[DUG] Delphi Digest, Vol 195, Issue 6

Tue Jul 5 14:58:57 NZST 2022

Hi John Bird

programmatically print form contents into a PDF ....

I use Delphi XE2 and have used Rave Reports for creating PDF files.

Then I found Fast Reports 6 was better in many respects in the report
design module and much better in terms of programmatically controlling the
'print' process to PDF (and paper of course)
There is a bit of learning to do in terms of the naming conventions of
print objects to access their properties at run time and so control
visibility, field layouts etc etc.

Hope this helps

Graham Marsden
ElectroPlan

On Tue, 5 Jul 2022 at 12:00, <delphi-request at listserver.123.net.nz> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Re: Is this list still active? (Stefan Mueller)
>    2. Re: Lazarus (Paul A. Norman)
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Stefan Mueller <muellers at orcl-toolbox.com>
> To: "'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List'" <
> delphi at listserver.123.net.nz>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2022 16:47:01 +1200
> Subject: Re: [DUG] Is this list still active?
> I use Inno Setup (free) for that:
> https://jrsoftware.org/ishelp/index.php?topic=setup_signtool
>
>
> Stefan Müller,
>
> ORCL Toolbox Ltd.
> Auckland, New Zealand
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz [mailto:
> delphi-bounces at listserver.123.net.nz] On Behalf Of John Bird
> Sent: Monday, 4 July 2022 4:25 p.m.
> To: delphi at listserver.123.net.nz
> Subject: Re: [DUG] Is this list still active?
>
> I am happy on the subscription - at the beginning of the lockdowns I
> used the discount offer to get three years subscriptions offer - 3 years
> of professional (incl android) for around $900 and still 15 months to go
>
> Personally I use only the supplied components (which are rich) and a few
> I have found useful for which I have source and build in any new version.
>
> This means upgrading every so often is easy, and usually worth it for
> the improvements - particularly IDE improvements and getit add-ons.
>
> For Example -  took a standard reasonably involved DB access program, in
> Delphi 11.1 Alexandria added option to build as 64 bit and hit rebuild -
> changes required = none.
>
> The main things I don't have yet are:
>
> 1 - how to sign the installer I wrote, would make it a lot easier to
> have clients run it if it said it were signed - if its there in Delphi I
> haven't found it yet.
>
> 2 - a way to programmatically print form contents into a PDF
>
> (I  could do that in an old Delphi version D2007 which made it easy via
> Rave Reports but has not been in recent versions )
>
> Any tips on those two most welcome!
>
>
> > _______________________________________________
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> --
> John Bird
> 022 3844-527
> johnkbird at xtra.co.nz
>
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>
>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Paul A. Norman" <delphi at paulanorman.info>
> To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List <
> delphi at listserver.123.net.nz>, Rohit Gupta <rohitguptanz at gmail.com>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2022 23:30:20 +1200
> Subject: Re: [DUG] Lazarus
> Really want to emphasise that your story Rohit underlines something I came
> to believe with my encounters with the last two(?) owners.
>
> But first I want to say that the engineers and designers behind Delphi etc
> have been and are unbelievably top men.
>
> Anders Hejlsberg, original author of Turbo Pascal and the chief architect
> of Delphi, went on to be the lead architect of C#.
>
> Marco Cantu is still with them.
>
> Nothing needs to be added there, his name is synonymous with quality
> development, backend, and designer, and mentoring concepts.
>
> I bought his books for Delphi 3, 4, 6 and utilised many of his other
> resources as a Delphi user right up to Delphi 2005 Professional (which was
> a disaster in my opinion), and have even used them again while using
> Lazarus.
>
> And there are many other amazing figures still involved.
>
> But the strategies adopted to make Delphi profitable—as it must be, have
> in my opinion, missed something out in understanding the nature of their
> market.
>
> Some concepts in the business planning appear to have become frozen
> mantras.
>
> It appears that there was some desire to avoid the thinking and policies
> behind the free introductory versions of Delphi of yesteryear — yet there
> was pressure from within to adopt something, and the Community License was
> promulgated – but possibly sadly reflecting an internal interdepartment
> company *compromise(?) And the program has suffered for it with
> pececuliar(?) provisions.
>
> Previously I had tutored people through from the free Delphi provided
> releases to even purchase Professional versions. — That can be a fruit of a
> vibrant software developer community ethos.
>
> But now such people look at the Community License and the emails that have
> come out threatening people with severe prosecution if they put a foot
> wrong—and not being able to really understand or interpret the fiscal
> elements of the Community License – they run a mile! And don't even touch
> it.
>
> Now I start them on Lazarus, and some might see no need to ever leave it!
>
> The present changes in economies (as obvious as these coming developments
> have been for years) have not been figured for at all it seems in the
> overall structure for Delphi developers..
>
> Certainly policies developed possibly useful for sections of mainland
> America (USA), have not worked well when rolled out over the globe, but the
> piecemeal regionalisation has in a sense then led directly to the confused
> state of affairs you even encountered recently Rohit.
>
> The dilemma Delphi faces is that under Borland it was directly recognised
> that development is more than simple fiscal concerns, it requires a
> surprising amount of "community".
>
> And good fiscal operators can trample the very foundations of that
> necessary undergirding human "heart" element, thinking sometimes that just
> a few "specials" can fertilise the ground, not realising that when the
> overall pricing and Licensing structure is out of kelter, such fertilizer
> can actually end up harming and depleting the soil longtern.
>
> So we are left where we are.
>
> If I were to go back it might be hard to adjust to overall having now
> invested time towards Lazarus, that otherwise would have built around
> Delphi in an ongoing way.
>
> What if the programme, or incentive(s) used to draw us back were suddenly
> withdrawn?
>
> If you like — the fertiliser withdrawn, and we were just thrown back again
> on the scaffolding of an out of kilter structure of things, over demanding
> updates, License regime, and pricing wise?
>
> Would you be better to stay in a slower developed IDE system, where you
> have to help make "sustainable compost" but have some more certainty than
> over-chemicalled soil?
>
> — So I believe :-)
> (Unless a better case can be made?)
>
> >"Does anyone know how compatible Lazarus is with Delphi."
>
> I'm afraid it is like the question/idiom:
> "how long is a piece of string?"
>
> Considerable progress has been made in auto-conversion of Delphi projects
> to Lazarus and FreePascal.
>
> You might have to just try something on it, it's so project dependant.
>
> Some parts will just simply work out of the box, and some things would be
> a headache.
>
> As you cast around, you might find recommendations to change your
> components in the original Delphi project, to being better convertible,
> where that is sensible and possible.
>
> And some things would just need to be redone inside Lazarus.
>
> The more "standard" and perhaps older series the "normal issue" components
> are, the better.
>
> Many third-party components exist in/for Lazarus capable of handling many
> things already.
> And much might even be already quite familiar.
>
> I'm just an ordinary user, but would suggest that if any one finds it
> useful—please contribute something towards its development, time, money,
> code, good Forum answers, whatever!
>
> It is a different paradigm, a community based project :-)
>
> Paul
> --
> https://PaulANorman.info
>
> On 4 July 2022 3:08:30 pm NZST, Rohit Gupta <rohitguptanz at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Does anyone know how compatible Lazarus is with Delphi.  Not that I have
>> retired, it is expensive.  Although I was going to pay for one more
>> subscription.  But I am dealing with a pack of clowns.  The IDE was saying
>> that the sub was expiring.  I thought that I had pre-paid for 3 or 5
>> years.  So, I got Embarcadero to confirm it.  They said that it was due for
>> renewal.  They passed it to Code Partners.  That person confirmed it was
>> due and passed it to another.  She insists that it is not due and was going
>> to chase it up.  Weeks later she insists that I was supposed to chase it
>> up.  Back to the first person at Code Partners.  She was going to sort it
>> out, she hasnt come back.  Back to Embarcadero, and no reply.  So a month
>> later, my subscription has expired.
>>
>>
>> It's taken way too much time already.  I can't be bothered.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> *Rohit Gupta*
>> B.E. Elec., M.E., Mem IEEE, Member IET
>>
>> On 4/07/2022 14:32, Jan Bakuwel wrote:
>>
>> Hi Paul,
>>
>> ...snip...
>>
>> So to make progress we had to make a move.
>> Which has proven great as the Lazarus project has grown and matured,
>> and Delphi licenses remained static in nature, so the time has been
>> well invested moving, at the time it was sad to be leaving Delphi
>> though having signed up in Borland's day.
>>
>> I too have used Delphi since version 2 but the business model (of
>> perpetual upgrades of *everything*) is not sustainable / financially
>> feasible for my company.
>>
>> I think it's indeed well worth investing in alternatives, such as Lazarus.
>>
>>
>> You sometimes have to research more, and do more homework in Lazarus,
>> but the time is well spent and you obtain a better scope and knowledge
>> of what is achievable.
>> And if you make full Forum postings—others benefit too.
>>
>> The open source community has proven to be superior where it comes to
>> bug fixes... I recall spending many many days finding workarounds for
>> bugs in RTL for the MacOS target and fixes were never released (for the
>> version of Delphi I got "stuck" with).
>>
>> My two cents.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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