In Delphi (2007) I'm used to setting a bookmark with CTRL-SHIFT-0,1,2 etc.
Since I've upgraded to Vista x64 the above no longer works. I can still set a bookmark with CTRL-K-0,1,2 etc but I'm habituated to the traditional way (plus it's quicker).
Does anyone know why it's not working for me?
I had the same problem. Some more investigation showed that it is caused by a change in Vista.
Input method editor keyboard shortcut (CTRL+SHIFT+0) switches the input language in Vista. The following link shows how to disable this shortcut and thereby make it available to other applications (including Delphi) again: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967893.
I am running on Windows 2008 Server 64-Bit (which is based on Vista) and I use CTRL+SHIFT+1 to set book marks and it works fine. At home I have Vista 32-Bit and that works fine too.
You might check to make sure your OEM didn't install some crazy keyboard hook on that or something. I've had that happen before where some key combinations were remapped by a background program and it prevented them from working in Delphi.
Programmers use a lot more key combinations then most "normal" users.
Verify that you don't have system wide hot keys that conflict with those. I had the same problem with Trillian hijacking some Delphi shortcuts.
As already mentioned, Vista is using that key combination.
If you don't want to disable it, Ctrl+K CTRL+0 is the old school method to set bookmark 0.
Related
I have a really solid computer program that was written for Windows XP. The program still works great and I would like to update the look and feel of the user interface.
At this time, I would like to give the buttons etc. a more sleek, contemporary look. Much better would be to allow functionality of touch and swipe etc. for tablets and such.
Can anyone tell me what tools in Delphi are used to accomplish this? For instance, do I need to change every button and object manually through object inspector or can I update/modify all objects objects within a project using a single set of commands?
You can start by enabling Windows themes, using Project->Options->Appearance from the IDE's main menu. It's on by default since D2007, but won't be on because your app is coming from Delphi 5. (New projects have it turned on by default, but the IDE can't know if you want it enabled or not when importing older projects.)
You can then start looking at adding gesture support by looking into the documentation for TGestureManager and TGesture. There's a TGestureManager for both VCL and FireMonkey (FMX) applications.
Note that for cross-platform support (Android, iOS, and OS X) you'll need to port your application from the VCL to FMX.
I have tried to use the new TFileOpenDialog and now my application is not compatible with Windows XP anymore. I find out that TFileOpenDialog only works on Vista and 7. It seems that TFileOpenDialogand does not check if it is running under Win XP in order to automatically and silently downgrade to TOpenFileDialog. Instead it just shows an error message. There is something I am missing? There is a wrapper that offers this functionality or I have to switch back to the classic TOpenFileDialog?
I don't understand why Embarcadero had to toss Borland's help system and build a new one (much worst) from zero.
Use TOpenDialog and set UseLatestCommonDialogs to true. You don't get the new (Vista and up) properties (like OkButtonLabel) but at least the look and feel will be fine from a user's POV...
Yes, it is called TOpenDialog.
I have an Delphi 7 Application that uses Halcyon dbf component. It works well in Windows ME.
Unfortunately in Windows XP data aware controls which are bound to Halcyon xBase Engine do not behave correctly. In addition pack command almost hangs the application. I tried compiling in XP. But no joy. Does that mean that API calls work differently? May be Data types mean different things....
Thanks for all help
A well written Delphi 7 application will work on any version of WIndows from 98 onwards. If you have managed to make an application that doesn't work on XP, then you should debug the problem on XP, not recompile and then give up. (no joy!? what? you're done already? Is that how you troubleshoot and debug?).
For posterity I should point out that if you change Delphi versions then of course, some things change. For example, If you build your Delphi application in Delphi 2009 or later, it will work properly on Windows XP, but not on Windows 98 or ME any more. But if you build your application using the same version of Delphi, why would you expect any changes in the application's bugs?
As David says; Rebuilding your application on a different computer, from the same code, and with the same compiler, produces the same binary. If you have a fundamental problem on Windows XP it is because you made a mistake in your code somewhere.
In general, windows 98/ME to 2000/XP was an easy transition, but that was a decade ago.
The only API I remember that was in Windows 98/ME that was not in XP, was the Windows 98 text-to-speech API which was removed and replaced with a different API in XP.
I believe your confusion is that windows contains something that affects Data Aware controls. It does not. Data Aware Controls are a purely Delphi thing, and they are not a part of Windows XP, they are 100% implemented inside Delphi. If you have some funny custom control that is badly written, perhaps it might not work. We have no idea what your code contains, and you haven't even described the nature of the failure.
You need to provide more information, or this question should be closed as unanswerable, or too localized. (My app doesn't work! Help! No other info given.)
In a Delphi 2007 program I am using a TMainMenu referencing actions in a TAction list. I have prefixed the hotkeys of all main captions with an ampersand:
&File | &Edit | Ev&aluate | ...
In design view these hotkeys are underlined as I would expect, but when I start the program they no longer are underlined but they work nonetheless. In contrast to this, for all the submenu icons
&File
&New ...
&Open ...
the underline is shown as expected.
I am aware of the Windows pisplay properties option "Hide underlined letters or keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key." and have disabled it. In all other programs this works fine, including the Delphi IDE.
If I create a new VCL appliation and just add a TMainMenu and a few menu items, it works as expected.
This has me baffled, really.
Is there any property of the TMainMenu component or maybe an application option that I must change? The "Enable runtime themes" project option is grayed out for some reason, might that be the problem? If yes, what causes this?
This may not be a Delphi issue. I have just tried this with IE8 on WinXP. On my machine, with the display properties set to require the Alt key, the underlining works as expected. However, with the checkbox unchecked, the underlining never appears on the main menu items (even when using the Alt key), but always appears on the File,Edit,View etc submenus (as you describe) ........ unless Microsoft wrote IE8 in Delphi :-)
I asked the same question last year and there were some excellent answers:
Menu Accelerator Keys Not Showing Up Delphi 2009
In conclusion, it appears to be a Delphi bug, and I reported it to Embarcadero at:
http://qc.embarcadero.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=68816
However, they have no resolution to it, so unless others (maybe you) also complain, I don't expect it will get addressed.
Step's answer to my question refers to a possibly related bug reported on the Delphi forums:
ALT Key press causes controls to disappear under Themes in Vista and XP. This one is marked as "resolved" with several possible fixes listed in the comments. I have not had the opportunity to go through these.
By the way, since I asked that question last year, I got a new computer with Vista. The same problem still happens, even when the Vista Ease of Access Centre setting: "Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys" is set. So the Delphi bug still exists.
I was very surprised to find the default was that this was unchecked. I guess in Vista, they want a cleaner looking menu with the assumption that not many people ever used the accelerator keys.
The easiest way to fix this problem seems to use TJvMainMenu from the jvcl instead of TMainMenu. I tried the current version 3.38, but it is possible that the problem was fixed already in earlier versions. Since I was using the jvcl anyway it does not add much to my program's size. Your mileage may vary though, the jvcl is a huge library.
Uses an empty image list for main menu, if it is possible. In this way you can force delphi to paint menu correctly. (But looks ugly in vista and w7)
Are you sure you don't have OwnerDraw set to true in the MainMenu?
I developed an application using also third party components (developed on D7, WinXP).
When I deploy this application on XP everything works fine. When I run it on Vista, the application cease to work properly:
Toolbuttons on Toolbar does not size equally, when I switch visibility on/off, thats why (third party) skins are not properly nested and then it looks ugly. It bothers, it's annoying but it is not fatal as the next point.
Third party text processing component cease to write. I wrote some routines, which allows writing on this component under certain circumstances. It was a big shock to find out, that I can not write anything (probably these routines return false for writing, but I do not see any reason, why on XP it should work fine, but on Vista not).
The application runs (at last), but not in the way, like it supposed to !!!!
I would like to debug it, but how?
Should I install Delphi 7 on this problematic Vista computer and compile project on it? (this is it, what I am going to do...)
Is it problem of third party components?
Is there any possibility to use some compiler directives to ensure, that application will run on Vista flawless ? (be honest I do not know if Vista is to claim in general).
Is Delphi 7 too old for Vista?
NOTE:
When I run the same application on Win98, I get error message about invalid floating point operation...
Has anybody solved such problem?
Thanks
If Delphi 7 is compatible with Windows Vista, it only really means one or both of the following:
You can run Delphi 7 on Windows Vista
Delphi 7 can be used to write programs that can run on Windows Vista
It does not automatically mean that
All programs I create in Delphi 7 runs on Windows Vista
All programs I create in Delphi 7 runs properly on Windows Vista
Let me give you an analogy: That you can use a hammer to get a nail into your wall without hurting yourself does not mean that no matter what you do, you won't hurt yourself.
If your program, either in your own code, or as part of the third party components you use, use parts of Windows that has changed or possibly even been removed (although that's far less), then you need to fix your program, there's no way around it.
There's no silver bullet either, so no compiler directives or whatnot. The most I can think of is that perhaps Windows Vista has some compatibility settings for the shortcuts that might turn on some XP-compatibility layer in Vista that fixes the particular issues you have.
However, the only long-term solution is to change your program so that it is properly compatible with Windows Vista, and probably Windows 7 as well.
Since you say you're using third-party components, have you verified if the particular versions of them that you use happen to be Vista-compatible? You need to go check on the websites of the authors to find that. Perhaps it can be solved by simply upgrading those components.
However, it might also be that you need to make changes to your own code.
The best way to move forward is to install Vista and possibly Windows 7 and start debugging to try to find the underlying cause of the problems.
Note that just installing Delphi 7 on Vista and recompiling will not fix anything. The compiler does not produce a different program if you compile it on a particular Windows version. Only changes to the code will apply the necessary changes.
The easiest solution is to make sure your Delphi version and 3rd party components are Vista compatible.
Delphi versions since 2007 are.
Recent TMS, DevExpress and Raize components are.
The hard solution is to do all the changes yourself.
Be prepared to modify the VCL sources from 2002, carefully modify them to bring them up to Delphi 2007 level.
Then do the same for your 3rd party components.
--jeroen
I never really investigated, but I noted that in some apps that I have, in all skinned modes (XP-teletubbie, and Vista/W7 non classic) I had paint artifacts with all delphi verrsions if I put buttons and labels directly on tframes or ttabsheets.
The problems went away when I inserted a panel inbetween.