find all the top-level variables in that library and access them. Or define them as functions or getters. But I assume that you like the property that variables are automatically one-shot. You'd want to use a MirrorsUsed annotation.
A variation on that would be to use annotations to mark the things you want to be initialized. Though this is similar in that you'd have to iterate over the annotated things, which I think would also require mirrors.

How best to expose a class instance in DWScript

I am putting together a built-in script capability using the excellent Pascal DWScript. I have also add my own Delphi-side class definition (TDemo) to DWScript using:
dwsUnit.ExposeRTTI( TDemo.ClassInfo )
This just works and is a great way of quickly adding properties and methods.
I also wish to add an existing instance in a similar way, so I have created my instance FDemo of type TDemo and then performed:
dwsUnit.ExposeInstanceToUnit( 'Demo', 'TDemo', FDemo );
This looks a promising routine to call but I get an AV from an uninitialised unit table. I've also looked in the unit test code of the SVN source to see the use of this function but to no avail. Can anyone point me at what I should add / change?
ExposeInstanceToUnit has to be used from within the TdwsUnit table initialization, see RTTIExposeTests/ExposeInstancesAfterInitTable for some sample code. It allows directly exposing dynamic instances.
The other approach is to use the Instances collection of a TdwsUnit component, you get design-time support, and more controls over your instances and their lifetime.
Also keep in mind you have to make sure the instances you expose will properly behave even if the script misbehaves, f.i. when the user attempts to manually destroys an instance you exposed, and that instance shouldn't be destroyed. By default ExposeRTTI will map the destructors, so you may want to restrict that by specifying eoNoFreeOnCleanup.
edit: a last approach recently added is to use the TdwsRttiConnector, which basically allows exposing and connection to anything that's reachable through RTTI. That's very lightweight in terms of code to setup, but the downside is you don't get any form of compile-time checks.

Delphi - Accessing Object Instance Data from Another Object

I have my main form. Form_Main
It creates two instances of two classes.
Candle_Data : TCandle_Data;
Indicator_2700 : TIndicator_2700;
In order for Indicator_2700 to properly compute its values it must have access to the candle data in the obect Candle_Data from inside one of its methods. Thus how can Indicator_2700 access data inside Candle_Data? Does Form_Main have to pass it as a argument at Constructor time?
Both Class declarations are in their own unit file.
You could use any of the following (non-exhaustive) methods:
Pass the object reference as a parameter to any methods that need it. Of course you need to get hold of Candle_Data so the suitability of this approach really depends who the caller is.
Pass the Candle_Data object reference to the constructor of the other object and then store it in a private member field.
Make the object reference a public property of the single instance of the main form and access it that way.
We don't really have enough information to advise you which is best but the starting point is always to prefer parameters and local variables over global state.
TIndicator_2700 could have a property to link it to the instance of TCandle_Data that is relevant to its own instance or you should supply it as an argument to the method that needs to access the data.
You could certainly pass the TCandle_Data instance into the constructor of Indicator_2700, and store a reference within the resulting instance until you needed it.
Both class declarations are in their own unit file.
That suggests that both have nothing to do with the other. But still you want one to have knowledge about the other. It sounds like a little design mixup, but that doesn't need to be the case.
There are multiple solutions, here are three of them, each with its own purpose:
Place both classes in the same unit, only if both classes have a common theme/subject (e.g. TCar and TAirplane in the unit Transport),
Use one unit in the other unit, only if both units represent different subjects, but one may depend on the other (e.g. unit Transport uses unit Fuel: TCar needs TDiesel, but TDiesel doesn't need a TCar). This only works one-way. Delphi prevents using in both ways with a compiler error: "Circular unit reference to 'Fuel'". The only workaround is to use the second unit in the implementation section, but that usually is considered a big nono.
Declare a new base-class in a new unit, only if the base-class has a common subject, but the final descendants do not (e.g. TFuel is used by all transportation classes like TCar, TAirplane and THorse, but TFood (a descendant of TFuel) is only used by THorse and TPerson).
As for how to link both classes together, see the already given answers.

How to tell what module has called the program

When using [Dynamics] [AX] is there a system function that can be used
to determine which module the user was in when the program was called?
I want to execute different X++ lookup code for employee,
for the ProjJournalTable form, but this would
be a different employee-list depending on which module is calling
the form. Hope that's clear! - Maeve
There is no concept of "module" in the execution context of a form or report. Therefore there is no system function to return that.
How to get around context dependant behaviour, where the behaviour depends on the caller?
The usual method in say a lookup form is to inspect element.args() for one of:
element.args().dataset() and/or element.args().record()
element.args().parmEnumType() and element.args().parmEnum()
element.args().parm()
element.args().caller()
element.args().parmObject()
Take a look on the form LedgerAccountLookup for example, you can find many more by searching for "args" in form methods named "init".

Code analysis in ASP.NET web application

I am using VS 2010; all these days I am confortable runnig code analysis on class libraries.
But for a web application, the UI control names with prefixes like ddl, pnl, etc are causing code analysis warnings as "Correct the spelling...". I googled and think this can be addressed using rulesets; but didn't find a way to suppress these..any pointers ?
You could add them to a custom dictionary.
Why are you using those prefixes?
The most common reason I've seen people give for this is "Hungarian Notation." However, as I've tried to point out in a number of jobs over the years, "you're doing it wrong." Within an IDE like VS 2010, is there any real reason to prefix every DropDownList instance with "ddl"? Both you and the IDE know it's a DropDownList. There's no question or confusion about that.
The idea behind Hungarian Notation isn't to "prefix every variable with a shorthand of its class" but rather to "prefix every variable with what it is." What something is doesn't have to mean its class or type, it's more an idea of what that object intuitively represents. Sure, it's a DropDownList. But what does that DropDownList mean? Is it part of a particular grouping of elements in the UI? That grouping's designation would provide a lot more information than "ddl" ever would.
As an example, say I have an application with various connection strings. In a given method in my DAL, I store one of them in a variable called strConnection. Well, that's adhering to the notation, but it's not telling me anything important. I know it's a string. (I can see its declaration, I can mouse over it in the IDE, etc.) And I know it's a connection string based on its usage. But which one is it? What part of the business does it serve? If instead it was called connstringHR then I could immediately infer that it's the connection string for the HR database.

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